DISEASES OF ANIMALS. 



21 



will neglect bathing for a whole year, unless he is caught 

 in a shower. He will bear the sun of a torrid summer, 

 and face old Boreas in the sternest winter ; he will take 

 Jack Frost by the nose, and manage him to his advan- 

 tage ; will handle him in all shapes and conditions, and 

 even pack him up, send him off, and sell him. 



He will sleep ten hours a night, if necessary to kill 

 time ; or he will sleep fast, and occasionally get along 

 comfortably with only a few hours' rest. He can eat four 

 or five meals a day, when convenient, and at other times, 

 he will flourish on two meals, and in cases of necessity he 

 will endure labor on only one. He will attend to any 

 employment, or, Yankee like, pursue every profession 

 under the sun. And he will stem a torrent of vexation 

 and trouble. 



We have spoken of bipeds, as their habits and the 

 influence of their habits are accurately known ; for 



" How can we reason but from what we know ?" 



portance to health than anything else, and consider that 

 animals in a state of nature take much exercise in pro- 

 curing their sustenance, or as a matter of pleasure, and 

 are consequently in good health, should they not have 

 exercise in. a domestic state, when, from high feeding, 

 and plethoric habits, they have far more need of it ? 



This subject has never received the attention its im 

 portance demands, and we fear that it never will ; but 

 we make these remarks, hoping that, in many cases, they 

 wiU set the intelligent and discriminating to thinking, 

 and lead to improvement. We pursue a course with 

 animals which would kill ourselves, and when they aje 

 half dead from inaction and repletion, we kill and con- 

 sume them, and thus live fast and short — wearing out 

 our machine by too much speed, or we are suddenly 

 thrown off the track and smashed — unless we save our- 

 selves from these evils by an abundance of exercise. 



But the wise man, in addition to this first thing for the 

 preservation of health, will attend to all others also ; for 

 although of minor importance compared with exercise, 

 yet they are of great moment. The subject of healthy 



