Accumulation of fat is either an indication of health, or a symptom of disease, according to its amount, position, and consequences. Fat is naturally deposited in the tissues as a storehouse of fuel for the purposes of life, when the animal is moderately fed and little exercised. But when the deposition becomes so excessive as to impair the general health, or derange the easy working of the animal machinery, the condition is essentially a morbid one. Then the minimum quantity of food sufficient to keep "body and soul" together is all converted into fatty tissue, and it is a work of the utmost difficulty to consume the accumulation by the usual expedients of exercise and abstinence.

* For the dose, etc., of these medicines, consult the " Introductory Remarks".

Immoderate deposition of fatty matter is usually found in the tissue that lies underneath the skin, and that connects the muscles one with another; in the folds of the peritonaeum; around the kidney and milk-gland; and within the chest, especially around the heart and large vessels. Sudden death has been known to occur in dogs that have had the last-named organs enveloped in fat; but it is most probable that the immediate cause of death in such cases was the morbid state known as "fatty degeneration" of the tissue of the organs themselves, rather than mere accumulation of fat around them.

Want, or insufficiency of exercise; confinement in an impure, close atmosphere; rich or luxurious food; or ordinary food in excessive quantity, lay the foundations of obesity in the ordinary run of dogs; but where a strong predisposition to fatness exists, even plain food in small quantities, and moderate exercise, will not keep the dog's form within moderate dimensions. When the dog is over-fed, or fed on rich food, the alternative of the non-deposition of fat is the setting up of some cutaneous disease attended with exudation as a means of ridding the system of superfluous material. The abolition of secretory function implied in the spaying of bitches and castrating of dogs, invariably tends to promote deposition of fat.

The impairment of the vital functions caused by inordinate fatness is indicated by disorder of the respiratory and circulatory system; the breathing becomes panting, short, and asthmatic, more especially during exertion; the circulation embarrassed; the muscular system weak and flabby; the digestive functions deranged; and a condition of the general system induced which most unfavourably influences the course and termination of any disease that may spring up.

Treatment

The treatment consists in giving the animal a due amount of exercise in the open air, and in altering the diet both as to quantity and quality. I would also suggest a trial of the Fucus vesicolosus, a remedy which has been used with good results in human practice. Iodium has acted satisfactorily in my hands.