170 THE CAMEL 



why Mas- herbage or poisonous grasses; (1) why should some 

 animals escape altogether? (2) why should others get 

 ^ an d recover ? (3) and why should the effect be 



untenable quicker on some than others except perhaps from 

 superiority of stamina and constitution? And why 

 should a like proportion of animals who are never ex- 

 posed to this risk get the same symptoms, present the 

 same organic appearance, and die, in fact, of exactly the 

 same disease as those who have run all risks ? With 

 regard to the air theory the first three questions might 

 likewise be asked ; but the answers are beyond me, except 

 to conclude from the terrific mortality that we had at 

 Macloutsie and Tuli that the germs of the disease were 

 in the air, and to leave to great and glorious science to 

 produce the solution of the mystery from the womb of 

 futurity. 



Summing To sum up, then, in a few words. You cannot be too 

 particular in feeding camels, nor can you pay less 

 attention to them, if you want to get good work out of 

 them under exceptional circumstances, than you do to 

 cavalry and artillery horses. Do not overfeed them, 

 especially with grain, and do not vary the rations, as 

 they not only lose condition whether their ration is 

 increased or decreased, but in the former case it often 

 engenders disease which proves fatal. Above all things 

 be rational, and do not starve them on the principle 

 that they are ruminants possessing special powers of 

 abstinence. Even this class of animal cannot ruminate 

 on nothing, and it is a positive fact that in the Bayuda 

 desert I did not see five camels in a. thousand chewing 

 the cud. Poor brutes ! it would have been precious 

 hard for them to do so on starvation diet and empty 



