American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-05-18
Cats and their Belongings.


is not found at all, nor in all Faderland
do cats ever become favorites. We know
not why, but cats are rigidly excluded
from Turkish and Egyptian harems. In
Asia Minor they become Arabs in their
rowing habits, and are prosecuted like
dogs in Constantinople. Who of the
thousands of travellers across the 1sthmus
to Panama ever came across a household
cat In Boothamabeen, the East India
Company's island at the southern termi-
nation of the Red Sea, where warehouses
and dwellings are overrun by rats, all at
tempts to introduce cats have been per-
sistently resisted by native workmen.
They say that cats hair contracts and
communicates the plague, that she sucks
the breath of young children, that she is
more liable to rabies than dogs, and that
her vail is the precursor of bad luck.
The same superstition extends to Bonn
bay No native nurse will permit a cat
to enter the children's apartments or purr
about the lounges or cradles. Tabby is
instantly sent about her business-that
business being the pursuit of rats and
mice-the moment she shows her nose out
of the kitchen.
In Spain cats are treated barbarously.
Their ears and tails are cut off in kitten
hood. This custom is universal. There
not pussy-cat in all the dominions of the
dethrOned Isabella that retains her silken
cartilage of hearing, or her expressive
caudal appendage. The excelsior, it is
certain, is not done out of cruelty, be-
cause cats are domestic favorites with old
Castilians-nor from any known supersti-
tons, for the ecclesiastics encourage their
presence in churches, and lady devotees
take them in their muffs to the confession
al. Some benefit is doubtless thought to
come of it, but the traveller knows not
what. Spaniards clip the hair, also, from
mules and donkeys. fyou press the reason
why in either case, the answer is the
same, C0sd de Espdna, 1t is the custom in
Spain.
Button long ago wrote learnedly on the
natural history of cats. Culver followed
him. They both ended where they began.
Who were the cats first parents, or whence
as it was to Aristotle. The old Greeks
knew and loved cats as domestic favor
ties. Ancient Egyptians carved them on
monolyths, incorporated them IN hero
glyphics, and embalmed their bodies in
sarcophagi. Roman poets chanted their
praises. And the tin seeking Ph@nicians
introduced them into England. If they
came originally from the wild cat, the
feat of tanning must date back to all ira
ditional history. 1t is often puzzle with
naturalists to decide whether certain ami
same genus, or are only varieties of tho
same species. The cat has been the bette
NOR of scientific schools. Angoran cats
with their long and silky fur, Persian
cats with their shy manners, Chinese cats
with their peculiar NEW, and Japanese |
cats, the lap-dogs of Acknowledged ladies, |
that consort with but never modest rats |
and mice, have alliance, near or remote,
with our household favorite. But wild |
cats never. Beyond the structure of the |
l. csrr Nf l..
pussy is related to the panther as man |
to the orang-outang. No nearer. Allud-
ing to the foot, where the nails admit of |
being drawn back into a soft pad and
thrust out when needed, enabling the |
possessor to pass the hardest and most
uneven surfaces noiselessly toward its
prey, and always keeping the nails sharp
has any one observed that the convex
part of these nails is horny and the con-
growth. The under continually peels
away. The upper grows. "Tom," more
giving to clawpractice than rafting or
was deprived of his nails. The
scissors did the same service for him they
lid for the children, and with no greater
pain. Two discoveries ensued: Toms
nails grew rapidly-that was ours; his
,eeth became substitutes for absent claws
that was his; and the experiment was
lot repeated.
The smelling power of all the cat tribe
S inferior to that of dogs. The odor-
perception is wanting. The power of
'cent, which is SO remarkable in dogs,
eats do not possess. The former scent
heir prey, the latter see it. The hound
speeds along with nostrils near the earth.
The ounce, tiger, and leopard lie in wait
Hence comes natures compensation.
The eye of the dog is round of the cat
fol TIrn eli |
after, where the pupil contracts to a
mere line in the sunshine and expands to
in the shade, shows the
widest possible difference to the oval pu-
Ill of the former, which neither intense
light nor absolute darkness varies. The
common opinion that cats can see in the
lark has foundation in truth Not that
ny animal can see in absolute darkness.
some little light there must be- But that
he pupil of the feline eye, contracted to
line in the glare of sunshine, expands
8 the darkness increases is certain. 1t (
rows with decrease of light The FAINT
st ray is absorbed by continually in
reasing the capacity of the organ that
eeds it. Indeed, the pupil of cats eye
J so perceptive of variations in the in
snsity of light-contracts SO regularly
p to mid day, and expands SO regularly j
fter meridian-that a boatman on the
'hinese rivers will tell you what the time !
f day is by looking into cats eyes. !
IL is common notion that the whiskers ;
f the cat tribe are smellers, and the tale | I
asses current that if the whiskers of a r
at be cut off she will no longer continue
} be good mouser. The latter assertion ,
J indeed partially correct, but it depends I
! no degree upon any loss of the power |
smell. The fact is, that the whiskers 5
a cat are feeling, not a smelling, APP |
aratus. Most animals possess some c
ictile organ specially adapted to the {
snse of feeling, and upon which the t
erves of common sensation are mostly I
attributed. Thus, in human beings it is I
ne tips OF the fingers which have this t
re eminence, being exceeded as organs @
delicate tactile sensation only BY the I
'ngue. Everybody knows that when t
he sense of touch is to be brought to bear
/ the highest possible degree, the tip of h
ie tongue is the tactile organ chosen. n
Ow, a cats nerves of tactile sensation i
re for the most part distributed On either /
de of the cheek, so that the base of each i
hisker is planted in the very midst of S
he nerves. Hence if the whisker be f
'uched at one extremity, it conveys the i
ctile impression to the nerves at the |,
her. OF course the whiskers of a cat "
ay be cut off without infiicting pain 1t v
simply cutting hair. Moreover, con "
airy to general notion, other whiskers a
e soon produced. During their absence "
mlnution of tactile power, as if ones h
1gers were encased in cots, is the only f
suit. d
Though the smelling power of cats be "a
IS than that of dogs, they have never d
pIpcs CT o1fo poryao :,