52 DISEASE IN WILD MAMMALS AND BIRDS 
between some of tliese conditions and true myocarditis a 
matter only of degree, the records have been analyzed as 
filed and perhaps some lessons can be learned from the 
responses of the various zoological orders. In the 
accompanying Table 1 will be found the distribution of 
degenerative and inflammatory lesions through the zoo- 
logical orders. The percentages speak for themselves but 
deserve as well some consideration from the standpoint 
of normal heart value ; this will be taken up later after the 
other lesions have been discussed. 
Endocarditis, Myocarditis. 
Romberg said in his classical work on the heart that 
there is always some form of myocardial disease with 
endocarditis. The 44 cases of valvular disease detected at 
this Garden are 15 of chronic nature, 29 of acute or sub- 
acute character. In the former, the chronic, 9 showed 
some grade of muscular involvement, while 21 of the 29 
acute cases of valvular inflammation were accompanied 
by myocardial damage ; the percentages are 60 for chronic 
and 72 for acute, a relation that would be expected if one 
credit the theory that many valvular inflammations start 
at the root of the valves, but, at all events, they indicate 
that after the acute stages have passed the myocardial 
damage may be repaired. 
The large number of cases of endocarditis among the 
Camivora, Accipitres, Anseres and Marsupialia is note- 
worthy and can hardly be explained by other argument 
than a special vulnerability of this organ in these groups. 
However, the unusual number of cases in our only native 
marsupial, the opossum, seems worthy of a special note 
since ten of the twelve instances in the order Marsupialia 
affected this particular animal. When seen these ten cases 
were acute in five instances, subacute in three and chronic 
in two. The Streptococcus pyogenes was isolated in three 
of the five acute cases; bacteriology of the others was 
negative or not done. All of the axjute and one of the sub- 
