Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1872-05-16
Cats and their Belongings.

Cats and their Belongings.
In parts of Germany our domestic cat
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 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 wall 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 a pussy-cat in all the dominions of the
dethroned Isabella that retains her silken
cartilage of hearing, or her expressive
caudal appendage. The excision, it is
certain, is not done out of cruelty, be-
cause cats are domestic favorites with old
Castilians-nor from any known supersti-
tions, 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, CosG de EspG1aa, 1t is the custom in
Spain.
Button long ago wrote learnedly on the
natural history of cats. Cuvier followed
him. They both ended where they began.
Who were the cats first parents, or whence
the cat came, is as great mystery to US
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 Ph9nicians
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 a puzzle with
naturalists to decide whether certain ami
mails constitute different species of the
same genus, or are only varieties of the
same species. The cat has been the bette
mn Of schools otc
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 almond-eyed ladies,
that consort with but never molest rats
and mice, have alliance, near or remote,
with our household favorite. But wild
cats never. Beyond the structure of the
foot there is no sign of kinship. Poor
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 soft pad and
thrust out when needed, enabling the
possessor to pass the hardest and most
uneven surfaces noiselessly toward it's
prey, and always keeping the nails sharp
has any one observed that the convex
part of these nails is horny and the con-
cave part soft ? 1t is the principle of
growth. The under continually peels
away. The upper grows. ''Tom," more
giving to claw practice than rafting or
mousing, was deprived of his nails. The
did for the children, and with no greater
pain. Two discoveries ensued: Toms
nails grew rapidly-that was ours; his
teeth became substitutes for absent claws
that was his; and the experiment was
not repeated.
The smelling power of all the cat tribe
is inferior to that of dogs. The odor-
perception is wanting The power of
scent, which is so remarkable In dogs,
cats do not possess. The former scent
their 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
horizontal. The slit-like form of the
latter, where the pupil contracts to
mere line in the sunshine and expands to
almond-shape in the shade, shows the
widest possible difference to the oval pu-
Pill OF the former, which neither intense
light nor absolute darkness varies. The
common opinion that cats can see in the
dark has foundation in truth. Not that
any animal can see in absolute darkness.
ooh1O ho1lO nuSG Ut. DuG UudG
the pupil of the feline eye, contracted to
line in the glare of sunshine, expands
as the darkness increases is certain. 1t
grows with decrease of light The faint
est ray is absorbed by continually in
creasing the capacity of the organ that
needs it. Indeed, the pupil of cats eye
is so perceptive of variations in the in
tensity of light-contracts so regularly
up to mid day, and expands so regularly
after meridian-that a boatman on the
Chinese rivers will tell you what the time
of day is by looking into cats eyes.
1t is common notion that the whiskers
OF the cat tribe are smellers, and the tale
passes current that if the whiskers of
cat be cut off she will no longer continue
to be good mouser. The latter assertion
is indeed partially correct, but it depends
IN no degree upon any loss of the power
OF smell. The fact is, that the whiskers
OF cat are feeling, not smelling, ap-
paratus. Most animals possess some
tactile organ specially adapted to the
| sense OF feeling, and upon which the
nerves of common sensation are mostly
distributed. Thus, in human beings it is
the tips of the fingers which have this
pre-eminence, being exceeded as organs
of delicate tactile sensation only by the
tongue. Everybody knows that when
the sense of touch is to be brought to bear
in the highest possible degree, the tip of
the tongue is the tactile organ chosen.
Now, cats nerves of tactile sensation
are for the most part distributed on either
side of the cheek, so that the base of each
whisker is planted in the very midst of
the nerves. Hence if the whisker be
touched at one extremity, it conveys the
tactile impression to the nerves at the
other. Of course the whiskers of a cat
may be cut off without inf1icting pain. 1t
is simply cutting hair. Moreover, con-
trary to general notion, othel whiskers
are soon produced. During their absence
diminution of tactile power, as if ones
fingers were encased in cots, is the only
result.
Though the smelling power of cats be
less than that of dogs, they have never
theless strong olfactory nerves. THERE'S
plant, more common in Europe than