The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1871-04-26
THE HYGIENE OF A MENAGERIE
How the Animals are Fed and Eos
tered--Diseases and Dangers %
which they are Subjected.

How the Animals are Fed ana Eos
tered--Diseases and Dangers %
which they are Subjected.
While we are supremely interested in
our own aches and ailments, it may be
we'll to know that man is not the only
partaker OF the ills that flesh is heir
to-" There is another race in the
animal kingdom which is subject to
diseases; four.footed beasts, birds, and
even reptiles, fall sick, suffer and die,
lust as man does; but without his med
icinial comforts, unless, perchance, they
have been brought under his care, and
even that is sometimes as fatal to them
as it is 10 US.
In our Central Park is village Of
savage quadrupeds, feathered and creep
ing things Of all kinds, which have
been gathered there from all parts of
the world Anybody may 60 to see
them, and the curious visitor probably
thinks. if he thinks at all about it that
these various creatures are always in the
full enjoyment of their animal life. Not
so. They have diseases and they have a
doctor, who has his professionals nxieties
and prescriptions. He looks into their
eyes, watches their appetites, notices
their actions, and, although he cannot
count their pulses by the tick Of his
watch, nor examine their tongues with
that gravity which is becoming to a
medical man, he is able to form pretty
good estimate as to the general health
OF each indivdal in this strange COM
munitv. He makes record Of the
sick ones; the diagnosis, the treatment
and the result are written down with
professional conciseness. For example:
Jan. 2l.-Panther Joe taken sick,
feverish, continual vomiting; gave him
sugar and water.
Feb. Panther Joe still down; has
taken no food gave him tartar emetic;
threw off considerable yellow fluid
from stomach.
Feb. 6-PaLther Joe eaten nothing
yet; tried him with bird, also with
milk; will take nothing but water.
Then a few days after it is noticed
that Joe has eaten little raw meat, and
is getting better of his bilious fever.
Another panther gives birth to four
cubs. Two days after the mother is
very nervous and restless. She takes
the cubs in her mouth, carries them
about, lays them down and picks them
up again. Is she not longing for "a
lodge in some vast wilderness" where
she NAV have freedom and enjoy her
Young ones, sheltered from the eyes Of
these civilized visitors? The doctor
covers her cage with canvas. But her
nervousness increases. She kills two
OF her cubs by cenching her teeth
through their bodies. No doubt it was
an accident. They take away the
other two and feed them from bottle.
They are given to dog who suckles
them with her pups, and by her aid, al
ternatcl with an infants nursing bottle,
they get on finely. The record says
that on the ninth day one of the cubs
opens an eye; on the tenth day both
have their eyes open; on the twentieth
day, their canine and incisor teeth are
cut; on the fortieth day, they begin to
lap, when the dog will not allow them
to suckle any longer, and the young
panthers are put on exhibition.
One morning a prairie wolf is seized
with a fit. The doctor is called, and
treats her with water bath, bleeding
and salt. The next day she is no better,
and on the third day she dies Of hydro
phobia.
The chances OF death.in this colony OF
animals is much the same as in any Of
our own communities. We are sur
prised to find that monkeys take cold
easily, suffer with liberated sore threats,
and die of consumption. Mr.. Darwin,
the celebrated naturalist, has proved
that man is descended from the mon
key-which may be true Of those IA
vored few in whom the family likeness
is unmistable! But it is strange that he
has not used this fact in support CT his
theory, namely, that the monkey is
consumptive, like man; that more
monkeys, as more men, die Of consump.
ton than of any other disease. And
when we see that this ancestral family
is chilled by the same east winds that
chill our own bones, that it suffers with
pulmonary diseases, just as the family
of man does, we can sympathize with
Mr.. Darwin, even if we have no faith in
his arguments.
They die OF everything, in this dumb
kingdom. A young camel died from
enlargement Of the heart A rattle
snake died from cancer in the mouth,
while an anaconda was so imprudent as
to choke itself in an attempt to swallow
it's blanket A penurious ostrich poison.
ed itself with copper pennies beautiful
toucan. from Mexico, swallowed a hair
pin, producing fatal ulcers; and that
brightest and most intelligent Of dumb
creatures, a Labrador seal, was killed
through its ignorance Of the wicked
tricks of visitors. Its stomach was
found to he full Of stones, nails, screws,
buttons" which these thoughtless per-
sons had given him.
Then, | find the record Of a young
alligator whose eyes were eaten out by
turtles in the night, and OF another that
was killed by rats in a torpid state. a
peccary dies from tubercles On Its lungs.
A porcupiue bursts blood vessel near
the heart. Some die from gluttony,
some from home-sickness, some In duels
with their associates, some from general
debility, as a black bear that had
become too feeble to walk. An ocelot
commences to knaw its tail tar is put
on the end Of it, but in the course OF a
few days the creature has eaten its own
tail entirely off, and dies. A horned
owl dies from corns on its feet, and,
what is stranger than all, swan dies
from sunstroke.