28 KENNEL SECRETS. . 



the future what remains after their appetites have been 

 satisfied or their jaws have tired from gnawing. 



The reader will do well to accept this solution of the 

 problem, for otherwise he might assume that meat even 

 in advanced stages of decomposition would be good 

 enough and not impossibly preferable for his dogs. He 

 may accept as a fact that all tainted meat is poisonous, 

 although it is less so to dogs than to men because of their 

 greater powers of resistance. In fact a quantity of food 

 poison that would kill a man might not have any apprecia- 

 ble effect upon his dog. But notwithstanding this there 

 are limits, and of course no one knows where they are 

 placed ; consequently the wisest and safest plan to pursue 

 is to feed dogs on foods that are above suspicion. 



It is well to add that of all animal foods none undergo 

 poisonous changes as quickly as liver, and when but 

 slightly tainted it is extremely likely to cause severe 

 diarrhoea. 



It is evidently a part of the plan of Nature that a rela- 

 tion should exist between the general character of an ani- 

 mal and its food, and in keeping with this flesh-eaters are 

 in general bolder and more combative than the vegetable- 

 eaters upon which they prey. The same relation also 

 appears in animals that subsist on a mixed diet, and man 

 affords one of the best illustrations of it. Assuming that 

 he has been living on a diet in which the proportions of 

 these foods are about three parts vegetables to one of 

 meat, now let him increase the quantity of meat and 

 lessen that of vegetables, and the chances are many that 

 if of a refined and easy-going, well-balanced nature he will 

 before many weeks show some gross qualities and become 

 more or less peevish and exacting. And returning again 

 to his original diet his good-natured disposition will be 

 restored. 



