EXCESSIVE FATNESS. 81 



with sulphur, even though no breaking out appears, and I by no 

 means think the practice a bad one. Others curry or brush their 

 dogs, whether any skin affection appears or not ; and, to greyhounds, 

 it is a very proper means of keeping up the equiUbrium of the 

 circulation, and of promoting muscular elasticity. When a lean 

 dog is to be got into condition, less physic is necessary ; but good 

 flesh feeding, plenty of exercise, and a due administration of alter- 

 atives, are principally to be resorted to : nevertheless, one or two 

 doses of very mild physic will here also promote the condition and 

 even assist the accumulation of flesh. 



EXCESSIVE FATNESS. 



Among the various defects in condition, obesity, or an over- 

 loading of the adipose matter or fat of the body, is one of the 

 most common. A proper plumpness of appearance denotes health ; 

 but when the animal oil becomes inordinately disproportionate to 

 the other parts of the body, it proves a source of numerous dis- 

 eases. The natural tendency of dogs to become fat is consider- 

 able, for any dog may be made so by moderate feeding only, with 

 little exercise. Provided the accumulation has been quick, the 

 dog may be reduced to his former state without prejudice ; but, 

 when a dog gradually accumulates much fat from over-feeding and 

 confinement, then the accumulation itself becomes so completely a 

 disease, that even exercise and abstinence will not always wholly 

 reduce him ; for the formation of the adipose substance is so 

 habitual a work of the constitution, that, however little food the 

 animal takes, short of starvation, that little goes to the formation 

 of animal oil. The truth of this may be known by the notorious 

 fact, that many fat dogs eat but very little. 



There are, therefore, two sources of obesity ; one is ot^er- 

 f ceding ; the other is want of exercise : and when, as is very fre- 

 quently the case, both causes happen to meet in the same subject, 

 then the accumulation is certain. When dogs are over-fed, what- 

 ever is taken into the body more than the general secretions re- 



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