BLOOD-HOUND. 



BLOOD-HOUND. 



The arterial blood was taken from the carotids, and the venous from 

 the jugulars. 



Iii a medical point of view the composition of venous blood is the 

 most interesting, because it is from the veins that blood is almost 

 always taken in disease, and because venous blood can naturally 

 only be compared with venous blood for the purpose of ascer- 

 taining any deviations that may occur. The following table repre- 

 sents the mean composition of human venous blood without reference 

 to sex : 



Water 795-278 



Solid Constituents . . . . . 204-022 



Fibrin 2'104 



Fat 2-346 



Albumen 76-660 



Globulin 103-022 



Hsematin 6-209 



Extractive Matters and Salts . . . 12'012 

 100 parts of blood-corpuscles contain 57 of hsematin. 

 Hence the blood contains about 20 per cent, of solid constituents, 

 much more than 0'2 per cent, of fibrin, and about an equal quantity 

 of fat ; the blood-corpuscles considerably exceed the albumen in 

 quantity, and contain about 5 or 6 per cent, of colouring matter. 



The blood undergoes various modifications in different forms of 

 disease. The extent of these variations is obvious from the 

 following table, drawn up from Simon's ' Animal Chemistry,' vol. i., 

 p. 246. 



The Water may vary from . 

 The Solid Residue 

 The Fibrin 



The Fat . 



The Albumen 



The Globulin 



The Haematin 



The Extractive Matters and Salts 

 The following synopsis will give an idea of the distribution of the 

 constituents of the blood. 



Water 790-37 



Albumen 67'80 



Oxygen .... 

 Nitrogen .... 

 Carbonic Acid . . 

 Extractive Matter 

 Fatty Matter . . j 



Salts 



Colouring Matter 



Fibrin 2-951 



H;cmatin . 2'27 1 



915-0 to 725-0 

 275-0 to 85-0 

 10-3 to a trace. 

 4-3 to 0-7 

 131-0 to 

 106-6 to 

 8-7 to 

 16-5 to 



55-1 



30-8 



1-4 



7-6 



10-98 



Serum 869'1 5 



CUHUUMU1 " I m J 1 i n-r *-v/. 



Globulin . 125 . 6 3J Blood corpuscles 127'90_ 



. Clot 130-85 



1000-00 1000-00 



It will be seen from the previous account that the blood is one of 

 the most important constituents of the body. It is in fact the prime 

 source of life, and is the great medium through which the constituents 

 of the body pass in their way from the vegetable and mineral kingdoms 

 to become part and parcel of the tissues of the body. The food is 

 taken up from the intestines [FOOD] by the lacteals, and is converted 

 into blood before it is appropriated in" the tissues of the body. The 

 correspondence between the flesh or tissues of the body and the blood 

 may be keen in the following statement of the ultimate composition of 

 the two. 



Carbon 

 Hydrogen 

 Nitrogen . 

 Oxygen 

 Ash . 



Flesh. 

 51-86 



7-58 

 15-03 

 21-30 



4-23 



Blood. 

 51-96 



7-25 

 15-07 

 21-30 



4-42 



The blood is not only the source whence the tissues are supplied 

 with the fresh materials for their growth, but it is the means by 

 which effete matters are thrown off from the system. The con- 

 stituents of the bile, the urine, the perspiration, the expired air from 

 the lungs, are all found in the blood, and separated from it by the 

 liver, kidneys, skin, and lungs. The changes involved in the formation 

 of these excretions are some of them important to life, as that of 

 carbonic acid gas during respiration [RESPIRATION], which is attended 

 with the development of animal heat. 



Any interruption or impediment to the performance of the functions 

 of the blood is attended with disease. This has long been suspected, 

 but it is only since the employment of the microscope and chemical 

 mialysin that any advance has been made in studying the relation of 

 abnormal conditions of the blood to particular diseases of the body. 



(Hunter, On the Blood ; Sharpey, Quain'a Anatomy, vol. i. ; Simon, 



Animal Chemistry, translated by Day ; Milne-Edwards, article 'Blood,' 



I'rpcedia of Anatomy and Physiology ; Lehmann, Physiological 



Chemistry, translated by Day; Liebig, Animal Chemistry ; Carpenter, 



It ' a n"i >t. Pkwioloffy . 



BLOOD-HOUND, the name of a hound celebrated for its exquisite 

 cent and unwearied perseverance, qualities which were taken advan- 

 tage of, by training it not only to the pursuit of game, but to the 



chase of man. A true Blood-Hound (and the pure blood is rare) 

 stands about 28 inches in height, muscular, compact, and strong; 

 the forehead is broad, and the face narrow towards the muzzle ; the 

 nostrils are wide and well developed ; the ears are large, pendulous, 

 aud broad at the base ; the aspect is serene and sagacious ; the tail is 

 long, with an upward curve when in pursuit, at which time the 

 hound opens with a voice deep and sonorous, that may be heard 

 down the wind for a very long distance. 



