MORBID STATES OF SENSATION. 
241 
periodical lamenesses among his dogs ; he has connected them 
with atmospheric change and atmospheric influence ; and by de- 
grees he has begun to observe that the change in the dog, at 
least, accompanies, and mostly precedes the change in the weather ; 
and he begins to regard the tucked-up appearance, or the disin- 
clination to move, or the lameness, or the yelping of old Dido, 
as a seldom-failing prognostic of bad weather. 
All this is referrible to certain parts of the frame once injured, 
and never perfectly reinstated ; still retaining a considerable por- 
tion of morbid sensibility, and affected by circumstances that 
would be powerless with regard to the perfectly healthy constitu- 
tion or part. 
Atmospheric Influence continued. — The quadruped or the 
feathered biped, however, is far more exposed to the influence 
of atmospheric changes than is the human being; for he has not 
the means of sheltering himself from the biting storm, and he is 
exposed to a greater variety of accidents, and, therefore, he will 
be likely oftener to have these morbidly sensible portions — 
these inlets of pain and disease. Nature has been doubly 
careful of these animals; she has denied them a degree of feel- 
ifig which would be a curse to them rather than a blessing ; and 
she has furnished them with an apparatus by means of which 
they may, for a longer time before these changes of weather, and 
without any of those annoying ailments which make the human 
being weatherwise, be warned of the approaching storm. 
The Nature of atmospheric Influence . — The changes of the 
weather are dependent upon changes in the electricity of the at- 
mosphere generally, or of some of the gases of which it is com- 
posed. An alteration of density, or temperature, or moisture, or 
drought is the eff ect of this electric change. Were not the ani- 
mals who were destined to live amidst these influences protected 
from their immediate and sudden effects, life, and all the comforts 
of life, would be endangered or soon destroyed. Were too much 
of the fluid portion of the frame rapidly absorbed by the sur- 
rounding drought, or the necessary exhalations from the sur- 
faces suddenly arrested by the immediate contact of moisture ; 
were the vital heat to be stolen away by the surrounding air 
more rapidly than it could be generated ; were that species of 
electricity, call it by what name you will, on which the vital 
power depends, to accumulate rapidly and without bounds, and 
cause the flame of life to be quickly exhausted by excitation ; 
and were that which exerts at once its negative and depressing- 
power, to rush upon him without warning, existence would often 
be at hazard, and ere long extinguished. Nature has therefore 
given to these animals a protection against these influences. 
