Evening star., 1932-02-25

4 4 watched two of Washing
7 tons foremost specialiSts-one a
veterinarian and the other pedia-
/ trician-work for an hour yesterday
over the sick bed Of N'gi, desperately i'll
of bronchial pneumonia. in his cage at
| the National Geological Park.
| It is a case now of keeping him alive
from day to day. hoping almost against
hope that If the clumsy black baby Of
the West African jungle can be kept
breathing long enough nature itself will
| produce the needed resistance to the
bronchial infection. The longer he lives
the better his chances, the doctors be-
| lieve. They hope, in other words, that
if he can be kept from getting worse
| nature every day will add something to
their efforts until the little fellow is
playing again.
Chances Against Gorilla.
But, as they explain to DR.. William
M Mann, director Of the Zoo, who has
raised N'gi from infancy, nature has a
| far harder job with the gorilla than
would be the case with an equally sick
human being. He probably hasn't got
| even the slightest racial immunity to
pneumonia upon which nature can
build. She must start with nothing.
1NOW OV bAlC bSNoANS VA OIL CNuAO lIlolt
or woman the physician has big ad-
vantage because he can get good deal
of needed information by word of
mouth. Patients can tell about their
sensations. They will cooperate in
such necessary procedure as taking
temperatures. When it comes to all
infant the doctor can expect neither
cooperation nor information He must
make his deductions from what he
knows Of the physiological behavior of
infants. He is, in part at least, feeling
in the dark.
But when it comes to a baby gorilla
with the mentality Of a small infant
and the strength of powerful adult
the situation is far worse. Nobody
knows anything about the physiological
behavior OF gorillss. Only deductions,
possibly far-fetched, can be drawn. It
would be desirable to have an hourly
record Of N'Gi's temperature, but the
doctors can find no way of taking 1t.
They can't explain to him what 1t IS
all about. He will not cooperate. Re-
suits which would indicate something
in o human may indicate nothing at
all In this case.
May and May Not Be Normal.
For example, according to the latest
3
ing up a fairly steady pulse rate Of 120
and a respiration rate of 40. This
would be fairly satisfactory in the case
of a 6-year old boy i'll of pneumonia.
But there is no data whatsoever on the
normal respiration and pulse rates OF
gorillas. These figures may be very
low or very high. Blood counts can be
taken which in a human would give
valuable information. But nobody
knows the normal proportions Of red
and white corpuscles in a gorillas
blood.
Small doses of adrenalin and of
strychine have been administered. Both
drugs, If used on a human i'll Of bron-
chial pneumonia, would be valuable in
STRENGTHENING the heart action. But
there are no indications that they have
had any effect at all on N'gi. In fact,
Dr. Mann recalled yesterday, an Afri-
can planter once tried to free his plan
tation of marauding Barbery apes with
strychnine The animals took big doses
and not only suffered no Ill effects. but
seemed to like the poison. Perhaps
N'gi has something of the same i'm
munity to the drug so that dose such
as would be used in therapy doesn't
have any effect at all. There is some
evidence, in fact, that gorillas in nature
occasionally eat freely plants of the
family from which strychnine Is OBJ
tanned. With humans adrenalin Is per
haps the most potent, miracle-work1ng
drug known. It works In the same way
with various experimental animals.
But this Is the first time 1t ever has
been used on gorilla.
Oxygen Tank to Be Used.
An oxygen tank is to be placed In
the cage for occasional purifying Of the
air and possibly fer use in case Of an
emergency. The little anthropoid should
respond to oxygen like human, but
nobody knows N'gi is under the very
great disadvantage of being the first
patient of his race medical science ever
has been called upon to deal with
There have been other gorillas in cap
tivity who have died, but if they re-
ceived any attention in their final
| illnesses other than from Zoo attend
ants no records were preserved.
So the treatment of N'gi is altogether
! a fumbling in the dark. Only upon one
| assumption can the doctors proceed
| with any degree Of certainty. Ngi, like
any other living thing, must eat to live,
and In order to maintain his strength
so that the natural resistance will have
a chance to develop it Is necessary TO
RSL IlOuIAS44IllSIII 44VO IlAo obO4AoNA4
Appetite Fails.
But the little fellow has no appetite
The most tempting morsels fail to in
terest him. Yesterday they managed
to persuade him to eat half an orange.
| A half hours work failed to get some
concentrated milk powder into his
stomach. He hardly can be fed forcibly.
The resistance he would make probably
would be the end Of him. One great
essential is to keep him quiet. That
may be one reason why it has been i'm
possible to get any results from the
adrenalin 1t has been given by mouth,
| with a loss Of good deal OF its potency.
Injection of adrenalin is a painful
proposition and the gorilla probably
would, put up, fight. The treatment
would do more harm than good.
! Thus far there has been fair success
in getting him to eat something every
! day On some days he eats better than
on others and shows little interest
| in his food. Then come the bad days
when no response comes into his eyes
still bright in spite Of his sickness
| when food Is placed before him.