OCT, 20, 1892.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



S41 



COMPOUND AND SIMPLE LOCOMOTION. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I bad the pleasure of meeting an old-time friend a few 

 days ago. a shrewd and cultured gentleman of broad and 

 discerning mind, as is settled by the fact tliat he is au ad- 

 mirer of my superior attaiumenls and natural abilities. 



We met i"n ray luxurious office, and after the cordial greet- 

 ings and reminiscent reviews, the conversation turned on 

 (logs and dogdora. 



At last he said in iiis pleasant way : ''C, why don't you 

 write Homc papers on the anatomy of the dog, as applied to 

 locomotion, in the abstract and concrete, as the "rithmetic 

 ustfd to say when we went to school together long years ago? 

 t know that you was smart on bones and sich things in 

 them days from your reputation as a hog killer and meat 

 cutter on the old farm. Not that you of course linow much 

 about bones and muscles when in motion, but I'll bet them 

 other fellers can't write mor'n you can about what they 

 don't know." 



''See here, ' said I, a bit warmly, "the idea is a good one, 

 since I have 'thought of the very same thing myself a num- 

 ber of times, but 1 really do not like your manner of sug- 

 gesting it. First of all, I beg to assure you that I do know 

 something of anatomy, or bones, as you are pleased to term 

 it, and that I have what I consider most valuable ideas on 

 both anatomy and comparative anatomy as related to mo- 

 tion in animals and nice versa Now " 



"I beg your pardon," said he, in his gentlest manner," and 

 I trust that you will overlook my stupidity. 1 might have 

 known, had I given it a moment's cousideration, that you, 

 being a dog man, knoAV all about dogs and their anatomy, 

 and are most amply furnished with knowledge on all subjects 

 iatUe abstract and concrete, as the 'rithmetic would say. 

 Voiir papers would no doubt be very valuable, quite as much 

 ho as anything you ever wrote." 



'•Yes," I replied in rny njost gracious manner, for his 

 praise mollified me, "T Ituow a great deal more about these 

 things than I let on to know. Tbe other fellows ha.ve some 

 very good ideas but they cover but a small part of it aud are 

 bnri'>d by a mass of crudities and ill disguised speculations, 

 and thej' force every circumstance, however poorly it fits, to 

 support their position." 



"Now," said I, "by way of for instance, take the use of the 

 forelegs and hind legs of the dog in motion, tbeir efforts 

 would be of little use but for the connection and support of 

 the back and its action; that is the arching and vigorous 

 spring it takes in unison with the spring of the hind legs, 

 thus propelling the body through the air and forward at 

 tvery jump. The shonlders perform a very important func- 

 tion, in that they give a firm base for the legs to be fixed to 

 and nothing more. I hope that you will admit that if the 

 legs were not fixed to something on the dog he would have 

 much difficulty in u.sing them. This, though in a modified 

 degree, could be said of the hind legs of most do£rs, acd 

 especially those dogs of a sanguine temperament. Fortun- 

 ately, to support my theory and to settle the question beyond 

 cavil, I have a photograph of a skeleton which may be said 

 to be taken from life, as it is in the very attitude of tbe dog 

 in life. The p:se is therefore natural and evpry part of tbe 

 skeleton is placed in the right position and relation to every 

 other part. This skeleton belonged to a dog of fine breeding, 

 which by an oversight was left chained to his kennel while 

 bis master was absent on a six-months' Irip from home. Oa 



THI.S IS THE DOG. 



bis return he found than the dog had starved to death, and 

 be plainly died in a standing position, with the imprint of 

 the fierce pangs of h^Tnger distorting bis features." 



"I desire to say that I do not know much about anatomy, 

 as I observe all writers so far are careful to observe the 

 same, therefore I consider myself most ably qualified to 

 write about it long and learnedly. I more particularly wish 

 to confine myself to anatomy and locomotion, but I may 

 find it necessary to digress on three or four thousand side 

 issues according to honored usage in treating such matters. 



