1S5 



bowelsj \vliere there are little vessels that strain such 

 fluid parts as are fitted for nourishing the body, and 

 pass it forwards in very minute streams into siauds, 

 called the mesenteric. These pour their contents 

 into one common receptacle, from \^ hence the fluid, 

 called the chyle, is poured into the heart to form 

 blood. The blood, therefore, is constantly recruit- 

 ing from this source ; and from this idea it will na- 

 turally suggest itself, that, when food is withheld, the 

 blood must waste, from which all the fluids become 

 wasted, and the solids wear fast ; and, on the con- 

 trary, when the food is in too great quantities, the 

 blood will in that case be too rich, and be generated 

 in too large quantities, and hence some or all the 

 fluids of the body will be formed in too large quan- 

 tities. The moisture that goes to the skin will be- 

 come acrid, and form a disease called mange : the 

 subaceous glands of the ear, instead of forming 

 wax, will form blood or matter, called canker : or 

 it will tend to the teats, where, if it is not the time 

 to form milk, it will form a spurious secretion, lay- 

 ing the foundation for cancer; or otherwise it may, 

 and does very commonly, form an inordinate quantity 

 of the oily fluid called fat. 



It next becomes a question, what kind of food is 

 best. On observing a dog, both as a naturalist and 

 physiologist, we are not at a moment's loss in deter- 

 mining that the dog is neither wholly carnivorous, 

 nor wholly herbivorous, but of a mixed kind, in- 

 tended to take in both, and formed to receive 

 .nourishment from either; and this his hicliration, as 

 well as the anatomy of his organs, leads him to. A 

 dog has sharp cutting teeth for tearing flesh, and 



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