452 DISEASE IN WILD MAMMALS AND BIRDS 
The Carnivoeous Diet. 
The pathology of the more prominent diseases 
developed in carnivores points at least to diet as a pre- 
disposing or determining factor. This diet is very high 
in a distinctly putrefactive protein and yields products, 
chemical and bacterial, which are toxic and which give 
rise to acute or more often chronic diseases of the ali- 
mentary tract and its adnexa. By reason of the amount 
ingested, excessive because of lack of exercise, there is 
a severe tax on the storage organs and on the detoxica- 
ting glands, as the liver and thyroid. The constant 
absorption of these toxic substances gives rise to chronic 
degenerative or fibrotic changes in the organs through 
which they pass : liver, kidneys, arteries, heart. In birds 
the degenerative diseases are even more marked than in 
mammals on the same diet. The ultimate fault of this 
diet, especially for mammals and birds with restricted 
activity, lies in the production of toxic bodies, produced 
either in the incomplete degradation or oxidation of the 
protein molecule or as the result of bacterial action on the 
protein molecule, a poisonous quality which is probably 
enhanced by the chemical changes occurring while the 
digested protein is passing through the intestinal mucosa. 
Garden conditions are such that these factors are almost 
unsurmomitable unless the substitution of vegetable pro- 
tein could be accomplished. Failure is often caused by 
limited feeding to carnivores of muscle and bones, 
whereas they should be supplied with glandular organs 
and blood. 
The Herbr^orous Diet. 
Herbivorous diet must be divided into two groups, 
(1) that composed of succulent vegetables, and (2) of 
grasses, grains and seeds. In the first group there is an 
apparent variation in the results found in mammals and 
birds. In both there is a marked decrease in the chronic 
degenerative pathology. In both, acute gastritis is more 
