158 DISEASE IN WILD MAMMALS AND BIRDS 
doubtless occurs in human necrotizing processes but is 
seldom emphasized or even heard about ; possibly none is 
due to it or its congeners. 
The distribution of abscess and gangrene in the lungs 
in terms of the antecedent disease, therefore its causation, 
may however be of interest. The lower animals move 
more in the horizontal position, they seldom cough, they 
are subject to several different diseases with principal 
lesions in the anterior head (diphtheria, actinomycosis, 
etc.) but not to chronic lymphatic infection, they push 
their snouts into all kinds of filth thereby probably taking 
into the nose and throat many objects which can find their 
way to the bronchi, and finally they are not subjected to 
various instrumental operative procedures when they 
chance to have a focus of pathology in the nasopharynx. 
For these reasons the position of abscess and its sequels 
may be instructive. It has recently been stated that ab- 
scesses of the lung in human beings following anesthesia 
for infections of the upper respiratory tract, occur most 
often in the upper parts of the lung whereas those follow- 
ing pneumonia develop more in the lower lobes. For the 
animals of this series, these facts are not borne out. In 
the accompanying list "will be found our acceptable cases 
of abscess and gangi*ene. Little can be said about 
incidence save the fact that the highest percentage and 
number occur in the Carnivora. It mil be found that 
the right lung is affected nine times predominatingly 
while the left lung is affected seven times. The lobe most 
often singled out for an isolated lesion is the lower left, 
the right middle being the next most often affected. These 
figures concern the mammals alone, the three birds being 
considered too few to discuss. It cannot be said from 
these figures that there is in animals any definite distri- 
bution of pulmonary abscess and gangrene. 
Nor do these figures correspond to those appearing in 
literature of human pathology. In man inspiration of 
foreign bodies, including bacteria-laden mucus, usually 
