166 FATNESS, EXCESSIVE. 



will not always wholly reduce him ; for the formation of the 

 adipose substance is so habitual a work of the constitution, 

 that, however little food the animal takes, short of starvation, 

 that little is secreted into fat. That this is true may be known 

 by the notorious fact, that many fat dog-s eat but little. 



There are two sources of fatness; one is, over-feeding; the 

 other is, want of exercise : and when, as is very frequently 

 the case, both causes happen to meet in the same subject, 

 then the accumulation is certain. When dogs are over-fed, 

 whatever is taken into the body, more than the general se- 

 cretions require, is either converted into fat, or forms some 

 other unusual secretion ; as matter in the ears, in canker ; or 

 scabs on the skin, in mange. 



Exercise increases all the usual secretions ; hence, under 

 strong exercise, more nutriment is required: and thus, in such 

 cases, full feeding does not produce fat; but, even in full 

 exercise, provided some of the usual secretions are stopped, 

 though the others may be in full force ; yet an over-accumu- 

 lation of animal oil is apt to take place : thus spayed bitches 

 and castrated dogs usually become fat, however they may 

 work, because in them the sexual secretions are inert. 



Fat more readily accumulates in middle aged and old dogs, 

 than in the young ; and the fat of old dogs is more hurtful to 

 them than that of the young ; the reason of which appears 

 to be, that all aged animals have their fat placed more in- 

 wardly, while the younger ones have it placed more upon the 

 surface of the body. A state of excessive fatness is an almost 

 certain forerunner of asthma. It is also the parent of mange, 

 canker, and other eruptive diseases ; and not unfrequently it 

 occasions fits, from the pressure it produces on the vessels of 

 the head and chest. I have also seen an excessive accumu- 

 lation of fat within the chest, particularly around the heart 

 and large vessels, which has terminated by a rupture of one 

 or the other of them. 



•*^^^*«r- 



