82 EXCESSIVE FATNESS. 



quire, is either converted into fat, or forms some other unusual 

 secretion ; as a purulent flow from the ears in canker, or scabs on 

 the skin in mange. Exercise increases all the usual secretions ; 

 hence, under strong exercise, more nutriment is required; and 

 thus, in such cases, full feeding does not produce fat ; but, even 

 in full exercise, provided some of the usual secretions are stopped, 

 though the others may be in full force, yet an inordinate quantity 

 of animal oil is apt to form : thus spayed bitches and castrated 

 dogs usually become fat, however they may work, because in them 

 the sexual secretions are inert. 



Fat more readily accumulates in middle-aged and old dogs than 

 in the young ; and the adeps of old dogs is more hurtful to them 

 than that of the young ; the reason of which appears to be, that 

 all aged animals have their fat placed more inwardly, while in the 

 younger ones it is found more upon the surface of the body. A 

 state of excessive fatness is an almost certain forerunner of asthma. 

 It is also the parent of mange, canker, and other eruptive diseases ; 

 and not unfrequently it occasions epilepsy, from the pressure it 

 produces on the vessels of the head and chest. I have also seen 

 an excessive deposition of fat within the chest, particularly around 

 the heart and large vessels, which has terminated by a rupture of 

 one or the other of them. 



ALTERATIVES. 



These various states of want of condition require the use of 

 alteratives : there are also many states in which, although there 

 appears no very serious disease, yet a sufficient remove from health 

 exists to make some alteration in the constitution necessary. 

 When this is the case, the end may, in general, be attained by 

 these remedies. An actual disease may also exist, whose removal 

 can be best effected by a slow but uniform change, to be wrought 

 in the constitution by what are, from this circumstance, termed 

 alteratives. Hence excessive fatness, chronic cough, fits, glandular 

 swellings, mange, &c. &c, are best attacked by these slow but sure 



