Juniata Sentinel And Republican

Animals Understand Hygiene.

Enough is now known of the nature of animal materia medica to excite interest and curiosity. There is abundant evidence that many species know and constantly make use of simple remedies for definite disorders, and at the same time observe rules of health to which only the highest civilization or the sanction of religious prescription compels man to conform.

It has been noted that the general condition of animal health, especially in the case of the herbivorous creatures, corresponds not inexactly with that of such tribes as the Somalis, men feeding almost solely on grain, milk, dates and water, living constantly in the open air, moderate in all things and cleanly, because their religion enjoins constant ablutions.

Like them, wild animals have no induced diseases. The greater number do not eat to excess. They take regular exercise in seeking their food and drink only at fixed hours. Many of them secure change of climate, one of the greatest factors in health, by migration.

This is not confined to birds and beasts, for the salmon enters the soft water partly to get rid of sea parasites and returns to the sea to recruit after spawning. With change of climate, change of diet and perfectly healthy habits their list of disorders is short though they readily fall victims to contagious disease just as recently numbers of the Hamran Arabs of the Sudan, as healthy livers and good Mussulmans as the Somalis themselves, friends and fellow hunters with Sir Samuel Baker, perished of contagious fever on the banks of the Nile tributaries.-London Spectator.