FIELD-SPORTS. 



on salt provisions.' The same authority gives 

 several recipes of medicine to be employed ; the 

 leading are powdered sulphur, four ounces ; 

 muriate of ammonia (sal-ammoniac) powdered, 

 half an ounce ; aloes powdered, one drachm ; 

 Venice turpentine, half an ounce ; lard or other 

 fatty matter, six ounces : the whole to be mixed 

 and administered in boluses. In all bad cases, 

 however, we should recommend no one to attempt 

 doctoring his dog, but to apply to a regular 

 practitioner. 



Distemper. This disease is most common 

 among dogs which are much kept in the house and 

 subjected to artificial treatment The disorder is 

 epidemical, affects the constitution, and is very 

 difficult of removal. It is now considered to be 

 typhus fever, and should be treated on the same 

 principles as that disease in the human subject. 

 The chief symptoms of distemper in a young dog 

 are sudden loss of activity and appetite, emacia- 

 tion, and excessive weakness. James's powder is 

 recommended as the most likely remedy. A tea- 

 spoonful of sulphur given weekly in milk, from the 

 age of three to twelve months, has been found to 

 render the disease very mild. To aid recovery, 

 nourishing diet should be given. In cases of 

 severity, consult the veterinary surgeon. 



Rabies, or canine madness, is the most fatal 

 malady to which dogs are subject (for which, in 

 1884, Pasteur proposed to inoculate with enfeebled 

 germs a milder preventive disease). Rabies is 

 never produced spontaneously in dogs or any 

 other animals, but is invariably the effect of 

 inoculation by a bite from a dog already mad. 

 Rabies is little known in hot or cold countries ; it 

 is common chiefly in temperate regions, and 

 contrary to popular belief is not more prevalent 

 at one time of the year than another. 



The leading symptom of the rabid state is an 

 apparent discomfort and unsettledness of purpose, 

 with a desire to gnaw and eat anything within 

 reach, as straw, wood, coal, or any other rubbish ; 

 as the disease advances, the animal snaps and 

 bites at everybody or any animal near it This 

 is, however, no effect of bad temper ; the dog has 

 no wish to go out of his way to bite ; he is under 

 the influence of a derangement which makes him 

 catch only at what is near. Like the unnatural 

 appetite he possesses, the snapping propensity 

 may also partly arise from the irritated state ol 

 the stomach and intestines, both of which are 

 greatly inflamed. The throat is likewise livid, 

 and by a constriction of parts, soon prevents the 

 animal from swallowing. Hydrophobia is the 

 name of a human disease produced by the bite of 

 a dog affected with rabies. In it the dread of 

 water is the most marked symptom, whilst in rabies 

 there is a decided desire for water. In the later 

 stages of rabies, paralysis ensues, and from the 

 fourth to the seventh day the dog expires. It u 

 humanity to shoot the animal before this final 

 catastrophe. 



Grave doubts have been raised whether the 

 bite of mad dogs does really affect the human 

 species with hydrophobia. It seems, however, 

 to be established that, although the majority of 

 persons bitten escape the disease without taking 

 any precaution, yet a large proportion become 

 victims. The disease does not manifest itself till 

 after a period of incubation varying from six weeks 

 to eighteen months. Early excision of the bitten 



part is the only sure preventive Even when the 

 operation has been omitted at first, it is advisable 

 to have recourse- to it later, so long as the poison 

 continues latent When the peculiar symptoms 

 once begin to manifest themselves, all remedies 

 seem to be unavailing ; there is no well authenti- 

 cated case of recovery on record. The most dis- 

 tressing symptoms, however, may be alleviated by 

 chloroform, opiates, &c. 



FIELD-SPORTS. 



In such sports, the true English gentleman 

 prides himself on avoiding every proceeding 

 which can give unnecessary pain to the animals, 

 and on discountenancing such odious abuses of 

 sport as baiting, worrying at the stake, and any 

 other method of protracting the death of the 

 objects of the chase. Our limited space will per- 

 mit us to notice only the leading field-sports of 

 Britain in past and present times. 



FALCONRY. 



Falconry was the favourite field-sport of the 

 middle ages, as shooting with the gun is of the 

 present day. It appears, in this country, to 

 have declined and gone out of use in the 

 seventeenth century, in consequence of the gun 

 having then become, by the addition of the lock 

 and flint, a much more ready means of bringing 

 down game than hawks had ever been. Falconry 

 was the peculiar sport of kings, and princes, 

 and nobles, many of whom were painted in life 

 with their hawks seated on the wrist, and were 

 sculptured on their tombs after death with the 

 same creature placed at their feet 



DEER-HUNTING. 



Deer-hunting was another principal amusement 

 of past times, but has now been abandoned in the 

 form in which it used to be conducted. The 

 species of deer chiefly hunted in England was 

 the fallow-deer, a beautiful creature with stately 

 horns and antlers, and of great speed in running. 

 Fallow-deer are now closed up in parks, at least 

 in Britain. The stag, red-deer, or hart, whose 

 female is called the hind, differs in size and in 

 horns from the fallow-deer. He is much larger, 

 and his horns are round, whereas in the fallow 

 species they are broad and palmated. 



Deer-stalking is a sport requiring a vast deal 

 of tact, knowledge of the animal's habits, and 

 patience, as whole days are occasionally taken 

 up in stealthily watching an opportunity for a shot 

 Such is their power of sight, scent, and hearing, 

 that to approach unpcrceived on a plain is im- 

 possible. They must be approached from down 

 the wind, and from behind thickets or hillocks. 

 A telescope is required in these difficult ma- 

 noeuvres. When it is impracticable to reach them 

 in this artful manner, attendants drive them into 

 gorges among the mountains, and the sportsman 

 singles out an object for his rifle as it passes his 

 concealed station. 



FOX-HUNTING. 



The variety of fox most common in Britain is 

 called the cur fox. It is brown, with generally 



