Chapter XI: Section VII: The Alimentary Tract. Part 1.—pharynx, Esophagus, Stomach and Intestines (3)

Japanese Macaque ♂ (_Macacus fuscatus_). Chronic hypertrophic colitis.
False diverticula of colon. The large intestine contains a moderate
quantity of quite constipated feces. The serosa is smooth. The wall
shows at several stretches enlargements of the normal sacculations,
forming false diverticula. The wall of the gut in these herniæ is
thinner than in the surrounding parts; no ulcers exist; no local
peritonitis is present. The mucosa everywhere is irregular in
thickness, less translucent than normal and thrown into irregular
rugæ; tenacious mucus covers it. No ulcers.

TUMORS.

Only one tumor was observed in the mammalian intestinal tract proper. Dasyure (_Dasyurus maculatus_) Adenocarcinoma of the intestines. On postmortem there was a pale diffuse thickening of the coats of the small gut over a large area; numerous soft, light yellow, sharply circumscribed, elevated (like secondary tumors) nodules in the liver and spleen, and a pea-size whitish nodule around a bronchus in the right lung. Histological section of primary growth not made but a cross section of the intestine in the vicinity shows an adenomatous change with considerable increase in the connective tissue. The nodules in the liver, spleen and lung and the appearances of the abdominal lymph nodes, found microscopically, are precisely similar. They consist of irregularly arranged epithelial nests and distorted acini, around which are sharply outlined spaces, filled with the remains of degenerated blood or a granular material. The metastases are always sharply outlined.

Aves supply three papillomata which are interesting in that one occurred in the proventricle, and two grew in the duodenum in the vicinity of the upper biliary opening and presented within the lumen soft masses which, while not occluding the passage, offered some little obstruction as indicated by a slight distention above their location. In two, carefully studied, no indications of parasites or of cancer could be found. The birds concerned were an amazon, an owl, and a rhea.