The colour of the true breed is stated to be almost invariably a 

 reddish-tan, darkening gradually towards the upper parts till it 

 becomes mixed with black on the back ; the lower parts, limbs, and 

 tail being of a lighter shade, and the muzzle tawny. Pennant adds, 

 " a black spot over each eye," but the blood-hounds in the possession 

 of Thomas Astle, Esq. (and they were said to have been of the 

 original blood) had not these marks. Some, but such instances were 

 not common, had a little white about them, such as a star in the 

 face, &c. The better opinion is, that the original stock was a mixture 

 of the deep-mouthed southern hound, and the powerful old English 

 stag-hound. 



Gervase Markhaui, in his ' Maison Rustique," speaking of hounds, 

 says : " The baie-coloured ones have the second place for goodnesse, 

 and are of great courage, ventring far, and of a quicke scent, finding 



out very well the turnes and windings they runne surely, 



and with great boldnesse, commonly loving the stagge more than any 

 other beast, but they make no account of hares. It is true, that 

 they be more head-strong and harde to reclaime than the white, and 

 put men to more" paine and travaill about the same. The best of the 

 fallow sort of dogges are those which are of a brighter haire, drawing 

 more unto the colour of red, and having therewithal! a white spot 

 in the forehead, or in the necke, in like manner those which are all 

 fallow : but such as incline to a light yellow colour, being graie or 

 blacke spotted, are nothing worth : such as are trussed up and have 

 dewclawes, are good to make bloud-hounds." 



Our ancestors soon discovered the infallibility of the Blood-Hound 

 in tracing any animal, living or dead, to its resting place. To train 

 it the young dog acccompanied by a staunch old hound was led to 

 the spot whence a deer or other animal had been taken on for a mile 

 or two ; the hounds were then laid on and encouraged, aud after 

 hunting this ' drag' successfully, were rewarded with a portion of 

 the venison which composed it. The next step was to take the 

 young dog, with his seasoned tutor, to a spot whence a man whose 

 shoes had been rubbed with the blood of a deer had started on a 

 circuit of two or three miles : during his progress the man was 

 instructed to renew the blood from time to tune, to keep the scent 

 well alive. His circuit was gradually enlarged at each succeeding 

 lesson, and the young hound, thus entered and trained, became at 

 last fully equal to hunt by itself, either for the purposes of wood- 

 craft, war, or ' following gear,' as the pursuit after the property 

 plundered in a border foray was termed. Indeed, the name of this 

 variety of Canis domesticus, to which l.iumcus applied the name of 

 iaga.t, cannot be mentioned without calling up visions of feudal 

 castles with their train of knights and warders, and all the stirring 

 events of those old times when the best tenure was that of the 

 strong hand. 



Sir Walter Scott gives a striking reality to the scene, when he 

 makes the moss-trooper, William of Deloraine, who had " bafHed 

 Percy's best blood-hounds," allude to the pleasure of the chace, 

 though he himself was the object of pursuit, in pronouncing his 

 eulogy over Richard Musgrave. 



In the same ' Lay of the Last Minstrel ' there is one of the best) 

 poetical descriptions of the blood-hound in action, if not the best; for 

 though Somerville's lines may enter more into detail, they want the vivid 

 animation of the images brought absolutely under the eye by the 

 power of Scott, where the "noble child," the heir of Brauksome, is 

 left alone in his terror. 



Indeed this feudal dog is frequently introduced by our poet, from 

 his ballads, where Smaylho'me's Lady gay, wooing the Phantom 

 Knight to come to her bower, in the ' Eve of St. John,' tells the 

 spectre that she will " chain the blood-hound," down to that grand 

 moonlight scene in the * Legend of Moutrose,' where Dalgetty and 

 Ranald of the Mist are traced to their wood-girt retreat after their 

 escape from Argyle's dungeons. 



The pursuit of border forayers was called the 'hot-trod.' The 

 'harried' party and his friends followed the marauders with blood- 

 hound and bugle-horn, and if his dog could trace the scent into the 

 opposite kingdom he was entitled to pursue them thither. 



Sir Walter Scott states that the breed was kept up by the Buccleuch 

 family on their border estates till within the 18th century, and 

 records the following narrative : " A person was alive in the memory 

 of man who remembered a blood-hound being kept at Eldinhope, in 

 Ettricke Forest, for whose maintenance the tenant had an allowance 

 of meal. At that time the sheep were always watched at night. 

 Upon one occasion, when the duty had fallen upon the narrator, then 

 a lad, he became exhausted with fatigue, and fell asleep upon a bank, 

 near sun-rising. Suddenly he was awakened by the tread of horses, 

 and saw five men well mounted and armed ride briskly over the edge 

 of the hill. They stopped and looked at the flock ; but the day 

 was too far broken to admit the chance of their carrying any of 



