THE ALIMENTARY TRACT 197 
to some objection which might be final and decisive were 
not the figures so definite. At a glance one can see that 
Group A has involvement more marked high in the tract 
while Group B has more disease in the intestine and colon. 
Certainly gastritis is more common (five times) in the A 
than in the B group, while enteritis is more common in B 
(over three times). No case of chronic enteritis or of 
involvement of the colon is recorded in animals with a 
simple stomach and a wide hind-gut. This may be read 
either in terms of vulnerability of the stomach or in the 
degree of resistance of the respective groups. 
Consideration of the local factors of the stomach 
brings to light at once the fact that incorrect food enter- 
ing the simple stomach could attack the softer, less 
resistant glandular section of the fundal and pyloric 
areas whereas the rumen and psalter of the compound 
organ, with their stratified epithelium devoid of glands, 
act as barriers or as places where detoxication of irri- 
tants might take place. In both groups bulky food is 
packed to the left, the esophageal and cardiac section 
in the simple form, the rumen in the compound. Soft or 
liquid food may pass into the psalter and abomasum of 
the ruminant stomach almost directly since it has not the 
force or bulk to push aside the valve-like fold of wall at 
the junction of esophagus, rumen and reticulum. For 
this reason, if for no other, the character of soft food 
supplied to this order must be unexceptionable. 
It has not been possible to follow out the layering of 
diets as Scheunert did when showing the course of various 
foods before they are mixed at the beginning of the 
pyloric compartments. We have seen two cases in 
ruminants which seem to indicate that soft food had 
passed into the right side cavities of the stomach, there to 
cause irritation, while the rumen remained quite normal. 
It seems, however, accepted by veterinarians that exces- 
sive soft food may be followed bj^ trouble in the digestive 
stomachs, while excessive dry food may cause distention 
