DOG. 
?4S 
remains a distance between them, so that the dog, 
by opening his mouth ever so wide, does not lose 
the power of his jaws. But it is otherwise in the 
cat kind, whose incisors, or cutting teeth, are 
very small, and whose grinding teeth when 
brought together, touch more closely than those 
of the dog/ and, consequently, have less power. 
Thus,- for instance, we can squeeze any thing more 
forcibly between our thumb and fore finger, where 
the distance is greater, than between any other 
two fingers, whose distance from each other is 
less. 
This animal is capable of reproducing at the 
age of twelve months, goes'nine weeks with young, 
and lives to about the age of twelve years. Few 
quadrupeds are less delicate in their food ; and yet 
there are many kinds of birds which the dog will 
not venture to touch. He is even known, although 
in a savage state, to abstain from injuring some 
which one might suppose he had every reason to 
oppose. The dogs and the vultures which live 
wild about Grand Cairo in Egypt (for the Maho- 
metan law has expelled this useful animal from 
human society,) continue together in a very so-? 
liable and friendly manner. 
Although the dog is a voracious animal, yet he 
can bear hunger for a very long time. We have 
an instance, in the Memoirs of the Academy of 
Sciences, of this kind, in which a bitch that had 
been forgotten at a country house, lived forty days 
without any other nourishment than the wool of 
a quilt which she had torn in pieces. It should 
seem that water is more necessary to the dog than 
food ; he drinks often, though not abundantly ; 
and it is commonly believed, that when abridged 
in water, he runs mad. This dreadful malady, 
the consequences of which are so well known, is the 
greatest inconvenience that results from the keep-: 
