THE NATURAL DIET. 13 



even a greater number of parts of vegetable foods to one 

 of flesh. 



At this point it is well to remind the reader who is at 

 either extreme that circumstantial evidence is by no means 

 always conclusive. Also, that no two breeds, nor even 

 two members of the same breed, are so constituted that 

 the food suitable for one is precisely as suitable for the 

 other. 



Now it is an indisputable fact that some breeders feed 

 very largely on meat and their dogs do well. Not unnat- 

 urally therefore they believe it to be the all-important 

 food. On the other hand there are some who rely almost 

 wholly on vegetables and starches, and they in turn are as 

 strongly convinced that their diet is the only appropriate 

 one for all dogs. 



A novice accepts the theory of the first and feeds on 

 flesh, but he does not meet with the success which he 

 anticipated, and his dogs go wrong in the course of a few 

 weeks and eventually become wrecks. Another tries the 

 other theory, and with much the same ending — his dogs 

 in time going to pieces. 



The result of these unfortunate experiments would at 

 first thought seem positive evidence that both theories 

 were absolutely wrong, yet literally they proved merely 

 that the diets employed were unsuited to the victims 

 under the existing conditions. But had these dogs been 

 placed under precisely the same conditions as those of the 

 breeders whose radical views were accepted, then the 

 results would undoubtedly have been different, and very 

 likely each novice would have become an ardent advo- 

 cate of the theory he adopted. 



The fact is, there are many other influences which bear 

 quite as heavily for or against the health of dogs as the 

 dietetic, and one rightly fed may go wrong because of insuf- 



