How Animals Doctor Themselves

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 28, 1907

How Animals Doctor Themselves

MANY animals doctor themselves, and among our domestic animals the dog and cat probably claim first place. Both at times eat medicine plants as emetics, the dog selecting spear grass and the cat showing a preference for valerian and cat mint. They vary their treatment with an occasional dose of ashes and cinders, just as the crocodile, lizard, and some birds swallow gravel and stones to counteract a fit of indigestion. Both practise personal cleanliness as a preventive, and their unfailing habit of licking bruises, cuts, and wounds to keep them in the condition most favorable to healing is a familiar characteristic. The elephant uses his trunk cleverly in dressing wounds and by this means applies water, mud, or dust to the injury.—Selected.