168 FEEDING OF DOGS. 



mesenteric. These glands empty their contents, then called 

 chyle, into one common receptacle, from whence the chylous 

 fluid is poured into the heart to form blood. The blood, 

 therefore, is constantly recruited from this source ; and from 

 this description it will naturally suggest itself, that, when 

 food is withheld, the blood must waste ; and when this is the 

 case, the fluids of the body must naturally decrease, and the 

 solids must wear fast. On the contrary, when food is taken 

 in too great quantities, the blood will, in that case, become 

 too rich, and be generated in too large quantities ; and, as 

 the solids are limited in their growth, so some, or all the 

 fluids of the body, will be formed from the superabundant 

 blood in too large proportions. The moisture that goes to 

 the skin will probably become acrid, and form a disease called 

 mange : the sebaceous glands of the ear, instead of forming 

 wax, will pour out blood or matter, then called canker ; or 

 the unnecessary quantity will flow to the teats, where, if it 

 is not the time of pregnancy, it will form a spurious secre- 

 tion and induration. When these evils do not immediately 

 succeed, the superabundant blood expends itself in secreting 

 an inordinate quantity of the oily fluid called fat. 



It next becomes a question. What kind of food is the best 

 for dogs ? On observing this animal, either as a naturalist or 

 as a physiologist, one is not at a moment's loss in determining 

 that he is neither wholly carnivorous, nor wholly herbivorous, 

 but of a mixed kind ; intended to take in both foods, and 

 formed to receive nourishment from either. He is furnished 

 with sharp cutting teeth for tearing flesh, and he has also 

 tolerably broad surfaces on other of his teeth, capable of 

 grinding farinaceous substances. His stomach and intestines 

 likewise hold a middle place between those of the carnivo- 

 rous and herbivorous tribes. At the same time, the anato- 

 mical conformation of his teeth, and indeed of the whole of 

 his digestive organs, appears rather more intended for flesh 

 than herbage ; his habits and partialities likewise tend that 

 way. He is evidently a beast of prey, intended to live on 

 other animals : the stronger he hunts in troops, the weaker 



