THE ALIMENTARY TRACT 177 
The Intestine. 
Inflammation of the gastrointestinocolic tube is the 
most important single condition with which handlers of 
animals have to deal, and unfortunately it can seldom 
be diagnosed clinically, early and accurately enough, to 
make treatment useful. At this Garden some evidence of 
acute or chronic disease of the tube has been present in 
31 per cent, of our autopsies. The reports of other 
gardens would indicate that their figures might be quite 
close to this. What is the cause of this high mortality? 
Incorrect feeding, qualitatively or quantitatively has been 
put at the top of the list by Plimmer, but he adds other 
less important factors : Bacteria of infectious power, 
protozoa, foreign bodies and parasites or their mural 
cysts. In order to evaluate approximately how each of 
these acts let us review the causes as they are generally 
known and later discuss the pathology as seen in the 
various orders. 
(1) Overloading of the stomach by too much food or 
by rapid eating of a hungry animal is of importance under 
certain domestic circumstances where times of feeding 
are irregular or intervals are too long, but this cannot 
occur in any well regulated menagerie. It is possible, 
however, that overfilling might occur in certain Ungulata, 
which have hay and straw nearly always available, if the 
food in their reach happens to be particularly agreeable 
or tasty to them. 
(2) Insufficient mastication would seem to be impor- 
tant only in those orders which depend upon this action to 
triturate, insalivate and macerate their food, of which 
Homo, Primates, Ungulata and Marsupialia are the 
principal ones. 
(3) Disturbance during and after feeding has always 
been believed to affect digestion unfavorably, and it may 
be that visitors to a collection exert such an effect ; this 
factor is probably negligible. 
