DOGS I THEIR MANAGEMENT. 279 



obtain, must be frequent sources of piles, which without 

 such instigation would frequently appear. Bones, which 

 people carelessly conclude the dog should consume, it 

 can in some measure digest ; but it can do this only par- 

 tially when in vigorous health. Should the body be 

 delicate, such substances pass through it hardly affected 

 by the powers of assimilation ; they become sharp and 

 hard projections when surrounded by, and fixed in the 

 firm mass, which is characteristic of the excrement of the 

 dog. A pointed piece of bone, projecting from an almost 

 solid body, is nearly certain to lacerate the tender and 

 soft membrane over which it would have to be propelled ; 

 and though, as I have said, strong and vigorous dogs can 

 eat almost with impunity, and extract considerable nou- 

 rishment from bones, nevertheless they do not constitute 

 a proper food for these animals at any time. When the 

 system is debilitated, the digestion is always feeble ; and, 

 under some conditions of disease, I have tak'en from the 

 stomachs of dogs after death, in an unaltered state, meat, 

 which had been swallowed two days prior to death. It 

 had been eaten and had been retained for at least forty- 

 eight hours, but all the functions had been paralyzed, 

 and it continued unchanged. If such a thing be possible 

 under any circumstances, then in the fact there is suffi- 

 cient reason why people should be more cautious in the 

 mode of feeding these creatures ; for I have extracted 

 from the rectums of dogs large quantities of trash, such 

 as hardened masses of comminuted bones and of cocoa- 

 nut, which, because the animal would eat it, the owners 



