816 
called distinctively the distemper, and 
canine madness. The former, which, 
Mr. Daniel tells us, ‘is the most fatal 
(the plague only excepted) that any 
xeon subject to,” has been known in 
this country only about forty years ; and 
has become milder and less frequent 
within the last twelve or fifteen. Man 
however has been favoured by its appear- 
ance ; for it is asserted, ‘on the expe- 
rience of those placed in situations least 
likely to hazard a conjecture,” that since 
the distemper has made its havoc among 
the species, canine madness has not been 
so common. Of this latter dreadful 
disorder, and its baleful effects, many 
particulars are given, with a variety of 
medicines recommended by different per- 
sons for its cure. Many of these are 
known to be ineffectual; and in the au- 
thor’s opinion, no antidote for the poison 
yet discovered can be safely relied on. 
But he recommends from his own expe- 
tience a preventive which has been 
known from the time of Pliny, and which 
surely ought to be- enjoined on every 
breeder of dogs by a positive law under 
the sanction of asevere penalty.. On so 
interesting a subject, we deem ourselves 
bound by our duty to the public to tran- 
scribe the passage. 
“The prevention of the direful effects of 
canine madness seems to have been attempt- 
ed in the early ages; to accomplish this, 
Piiny recommends the worming of dogs, and 
from his time to the present, it has most de- 
servedly had its advocates. Very strong proofs 
have been adduced of its utility, nor is itna- 
tural to imagine, so easy and effective an ope, 
ration would have been omitted, had not more 
virtue been attributed to it, than it really pos- 
Sesses, and wherein it failed, the absolute pre- 
vention of madness was said to be the conse- 
quence, whereas the fact was and is, that 
taking out the worm, has nothing to do with 
annihilating the ‘disorder, although it will 
most certainly hinder the dog seized with it, 
from doing any hurt to man or beast. A late 
author asserts he had three dogs that were 
wormed, bit by mad dogs at three se veral pe- 
riods, yet notwithstanding they all died mad, 
they did not bite nor do any mischief; that 
being determined to make a full experiment, 
he shut one of the mad dogs up in a kennel, 
and put to him, a dog he did not value : the 
mad dog ofien run at the other to bite him, 
but his ongite was so sw elled, that he could 
not make his teeth mect; the dog was kept 
in the kennel until the mad one died, and was 
purposely preserved for two years afterwards, 
to note the effect, but he never*ailed any 
thing, although no remedies were applied to 
check any infection that might have been 
received from the contact of the mad dog. 
‘© The compiler has had various opportuni- 
ties of proving the usefulness of worming, 
7 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
and inserts three of the most striking instan- 
ces, under the hope of inducing its general 
practice. 
** A terrier bitch went mad that was ke 
in the kennel with forty couple of hounds, 
not a single hound was bitten, nor was she 
seen to offer to bite. The bitch being of a 
peculiar sort, every attention was paid to her, 
and the gradations of the disease (which 
were extremely rapid) minutely noted, the 
hydrophobia was fast approaching before she 
was separated from the hounds, and she died 
the second day after ; at first warm milk was 
see before her, which she attempted to 
ap, but the throat refused its functions ; from 
this period she never tried to eat or drink, 
seldom rose up, or even moved, the tongue 
swelled very much, and long before her death, 
the jaws were distended by it. 
«« A spaniel was observed to be seized by a 
strange dog, and was bit in the lip, the ser- 
vant who ran up to part them, narrowly 
escaped, as the dog twice flew at him; a few 
minuies after the dog had quitted the yard, the 
Feople who had pursued gave notice of the 
og’s madness, who had made terrible havock 
in a course of ten miles from whence he had 
set off. The spaniel was a great favourite, 
had medicine applied, and every precaution 
taken ; upon the fourteenth day he appeared 
to loath his food, and his eyes looked unu- 
sually heavy, the day following he endeavour- 
ed to lap milk, but could swallow none ; from 
that time the tongue began to sweil, he 
moved himself but seldom, and on the third 
day he died; for many hours preyious to his 
death, the tongue was so enlarged, that the 
fangs or canine teeth, could not meet each 
other by upwards of an inch. 
** The hounds were some years after parted 
with, and were sold in lots, a madness broke 
out in the kennel of the gentleman who pur- 
chased many of them, and although several 
of these hounds were bitten and went mad, 
only one of them ever attempted to bite, and 
that was a hound from the Duke of Port- 
land's, who in the operation of worming had 
the worm broke by his struggling, and was so 
troublesome that one half of it was suffered to 
remain ; the others all died with symptoms 
similar to the terrier and the spaniel, viz.+ 
a violent swelling of the tongue, and a stupor 
rendering them nearly motionless, and both 
which symptoms seemed to increase with the 
disease. 
*« The idea that worming preventsadog from 
receiving the infection when bitten should he 
explodéd ; but the foregoing facts shew how 
far it may be recommended for the restriction 
ofa malady horrid in its effects where a human 
being is concerned, and which to the sports- 
ian and the farmer, is attended with such 
dangerous and expensive consequences.”” 
The account concludes with anece 
dotes of fox-hounds and fox-hnnters. 
The following, we believe, are news 
and will be generally entertaining. . 
«« The speed of the fox-hound was well as- 
certained by the trial at Newmarket, betwixt 
4 
