Book II. FEEDING FOR EXTRAORDINARY PURPOSES. 309 



studying the art of prevention rather than of cure ; to suggest that, in general, an analogy 

 subsists between the constitution and diseases of the human and brute creation ; to avoid 

 recipes and specific cures, rarely to bleed animals, unless by regular advice ; and to 

 confine as much as possible the operations of cow-doctors and smiths to giving warm 

 drinks, gentle purges, and clysters, which can seldom do any harm. Proprietors who 

 can afford to employ intelligent bailiflTs, or rather who give such men considerable salaries, 

 should ascertain previously to hiring them, by means of general questions, or by reference 

 to a professor, whether they know any thing of the subject. By thus creating a demand 

 for this species of knowledge, it would soon be produced in abundance. 



Sect. IV. Of Feeding for Extraordinary Purposes. 



2084. The extraordinary purposes of feeding may comprehend, promoting the growth, 

 maturity, or obesity of particular parts of the body ; promoting the produce of milk or 

 eggs ; or, fitting an animal for hard labour or long journeys, fasting, and other pri- 

 vations. 



2085. Feeding for extraordinary purposes, such as promoting the growth of the liver 

 in geese; the heart in turkeys; producing excessively fat poultry, &c., seems to us 

 utterly unjustifiable on principles of humanity, and unworthy of enlightened men. The 

 practice of pulling out the animal's eyes, nailing it to the spot, and cramming or forcing 

 the food down its throat, is surely as repugnant to good taste and feeling, as the food so 

 produced must be tasteless and unwholesome. Putting out the eyes of certain singing 

 birds to improve their voice, and some practices in the rearing of game cocks, and fancy 

 pigeons (at least the first two) seem equally reprehensible. 



2086. The fattening of fowls for the London market is a considerable branch of rural economy in some 

 convenient situations. " They are put up in a dark place, and crammed with a paste made of barley meal, 

 mutton suet, and some treacle or coarse sugar, mixed with milk, and are found to be completely ripe in a 

 fortnight. If kept longer, the fever that is induced by this continued state of repletion renders them red 

 and unsaleable, and frequently kills them." {Agricultural Report of Berkshire, by IVilliam Mavor, LL.D. 

 8vo. London, 1813.) But fowls brought to this state of artificial obesity are never so well flavoured in 

 the flesh, and probably not so salubrious as those of the same species fattened in a more natural way. The 

 great secret of having fine pullets is cleanliness, and high keeping with the best corn. 



2087. The process followed in different parts of France to enlarge the liver is described 

 at length by Sonnini. (Nouveau Dictionnaire d'Histoire Natnrelle, art. Oie.) The 

 object is to cause the whole vital forces to be detennined towards this part of the animal, 

 by giving it a kind of hepatic cachexy. In Alsace, the individual buys a lean goose, 

 which he shuts up in a small box, so tight that it cannot turn in it. The back part of 

 the bottom is furnished with a wide grating of rods, for the passage of the dung. In the 

 fore part there is a hole for the head, and below it a small trough is kept always full of 

 water, in which some pieces of wood charcoal are left to steep. A bushel of maize is 

 enough to feed it during a month, at the end of which time the goose is suflSciently 

 fattened. A thirtieth part is soaked in water each night, and crammed down its throat 

 next day, morning and evening. The rest of the time it drinks and guzzles in the water. 

 Towards the 22d day, they mix with the maize some poppy oil, and, at the end of the 

 month, it is known by a lump of fat under each wing, or rather by the difficulty of 

 breathing, that it is time to kill it, otherwise it will die of fat. The liver is then found 

 weighing one or two pounds, and, besides, the animal is excellent for the table, and 

 furnishes, during its roasting, from three to five pounds of fat, which is used in the 

 cooking of vegetables. Of six geese, there are commonly only four (and these are the 

 youngest) which answer the expectation of the fattener. They are kept in a cellar, or 

 cool place with little light. The temperature most favourable for fattening is between 

 ;30 and 40 Fahrenheit, so that it is only practised during the latter part of the autumn, 

 the winter, and the early part of spring. The process was examined in detail by us at 

 Strasbourg in October 1 828, and will be found noticed in the account of the tour which 

 we made in that year, in the 5th volume of the Gardener s Magazine. 



2088. The Roman epicures, who prized the livers of geese, had already observed, that 

 darkness was favourable to this practice ; no doubt, because it prevents all distraction, 

 and directs the whole powers towards the digestive organs. The want of motion, and 

 the difficulty of respiration, may be also taken into consideration ; the first from its 

 diminishing the waste of the system, and both from their retarding the circulation in the 

 vena portarum, of which the blood ought to become hydrogenated, in proportion as its 

 carbon unites itself to the oxygen whicli that liquid absorbs. This favours the formation 

 of the oily juice, which, after having filled the cellular system of the body, enters into the 

 biliary system and substance of the liver, and gives it that fatness and size which is 

 so delightful to the palates of true gourmands. The liver thus only becomes enlarged 

 consecutively, and the difficulty of respiration does not appear till the end, when its size 

 prevents the action of the lungs. Among a hundred fatteners, there are scarcely two 

 who adopt the practice of putting out the eyes qf the geese, and even these do not resort 

 to this barbarous practice till a day or two before they are killed ; and, therefore, the 



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