"I now will call your most earnest attention to certain 

 laws of motion which, with very little thought, you will 

 perforce concede to be true; or at lea.st so generally true that 

 none but the perverse or hypercritical will be so unreason- 

 able as to refuse to concede the great truths contained, and 

 their direct application to the question under consideration 

 which has not'been yet presented. The first law is that 

 when a body is moving in a straight line there is hardly 

 any perceptible curvilinear motion to be observed so long as 

 it persists in its direction. Conversely, when a body is 

 moving in a circle, the general law may be laid down that It 

 will continue so so long as the force is applied and it holds 

 its course- 

 Having now laid down, these axioms and general laws 

 which arc known to be true by their universal use and tbe 

 sanction of all men from time iromemorial, I will nowres-^ert 

 to the original question again. To do so readily, it will be 

 necessary to produce the photograph of the dog' referred to 

 hereinbefore so that any reference to different parts of the 

 skeleton may be readily understood and all the different 

 parts and their functions may be made plain at a glance: so 

 I beg that you will study it carefully. To prove that this 

 .skeleton had certain motions when a^jimated by the ener- 

 gies of life, I will take pleasure in presenting in later papers 

 the skeleton of a kangai'oo, of a fiocky Mountain goat, of a 

 hen and a donkey, the last being one of the most important. 

 As to why I should see fit to select the skeleton of a hen to 

 illustrate and prove the motion of a dog, I woixld say that 

 there are some subtle abstractions abou£ it which I do not 

 know myself; therefore, the wise reader must not be too 

 inquiring lest he do more harm in a moment than he could 

 possibly mend in a week." 



"Referring now to the axioms laid down on straight and 

 cui-ved motions, it will be noted that nearly every anatomi- 

 cal part of the dog takes a curvilinear motion or segment of 

 a. parabola. The shoulder blade, humerus, femur, tail and 

 .jaws, etc, all move in segments of circles, and the leap of 

 Che dog is the same. The sum of all these curved and para- 

 bolic motions find e.7tpressioTi Iq locomotion, or the eiiort 

 which the dogs exerts to go ahead in a straight line, ag 

 proven by the construction of the skeletons of hens, horses 

 and donkeys. These curved motions and different forces 

 exerted in different parts of the skeleton in different direc- 

 tions have a very important bearing as to their effectiveness 

 in whether they are coinf^ident with ths center of gi:-ayity or 

 ,>nlf pg^tially so, t'h^ l5.tje:p finding eappregsion in dog,s whiclj. 



BEAGLE HUNTING IN ENGLAND. 

 ]. The uee*. 2. Full cry! 3. A tic'klish place, i. A '-'view iioUoa." 5. The death. 



trot with their hind legs in a line paralled with and about 

 (iin. to one side of the line followed by the forelegs." 



"A simple illustration of tbe mechanical difficulty in 

 changing straight motion to circular motion is illustrated 

 by the locomotive engine. The piston rod goes straight; 

 bar on the driving wheels travels in a circle, and one end of 

 the connecting rod, connecting the two, ti'avels in a circle, 

 while the other end goes straight, thus causing the most 

 violent strains and Jerks at every revolution of the wheels, 

 and presenting one of the most 'complex problems in loco 

 motive construction. This proves that sti fles and elbows 

 well let down, as witnessed in the skeleton of the hen, give 

 the ideal combination so far as those parts are specially 

 concerned. But it shoulrl not be lost sight of for a moment 

 that there are certain auxiliary and subsidiary forces, both 

 of gravity and the animal, which, arrayed in harmonious 

 juxtaposition should correlate and—" 



"For goodness sake," said my friend, "let the matter rest 

 for this time. I do not know wheth'r I am going crazy or 

 have a nightmare. My brains are boiling. I thint that all 

 you said is logical and true, but I don't know. Let us con- 

 sider that it is so, only my mind is too weik to follow your 

 most learned argument, or thesis, or digest, or whatever it 

 may be. Let us defer this matter to another day, though it 

 be an evil one. I feel weak and unequal to further atten- 

 tion. Pray, let us postpone it that I may learn it better." 



