ON POUCHED HEART. 107 
poisonous substance, quickly inducing sphacelus or mortifi¬ 
cation, which often ends in death in a few hours. 
It is to be borne in mind that in the feeding of sheep to 
fatness artificial food is not so often had recourse to. Yet is 
there something of an approach to this in the rank luxuriance 
of the herbage which produces such a condition. Their wild, 
heaths, hills, and mountains should be preferred, where their 
locomotive habits suffer no restraint, where is their proper 
pasturage, where, too, sheep, when kept, their flesh retains 
superior flavour, not the oily taste of Bakewell’s fat and feeble 
loiterers. The real gusto of the original South Downs , is 
almost annihilated by making them fat. 
Ovibus “fuge pabula laeta.”— Virgil. 
Cows accumulate fat much faster than oxen, and oxen faster 
than bulls. As respects the complete animal, it may be un¬ 
derstood (owing to the sensorial function) why it should be so. 
These animals are of a greater age, generally, when killed, 
and, of course, there will be a greater diminution of the cavity 
of the chest than in pigs and sheep. 
It may be argued too, in contravention, that hard driving, 
want of cleanliness, or skin diseases may have much to do in 
the production of pouched heart. As to the first, it is extremely 
probable that it may occasionally produce it. But the disease 
exists in so great a proportion that hard driving would not 
afford an explanation of the fact. In the majority of animals 
fatted their history sufficiently contradicts the assertion. In the 
hide bound animal is a prominent symptom of the commence¬ 
ment of the disease. The various forms of skin disease are 
occasionally symptoms of secondary significance. These, with 
want of cleanliness and poverty of diet, may have their due 
importance as contributory or exciting causes, and as regards 
the last named there is an opposite condition of the blood, a 
want of healthy adhesiveness of its particles. 
“ Scabiemque ferat.” 
When artificial food is given, the process of rumination is 
either performed imperfectly or not at all. The full grown 
animal has to perform digestion as the calf, while the artificial 
ingested food is with more difficulty assimilated than the green 
herbage—the animal’s proper requirement. The quality of the 
animal must of necessity be proportionate to the quality of the 
natural food which supports it. That the young or sucking 
animal should be apparently free from pouched heart is to be 
understood in its having its natural food only, and in the greater 
simplicity of the progress of digestion than when full grown. 
