OBSERVATIONS ON MADNESS 101 



Instinct directs dogs, when the stomach is out of order, 

 to be their own physician ; and it is to their example 

 that we owe our knowledge how to relieve it. It may 

 appear foreign to our present purpose ; yet as it is 

 much (if true) to the honour of animals in general, I 

 must beg leave to add what a French author tells us — 

 that also by the hippopotamus we are instructed how 

 to bleed, and by the crane how to give a clyster. I 

 have already declared my disapprobation of bleeding 

 hounds, unless they absolutely want it : when they 

 refuse their food, from having been over-worked ; or 

 when they have taken a chill, to which they are very 

 subject ; then the loss of a little blood may be of use 

 to recover them. Sick hounds will recover sooner if 

 suffered to run about the house, than if they be con- 

 fined in the kennel. 



Madness, thou dreadful malady, what shall I say 

 to thee ; or what preservative shall I find against thy 

 envenomed fang ! Somerville, who declines writing 

 of lesser ills, is not silent on the subject of this. 



Of lesser ills the muse declines to sing, 



Nor stoops so low ; of these each groom can tell 



The proper remedy. 



I wish this worthy gentleman, to whom we have 

 already been so much obliged, had been less sparing 

 of his instructions ; since it is possible that grooms 

 may not have all the knowledge he supposes them to 

 have, and their masters may stand in need of it. No 

 man, I believe, will complain of being too well in- 

 formed ; nor is any knowledge unnecessary which is 

 likely to be put in practice. The executive part is 