"I consent," said I, "though I dislike to do so, for I just 

 got the ideas nicely selected and all the circumstances ar- 

 ranged to Ifad up in logical sequence to the previous ques- 

 tion which I was about to formulate into a syllogism pre- 

 paratory to my main effort, but as you wish it, we will 

 postpone it." 



"Good day," said he, with a sigh of relief. 



"Good day," said I, regretfully. The Ctnic. 



VARIETIES OF FOOD. 



U nder tbe above heading, in his new book on dog diseases, 

 kennel management, etc., "Ashmont" (Dr. J. Frank Perrj') 

 gives us, as entertainingly and lucidly as ever, his views on 

 a subject of vital import-ince, to all, kennel owners as well 

 as the "one-dog" man. Through the Doctor's kindness we 

 ai'e enabled to publish, from advance proofs, a part of this 

 interesting chapter. Speaking on the subject of cooked 

 meats he says: 



"As for fresh meats conked for the table, unless, of course, 

 a perfect contempt for culinary laws is exhibited, they can 

 safely be regarded as ciuite well suited to the digestion of 

 dogs, also, as containing the most of the nutritive proper- 

 ties of these foods. And where dogs share the diet of their 

 masters, or, in other words, are fed on scraps from the table, 

 and the c^uantity of meat given them is ample, it is scarcely 

 necessary to cou.sider the question of quality or that of 

 cooking, 



"But considering th at popular method of cooking meat 

 specially for dogs, and the want of care which so many 

 exhibit in its application, the conclusiou is inevitable that 

 under certain conditions of life they should be fed on raw 

 meat while those conditions last. 



That this may be accepted, the fact is urged that no mat- 

 ter how scientific the process of cooking, alterations of a 

 chemical nature are induced in meat and some of its nutri- 

 tive elements are wasted. Were man perfectly familiar 

 with all the inner workings of the dog s mechanism, the 

 demands in the way of food and the peculiarities of his 

 organs concerned in digestion, then the problem of supply 

 recjtuired for the growth and health of the body and to renew 

 the loss from wear and tear, etc., might possibly be worked 

 out. But the dietician has yet to enter this province and at 

 present only rough estimates can be made, and a very wide 

 margin must be l_eft to cover the many conditions, fixed or 

 incidental, of which little or nothing is known." 



On feeding raw meat, always a debatable question among 

 dog men, he has this to say: 



"Thus far experience has shown the writer that bitches in 

 pup which are fed frequently on raw meat diuing the peri- 

 ods of gestation and nur.sing are stronger and healthipr, 

 give whelp to more vigorous puppies and prove better sup- 

 port for the same, than bitches fed largely on cooked meat 

 during these periods; that is, on meat cooked specially for 

 them. The reason for the superior qualities is, of course, 

 problematical, but it would seem thac either raw meat was 

 more easily digested by them and more readily converted 

 with less waste into materials for building, for renovation 

 of the body, etc., than cooked meat, or that raw meat con- 

 tained highly important elements in better forms or more 

 correct proportions for the work in which they were en- 

 gaged, and to support them while doing it than cooked 

 meat, 



"Experience has also shown that in many morbid states qf 

 the system not only is raw meat more acceptable |io iij.e 

 digest! Ye 9r$ans, but recoyery takes place ipilcliTnore rapidly 



under its use than it does under the use of cooked meat. 

 And another product of experience is the fact that pxippies 

 to which raw meat is given often and judiciously, tori ve 

 better, grow in structure with greater rapidity, assume more 

 massive proportions and are less frequent victims of disease, 

 than those given cooked meat as often and in the same 

 quantities. 



"But there is a bitter prejudice against the giving of un- 

 cooked meat to dogs because of the parasites which It some- 

 times contains. Beyond doubt this danger exists, for nations 

 habituated to tbe use of raw meat are notorious harborers of 

 tapeworms, but still the writer believes that much greater 

 alarm is felt than is justifiable. Man is as easily infected as 

 dogs, yet among people of civilized countries cases of tape- 

 worms are never frequent— in fact they are rare except in 

 imagination, in which picture^! of them are drawn by pre- 

 tenders to medical skill, who have methods of their own for 

 deluding their patients. And considering this rarity, also 

 that cooking as often applied will not destroy the vitality of 

 these parasites, raw meat cannot be nearly as fierce a menace 

 as generally reputed." 



