8 THE GOOSE THE SWAN. 



being not so gross, and more easily digested : and 

 that of the wild duck is reckoned still more easy of 

 digestion than the tame, although more savoury. 



The GOOSE. The whole anserine or goose tribe, 

 of which there is a great variety, are held to afford 

 a food highly stimulant, of a strong flavour and vis- 

 cous quality, and of a putrescent tendency. The 

 flesh of the tame goose is more tender than that of 

 the wild, but generally it is a diet best adapted to 

 good stomachs and powerful digestion, and should 

 be sparingly used by the sedentary and weak, or by 

 persons subject to cutaneous diseases. 



The fat, or grease, of the goose, is more subtle, 

 penetrating, and resolvent, than the lard of swine, 

 and is an excellent article to be reserved for domestic 

 use, in various cases. Sportsmen of the old school 

 held the opinion, extraordinary as it may now seem, 

 that when a kennel of hounds show symptoms of 

 rabies, or madness, the best prophylactic remedy, 

 is to keep a considerable flock of geese in it, for a 

 length of time ; and the late Dr. James, exceedingly 

 attached to dogs, inclined to give a degree of credit 

 to this presumed remedy, which, if real, must con- 

 sist in the saline and penetrative qualities of the 

 anserine excrement: the danger, however, of expos- 

 ing the geese to the possibility of infection, ought 

 certainly not to be overlooked. 



The SWAN. The Cygnet, or young swan, only, is 

 reckoned eatable, and that after a peculiar prepara- 

 tion, although in old time, the swan formed a dish 

 of embellishment and show at great feasts. Swan 

 fat possesses probably much the same qualities as 



