THE TURNSPIT. 



251 



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cedar-pencil, and applied to every part of the wound that can be reached. In default of the 

 caustic, a hot iron, such as a steel fork, a knitting-needle, a skewer, or any similar household 

 article, may be heated to a glowing redness, and applied in the same manner. The iron should 

 be as hot as possible, for it is efficacious in proportion to its temperature, and is not nearly so 

 painful in application if the heat is sufficiently powerful to destroy the nerves at once. A 

 white-hot iron will not cause nearly so much suffering as if it were applied at a dull red heat. 



Washing the injured part, applying cupping-glasses to the wound, and cutting away the 

 surrounding portions, have been recommended by some writers, but are strongly condemned 

 by men of large practical experience. They say that the water which is used for the purpose 

 of washing away the poisonous substance will only dilute it, and render it more fluid for the 

 blood to take up ; that the application of a cupping-glass will only draw blood into the wound, 

 and so cause the mixture of the poison with the system ; and that in using the knife, the blood 

 which runs from the newly-made incision is apt to overflow into the poisoned locality, and so 

 to convey the venom into the circulation 

 by mixing with the fast-flowing blood as 

 it bathes the enlarged wound. 



There are one or two curious circum- 

 stances connected with this subject. It 

 is said that the disease of Hydrophobia 

 never originates with the female Dog ; 

 and, moreover, that it is most commonly 

 found in the fighting Dogs, and those 

 animals which are kept for the niiV.it 

 destruction of game. In Africa, and sev- 

 eral other hot countries, the malady is 

 unknown, although the animals swarm 

 in very great numbers, and are exposed 

 to the burning sun and the heated atmos- 

 phere, without the least assistance from 

 human aid. 



The time during which this disease 

 may remain latent in the system is 

 extremely variable. Sometimes it be- 

 comes manifest in a few days, while in other cases the virus has produced no tangible effects 

 until the expiration of several months. In one case, however, the disease made its appearance 

 after the seventh month. Mr. Youatt suggests that if every Dog could be kept in separate 

 quarantine for the space of eight months, "the disease might be annihilated in this country 

 (England), and could only appear in consequence of the importation of some infected animal." 

 This opinion, however, will hardly hold its ground, for although all Dogs that are actually 

 infected might be removed by this course of probation, there is no possibility of warranting 

 that the disease might not again originate in some previously healthy individual, as it must 

 have done in the first instance. 



JUST as the invention of the spinning- jenny abolished the use of distaff and wheel, which 

 were formerly the occupants of every well-ordained cottage, so the invention of automaton 

 roasting-jacks has destroyed the occupation of the TURNSPIT DOG, and by degrees has almost 

 annihilated its very existence. Here and there a solitary Turnspit may be seen, just as a 

 spinning-wheel or a distaff may be seen in a few isolated cottages ; but both the Dog and the 

 implement are exceptions to the general rule, and are only worthy of notice as being curious 

 relics of a bygone time. 



In former days, and even within the remembrance of the present generation, the task ot 

 roasting a joint of meat or a fowl was a comparatively serious one, and required the constant 

 attendance of the cook, in order to prevent the meat from being spoiled by the unequal action 

 of the fire. The smoke-jack, as it was rather improperly termed inasmuch as it was turned, 



THE TURNSPIT. Canis familiarie. 



