The cat, a guide to the classification and varieties of cats and a short tratise upon their care, diseases, and treatment (1895) (14577841929)

Identifier: catguidetoclassi00huid2 (find matches)
Title: The cat, a guide to the classification and varieties of cats and a short tratise upon their care, diseases, and treatment
Year: 1895 (1890s)
Authors: Huidekoper, Rush Shippen, 1854-1901
Subjects: Cats
Publisher: New York : D. Appleton and company
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN



Text Appearing Before Image:
g; which allows of the man-gling of any solid food which may be taken,while it does not permit of grinding it, as isnecessary in the herbivorous animals, or even,to a certain extent, in the omnivorous animals.The cat, like the dog, after having once graspedits food, tears it to a certain degree, and thenswallows it whole, Avlien its powerful stomachand organs of digestion allow of the rapid dis-integration of what it may have swallowed. The muzzle of the cat is soft, with long coarsehairs, ordinarily called the whiskers (vibris-sa), which are really organs of touch. These,like the hairs on the end of a horses muzzle,or those of most of the domestic animals, aredeeply imbedded in the skin, touching at theirroots sensory nerves, which indicate to the ani- ANATOMY 27 mal, when nosing over foreign objects or whenfeeling its way in the dark, that its head iscoming in contact with foreign bodies; andthey are really organs of self-protection. Theseare seen represented in Fignre 5, which also
Text Appearing After Image:
W^pfjp?^ Fig. 5.—Muzzle of Cat, Showing above, Nose-point AND Nostrils covered with Dense MucousMembrane ; at Sides, Vibriss.e ; and below, the LipsAND Chin. represents the lips—the upper and lower lip —the nostrils, and the point of the nose. Andit will be understood in the description of thevarious cats in the latter part of this book thatwhen the nose is spoken of as being black orpink, it is meant lo indicate that this col-oration applies to the mucous membrane sur- 28 THE CAT rounding the nostrils, as is seen in t-lie figure,represented by the two dark orifices of thenostrils, suriouiided by the grayish hook-linesturning in opposite directions. The pads of the feet of the cat consist ofl)nlbs of a fibro-elastic, fatty material, coveredby an excessively thick and dense epithelial