THE ALIMENTARY TRACT 185 
conclusions must be dra\vii with great caution, there can 
be little doubt, for example, that carnivores and mar- 
supials have more gastric disease than any other order, 
and that the high place for the colon is held by the galli- 
naceous birds. This charting was suggested by the work 
of Dr. Raymond Pearl upon statistics, wherein he takes 
as a basis of classification the part of the body which 
succumbs to disease-producing organisms or from which 
a disease starts. It camiot be stated that there is a clear 
cut relationship between enteritis and the expectancy 
of life. 
Mammalia. 
The Primates as an order have their share of in- 
flammations of the gastrointestinal tract and present 
points of interest. Acute digestive disorders succeeded by 
acute dilatation of the stomach, or in less fermentative 
cases by acute catarrh of the intestine, are not at all un- 
common. The reason for this is not discovered by review- 
ing the diet and manner of feeding. The buccal pouches, 
distensible esophagus, the freely movable stomach, and 
relatively elastic gastric wall would seem to permit of very 
considerable dilatation to accommodate the large quanti- 
ties which the monkey sometimes crams into himself. 
Nine fairly acceptable records of gastric overfilling exist 
and two of them seem to have been followed by tympan- 
ites sufficient to embarrass respiration, in one case there 
occurring an acute cardiac dilatation with myocardial 
degeneration. The animals give no symptoms of this 
condition and in the last case cited the beast, while old, 
ate well and was not distended the evening before death. 
Wlien acute gastritis exists (twenty cases) the animal 
seems uneasy but does not vomit. On one occasion I was 
called to see a monkey which was retching and seemed in 
pain. Lime juice was offered and taken, followed by 
gentian and cardamon, which seemed to give some bene- 
13 
