ANIMAL FOODS. 2\ 



as far as known, the largest pair ever raised from the same 

 litter. Both were sold to the same gentleman, the dog 

 puppy in the tenth week and his sister when eight and 

 one-half months old. Their purchaser being an ardent 

 believer in the theory that flesh alone is appropriate food 

 for the dog, fed almost solely on it, and at the tenth month 

 they were each accustomed to eat between four and five 

 pounds daily. Marvellous development was the result, 

 but it was attained at a terrible cost, for the dog died at 

 maturity of what was called a cancerous disease, and his 

 sister followed him in less than a year ; she, according to 

 the report of her owner, "breaking out with fearful sores, 

 wasting rapidly and dying after a short illness." 



It is reasonable to assume that these mastiffs living 

 lazy, luxurious lives, were destroyed by excess of animal 

 food. And it is a significant fact that the sister, which 

 had been fed on a mixed diet until eight and one-half 

 months of age, yielded to the excess after suffering from 

 it for about the same length of time as her brother. 



While considering the evil consequences of excess in 

 animal food attention can properly be directed to the 

 effects of excess in foods properly combined and in cor- 

 rect proportions. Among the most constant of these are 

 disordered digestion, derangements of the bowels, vitiated 

 secretions, torpid action of the vital organs generally, 

 obesity, perverted nutrition, and as concomitants, fatty 

 degeneration and organic diseases. Chronic or perma- 

 nent distension of the stomach is another disastrous con- 

 sequence of habitually overloading this organ ; which, 

 while it is doubtless frequently acquired after maturity, 

 for obvious reasons far more often occurs during the early 

 months of puppyhood. And it is well to add that once it 

 becomes permanent it can never be overcome ; and in 

 after life there is always a tendency to indigestion, nutri- 



