PHYSIOGNOMY OF DISEASE. 177 



symptoms of insanity in the dog and horse, and frequently 

 leads in them to mutilation of person or destruction of life. 

 On the other hand, it may be an expression of mere temper, 

 or it may occur as a diversion and pretence in the puppy. 

 The worrying of sheep by dogs is frequently difficult of 

 explanation on any other supposition than that it is a 

 morbid propensity, the outcome of mental disorder. There 

 is no apparent motive; food is not required; it does not 

 seem mere sport; it may be gratuitous cruelty. This 

 absence of motive in the acts of other animals, as of man, 

 affords presumptive evidence that such acts are determined 

 by mental disease. 



Proneness to assault or attack may arise from a morbid 

 combativeness, and thus be the result of disease. But it is 

 also an occasional expression of the mere sense of strange- 

 ness of a visitor, of suspicions, of antagonism or antipathy, 

 or of revenge all, for instance, in the dog. General out- 

 rag eousness of conduct in domestic animals, previously noted 

 for their docility, is a common expression of acute disease, 

 mental or bodily such as mania or rabies. Unruliness, 

 however, for instance, in the colt, while it may be the fruit 

 of disease, may also arise from simple temper or vice, from 

 maliciousness or mischievousness, or from fear. 



General restlessness of body, incessant, objectless moving 

 from place to place, fidgetiness, perpetual motion, is a com- 

 mon result of mental excitement of whatever kind. Pawing 

 the ground in the horse may indicate a dangerous degree or 

 kind of irritability, as well as mere eagerness, restlessness, 

 impatience, or weariness at waiting ; or its object may be 

 simply to attract man's notice. 



Kicking in the horse is another vice, dangerous to man, 

 that is too frequently produced by his own ill-usage. It is 

 the usual outcome of that kind of fidgetiness or irritability, 

 which is the natural product of habitual teasing by man. 

 It is, in short, one of the poor animal's natural means of 

 self-defence against him or other enemies or tormentors. 

 Plunging, jumping, prancing, rearing, flinging, all of them 

 dangerous to man, are common expressions of loss of temper 

 under a castigation that is too often injudicious, unjust, 



VOL. II. N 



