166 THE CAMEL 



delicate and extremely susceptible to catarrh, may catch 

 cold at such an early hour of the morning, and so sow 

 the seeds of some pulmonary affection ; though Lieut. 

 Massoutier would seem to imply the likelihood of an 

 internal organic complaint through the mere eating of 

 moistened herbage. That this effect might be pro- 

 duced if the herbage were soddened, and noxious gases 

 so generated that would interfere with the ordinary 

 routine and the systematic action of the different com- 

 partments of the stomach, which after constant recur- 

 rence would set up internal inflammation and impair 

 such action, I can easily understand. For my part I 

 am averse to giving them grain or other food which 

 has been soaked as baneful on this account, though 

 cleansing and damping it is, I consider, a good and 

 wise precaution. I can, however, hardly think that 

 dew would penetrate into the leaves of camel thorn 

 or other plants sufficiently to sodden them, or to sod- 

 den them to such an extent as to create any delete- 

 rious gas. I have seen animals die presumably from 

 this cause, but I have always doubted, and still doubt, 

 that it was the real cause. I can readily understand 

 animals that are regularly and continuously sent out 

 to graze when the dew is on the ground, or fed on 

 soddened food, developing a disease of those organs 

 which assist in assimilating the food, somewhat in the 

 way above mentioned, and eventually dying from it, 

 but not otherwise. I have also seen camels die in 

 Afghanistan, which the natives told me was due to 

 poisonous insects in the grass, but which in all pro- 

 bability arose from poisonous weeds, and in some 

 instances from overeating pure and simple. 



