258 DISEASE IN WILD MAMMALS AND BIRDS 
mucosa showed no change, although the lumen seemed 
large. Interlobular fibrosis was the rule, only one case 
of intra-acinar pancreatitis being encountered ; this speci- 
men, a bird, showed great distortion of the acini and of 
the islets. 
The study of comparative pathology of pancreatitis 
does not settle its etiology, but some very suggestive 
facts may be learned. The association of hepatic and 
biliary disease and of enteritis in the causation of pan- 
creatitis seems amply confirmed, and the latter factor is 
in our series numerically the greater. It is suggestively 
sho^^^l that inflammations of the pancreas occur more 
frequently in the zoological class in which the ducts of the 
organ and of the liver empty into the duodenum together 
or in close association. Morover, infections of the liver 
and adnexa are very important in the mammals, more so 
than birds in which enteritis, notably chronic in type, 
usually accompanied the involvement of the pancreas. 
This is consistent with the incidence of bile tract disease 
as already discussed under that subject, and it is inter- 
esting to note that the mammals showing the greatest 
number of cases of choledochitis and cholangitis also 
show the high case incidence of pancreatitis. The birds 
that have bile tract disease have little pancreatic disease. 
These facts when considered in connection with the free 
biliary supply of the avian duodenum, the disassociation 
of the ducts of the two glands and the close apposition of 
the pancreas to the duodenal wall, suggest strongly that 
direct infection of the pancreas can occur from the 
intestinal wall along the walls of the ducts perhaps via 
the lymphatics. This is supported by the observation of 
at least one case in which there was a definite inflamma- 
tion under the adventitia of the pancreatic duct, its 
mucosa being normal. The study also suggests that acute 
pancreatitis is more often associated vnth. acute lesions 
in the intestines and with hepatic or gall-bladder disease, 
and that chronic pancreatitis seems more often the result 
