96 KENNEL SECRETS. 



in the muscles but in all the organs which constitute the 

 body's sewerage system, and in consequence this waste 

 accumulates to still further lower vitality through its poi- 

 sonous action. The digestive organs once weakened are 

 soon seriously disordered, and all the time the whole sys- 

 tem is sympathizing with them and suffering like derange- 

 ment ; the nerves are unstrung ; all the various functions 

 are impaired ; the muscles become soft and flabby or fat ;, 

 good health has gone and disease is imminent. 



These are some of the evil consequences of a denial of 

 sufficient exercise ; but there are yet others, and by no 

 means the least serious of them is the peculiar tendency 

 on the part of the victims to accumulate too much fat, 

 which is not alone deposited under the skin and in the 

 muscles of the body, but in and around the heart and 

 other vital organs. No one needs to be told that meat 

 which is lean is tough while that which is fat is tender ; 

 all may not know, however, that the difference is due not 

 only to the presence of the fat but to its degenerating 

 influence upon the muscle fibres. The heart — which is a 

 muscle — and all other muscles are weakened as they are 

 encroached upon by fat, and even if the same is merely 

 deposited around them it mechanically interferes with 

 their workings. Too fat dogs, like corpulent men, have 

 generally fatty hearts ; moreover, they are "short-winded,'^ 

 easily tired by exertion and singularly inclined to be con- 

 stantly ailing. 



Evidences of too close confinement are plainly mani- 

 fested in dogs, but unfortunately they are seldom rightly 

 interpreted, and oftentimes other influences, which if 

 related are only distantly so, are held entirely responsi- 

 ble for them. For instance, people chain up their dogs 

 and give them meat, and if they become savage this food 

 alone is blamed for it. As a matter of fact the restraint 



