200 DISEASE IN WILD MAMMALS AND BIRDS 
The small intestine of the order starts with the opos- 
sums as a stout muscular and mucous tube fitted for meat 
eating, but as one proceeds to study the families do\vn- 
ward in the list this tube becomes more delicate and 
longer. In the first two families the cecum is rudimentary 
and the colon very short as in cats, but the length and 
capacity of these parts increase through the bandicoots 
and wombats until in the strict fruit, vegetable and 
grain eaters, phalangers and kangaroos, the cecum is 
Table 13. 
Showing the Incidence of Gastroenteric Disease in the Two Forms of Marsupial 
Intestinal Tracts. 
Group A 
Carnivorous Stomach and 
Intestines 103 Specimens 
Per cent. 
Group B 
Herbivorous Stomach and 
Intestines 73 Specimens 
Per cent. 
Acute gastritis 
Chronic gastritis. . . . 
Acute enteritis 
Colitis incl. typhlitis 
Bacteria 
0. 
9.6 
2.9 
1.9 
Verminous 
13.6 
Bacteria 
5.4 
15. 
Verminous 
0. 
1.5 
4.3 
long and capacious and the colon relatively long 
and roomy. 
Table 13 contains an analysis of the forms of gastro- 
enteritis as they were described in the two groups of 
tracts, that resembling the carnivorous, that similar to 
the herbivorous intestinal construction, and according to 
the factor believed to be responsible. In the first group 
gastritis of an acute nature occurred in 9.6 per cent, of 
the 103 specimens. They were chiefly catarrhal in charac- 
ter and seem for the most part secondary to verminous 
infestation ; at least six of the ten cases were associated 
'uith parasites. The process microscopically is catarrhal 
and deeply infiltrative. Group B has a high incidence of 
gastritis and here the evidence of bacteria or toxins is 
quite plain. Several of the cases were in animals showing 
also Kangaroo disease of the jaw mth pneumonia or 
septicemia; the gastric lesion of streptothricosis will be 
described under that heading. The character of gastritis 
