ANIMAL 'MATERIA MEDIC A" 169 



especially in the case of the herbivorous creatures, 

 corresponds not inexactly with that of such tribes as 

 the Somalis, men feeding almost solely on grain, 

 milk, dates, and water, living constantly in the open 

 air, moderate in all things, and cleanly, because their 

 religion enjoins constant ablutions. Like them, wild 

 animals have no induced diseases ; the greater 

 number do not eat to excess ; they take regular 

 exercise in seeking their food, and drink only at 

 fixed hours. Many of them secure change of 

 climate, one of the greatest factors in health, by 

 migration. This is not confined to birds and beasts, 

 for the salmon enters the soft water partly to get rid 

 of sea-parasites, and returns to the sea to recruit after 

 spawning. With change of climate, change of diet, 

 and perfectly healthy habits, their list of disorders is 

 short, though they readily fall victims to contagious 

 disease, just as recently numbers of the Hamran 

 Arabs of the Soudan, as healthy livers and good 

 Mussulmans as the Somalis themselves, friends and 

 fellow-hunters with Sir Samuel Baker, perished of 

 contagious fever on the banks of the Nile tributaries. 

 The medical precautions of animals are thus 

 mainly directed to the preservation of the health, 

 which is partly obtained by the conscious search 

 for a change of food and locality. Cleanliness is 

 their next object of solicitude, and in this the 



