10 KENNEL SECRETS. 



It is plainly evident from this that dogs cannot be fed 

 by rule, and that the proportions of ingredients of their 

 diet must be intelligently estimated and varied according 

 to existing circumstances. 



Before going further it will be well to compare briefly 

 the relations and effects of animal and vegetable foods. 

 The former are identical in composition with the struc- 

 tures to be built up and kept in repair. On the other 

 hand, although no such identity appears in vegetable 

 foods, yet to a marked extent they agree in composition 

 with animal foods, and all that is necessary for the human 

 body at least can be supplied by the vegetable kingdom 

 solely. But the process required for the digestion of 

 vegetable foods is more complex than that required for 

 animal foods, and while the digestive apparatus of man, 

 built upon a more extended scale, can properly dispose of 

 both kinds of foods with nearly if not quite equal ease, 

 owing to its much simpler construction that of the dog is 

 better adapted to animal than to vegetable foods ; and 

 although it can successfully deal with the latter its capa- 

 bilities in this direction are narrower than those of the 

 digestive apparatus of man. 



In other words the dog is so constituted physically that 

 he can digest both animal and vegetable foods, and from 

 them when in correct proportions he will obtain all the 

 nutritive principles required for the growth of his body 

 and to replace the wear and tear upon its tissues. But 

 although vegetable foods may contain all that he requires 

 for these purposes, such is the peculiar construction of his 

 digestive apparatus, unlike his master, it would scarcely 

 be possible for him while under ordinary conditions to 

 subsist on them alone, being unable to extract from them 

 goodly proportions of their nutritive properties. Conse- 

 quently, while it is perfectly proper to give him vegetable 



