Medicine by the Pail= ful.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 31 March 1910, Page 4

Medicine by the Pail= ful.

CURATIVES AT THE ZOO

Elephants with toothache, bears with sore heads, and white mice with frostbitten toes are among tbe patients who have already own treated at the new hospital in the London Zoological Gardens. Since the Zoo hospital was opened every kind of bird, beast, fish or reptile has had tho advantage of the best medical treatment and nursing ill the event of illness. Even tadpoles can now sire the doctor. An operating theatre lias also been added for the benefit of animals requiring surgical aid. Here the poorest monkey can be operated on for appendicitis or a hastily swallowed thimble. Many lives have been saved in the Zoo hospital, and inquests arc held on all dead .annuals in the interests •of the survivors. All kinds of complaints aro treated in the Zoo hospital, and inquests are held on all dead animals in the interests of the survivors. All kinds of complaints are trailI'd in the Zoo hospital. Animals and birds are strikingly human in their ill ureses. Visitors to the Zoo often spread iin illness anvoiiig the more delicate inmates. An old gentleman with a bad cold once started an epidemic of influenza in the monkey house which cost several lives. "Miany foreign animals are naturally subject to chills aiiid are very difficult to rear." stated an attendant. "Some of the most frequent complaints are:—Monkeys: Coughs, colds, influenza, pneumonia. Bears: Kur and skin trouble. Deer: Indigestion. Foreign' Birds: Self-star-v.rition owing to long dark nights and changed meal times. Hippopotamuses: DigKstive <;isorders. Elephants: Teething troubles and toothache. Gazelles and young dee)-: Broken limbs. Long-legged young animals have fragile limbs and frequently meet with Accidents, and foreign birds sometimes starve to death because they miss their accustomed feeding time in the long > nigh vs. "We have prevented that so far as possible bv the use of artificial licrht. The bird wakes up, sees the glare, thinks it is sunshine and takes .a meal cheerfully." Sick animals arc treated like oliildron to cod-liver oil awl powders. Strychnine injections are sometimes used to keep up a four-footed patient's strength, and elephants get their medicine by the pailful when they need it. , Animals, with the exception ol dogs and horses, are really grateful for medical ana surgical hrlp. Bears are pnrtieuhrly iiinviti-it pat'.eoits. ' but rhinoceros which lnd been dosed and cured, showed his gratitude to the keeper by following him about ' like a dog."