Medicine: In the Bag

One afternoon last week Manhattan Patrolman John Cersosimo chased a ramshackle Buick lickety-splitting through Harlem. When he caught up with the Negro driver he saw, squirming and squealing on the back seat, a bulging burlap bag.

“What’s that?” he said, opening the door, and gingerly poking the bag.

“Cats,” said Driver Nathaniel Alexander. “I sell them to Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. Ordinary cats are 35¢, fat cats 50¢. It’s better than home relief.”

Hustled to Magistrate Peter Abeles, Alexander pleaded guilty to a charge of cruelty to animals. For eight cats in the bag, he spent two nights in the jug.

Cats, said Dr. Charles Arthur Slanetz, pathologist at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at the Medical Center, are sometimes used for laboratory work on diet, diabetes and drugs. But none of the cats in the college comes from Alexander’s alleys. All cats are bought from laboratory animal houses which supply with each purchase a family history and a listing of the animal’s age, behavior, eating habits. Alexander, continued Dr. Slanetz, undersold his competitors, for high-class cat prices range from $1.25 to $1.50, depending on size.