Any one who has kept a num.ber of dogs knows how prone 

 kennel owners are to feed foods easily obtained and inex- 

 pen.slve, such as liver, lights, paunches, etc., and we are 

 ]3leased to see that "Ashmont" glvps this subject special 

 attention. After speaking of insufficient cooking or the 

 ''done rare" process, he says: "But there are evidently 

 animal substances — some of tbem are occasionally eaten by 

 man— often fed out to dogs, from which far greater danger 

 is to be apprehended unless they are first submitted to a 

 boiling temperature. Among such are the hearts, livers, 

 lungs— called 'lights' by many— paunches and other in- 

 ternal organs. Even greater danger lurks in the entrails of 

 many animals, and these, whether from sheep, cattle, 

 horses or game, should be given to dogs only after they have 

 been thoroughly boiled for the purpose of de.stroying what 

 parasites are present. The brains of certain animals, espe- 

 cially the sheep, are also a source of danger, which must 

 exckide them from the diet until they have been treated in 

 the same way as the entrails. 



"These dangers from so many different sources can, how- 

 ever, be CHsily obviated by observing the simple rule, to feed 

 to dogs, while yet in its raw state, only good, sound and 



holesome beef or mtitton, and thoroughly to cook all other 

 flesh foods allowed them. This, religiously adhered to. the 

 danger of parasites from animal foods will be very slight 

 indeed and need notocc tsion any uneasiness. 



"Breeders generally are much prejudiced a,gainst pork, 

 and rightly so, for it is rich and burdensome to the digestive 

 organ.s— in fact, of all meats it is the most difficult of diges- 

 tion. At the same time to what are called 'scraps' by some 

 and 'ci-acklings' by others, which are the refuse of melting 

 or refining, there can be no valid objection as an occasional 

 ingredient of the diet of hardy dogs. But Instead of giving 

 them, as is sometimes the custom, as they are broken from 

 the cakes, much the better way is to make soups of them and 

 thicken the same with vegetable foods. 



"Although liver isasneaiiy deserving of prejudice as pork, 

 it frequently appears before doss and doubtless it is accounta- 

 ble for many mysterious attacks of diarrhasa, for it is one of 

 the richest foods and as dif&cult of digestion as it is rich. 

 Considering which only an occasional and sparing use should 

 be the rule. 



"As for what are known as 'lights,' some writers recom- 

 mend them, yet a person would not be likely to feed them to 

 a house pet more than once, for they give the breath an in- 

 tolerable stench, which can be accepted as unmistakable 

 evidence that decomposition occurred and advanced far 

 before the stomach completed its task." 



TORONTO KENNEL CLUB. 



The Toronto Kennel Club is remarkable for its progres- 

 slveness and originality. It aims to make the dog better 

 understood and appreciated and to promote kennel Inter- 

 ests. To this end it establishes a library in Toronto and ap- 

 peals to authors a.nd publishers for practical sympathy. 

 Already the response has been most gratifying. Prof. Wes- 

 ley Mills, M. D., of Montreal, presents a copy of his work 

 entitled "The Dog in Health and in Disease." ' Thayer Pub- 

 lishing Co., of Boston, donates a volume on "Modern Train- 

 ing, Handling and Kennel Management," and Dr. H. Clay 

 Glover, of New YorK, sends his "Treatise on Canine Dis- 

 eases." The publishers of FoEEST AKD Stream and J'a/i- 

 ciers' Journal have kindly placed the Toronto Kennel Club 

 on their respective free lists; may others do likewi.se. 



During the summer months the club has been incorporated 

 under the Ontario statutes, the constitution and by-laws 

 priritecl and a large amount of important bnsiness'trans- 

 aqtad. The outlook for the future of the club is very prom- 

 TpisQTO Kennel CltiBj 



