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Show 1886.] MAMMALS IN THE SOCIETY'S GARDENS. 207 their nature, whilst others illustrate pathological conditions not before described in wild animals. In 1877 Mr. Garrod read a short paper before this Society " On the Mechanism of the Intervertebral Substance, and on some Effects of the Erect Position of M a n " (P. Z. S. 1877, p. 50) from which the following extract has been taken :- "The assumption of a vertical attitude by a creature originally differentiated for a horizontal position of its body, has produced but marvellously slight inconvenience. If it had resulted in many, man could scarcely have survived. There are one or two, however, which are most clearly traceable to this cause, including the painful tendency to prolapse, antiflexion, and retroflexion of the uterus in women, as well as crural hernia in both sexes, and inguinal hernia in the male." At the time the preceding paragraph was written, little was known, and far less recorded, concerning the abnormal conditions referred to by Mr. Garrod. The unusual opportunities which have occurred to me during the past five years of investigating diseases of wild animals will render necessary a reconsideration of this opinion. In the first place prolapse of the uterus occurs with tolerable frequency, not only in domesticated mammals, but in the lioness, tapir, Cape hunting-dog, the pygmy hog, deer, antelope, and others. These examples are sufficient to show that it is not entirely attributable to the erect position. With regard to flexions of the uterus, it is a remarkable fact that no fewer than one fourth of all the female Monkeys dying during the past two years presented extreme examples of this abnormal condition of the organ. In many the displacement far exceeded anything that I have seen in the human female. Well marked specimens of flexion of the uterus occur also in Deer. (For a detailed account of these cases and their eetiology consult Path. Soc. Trans. vol. xxxvi. p. 502.) The frequency and severity of the cases show-that the flexion is due to causes in addition to tbe erect position. Concerning hernia, it has always seemed to me strange that Man, whose inguinal canals are, in tbe ordinary course of events, more or less obliterated, should be so liable to visceral protrusions at these spots, whilst Monkeys, in whom tbe inguinal canals in most species remain more or less patent, should escape. It is certain that Horses are liable to inguinal ruptures ; and I have long known that the same defect occurs with tolerable frequency in Sheep. During the past two months I have been so fortunate as to meet with two cases of inguinal hernia in Monkeys. In the first, Macacus cyclopis, a large plug of omentum occupied the funicular pouch of the left side ; the second occurred on the right side in a Macacus sinicus. The details of the condition may be gathered from fig. 1, p. 208. This Monkey had also a large varicocele on the left side. These specimens are sufficient to show that such abnormalities are not peculiar to Man. Probably most individuals among the civilized races of mankind |