DISTEMPER AND MANGE 53 



the door of the lodging-room is left open in the day, and they are only shut 

 up at night : being out in the air, is of great service to them. To such as 

 are very bad, I give Norris's drops ; to others, emetics ; while some only 

 require to be better fed than ordinary, and need no other remedy. 1 They 

 should be fed from the kitchen, when they refuse the kennel meat. Some- 

 times they will lose the use of their hinder parts : bleeding them, by cutting 

 off the last joint of the tail, may perhaps be of service to them. I cannot 

 speak of it with any certainty ; yet I have reason to think that I once saved 

 a favourite dog by this operation. In short, by one method or another, I 

 think they may sometimes be recovered. 



The likeliest preservative for those that are well, is keeping them warm 

 at night, and feeding them high. This disorder being probably infectious, 

 it is better to provide an hospital for such as are seized with it, which should 

 be in the back part of the kennel. There is no doubt that some kennels are 

 healthier than others, and consequently less liable to it. I apprehend mine 

 to be one of those ; for, in a dozen years, I do not believe that I have lost 

 half that number of old hounds, although I lose so great a number of whelps 

 at their -walks. Neighbouring kennels have not been equally fortunate ; 

 I have observed in some of them a disorder unknown in mine ; I mean a 

 swelling in the side, which sometimes breaks, but soon after forms again, and 

 generally proves fatal at last. I once heard a friend of mine say, whose 

 kennel is subject to this complaint, that he never knew but one instance of a 

 dog that recovered from it. I have, however, since known another, in a 

 dog that I had from him, which I cured by frequently rubbing with a diges- 

 tive ointment : the tumour broke and formed again several times, till at 

 last it entirely disappeared. The disorder that we have now been treating of 

 has this, I think, in common with the putrid sore throat, that it usually 

 attacks the weakest. Women are more apt to catch the sore throat than 

 men ; children than women ; and young hounds more readily catch this 

 disorder than old. When it seizes whelps at their walks, or young hounds 

 when first taken from them, it is then most dangerous. I also think that 

 madness, their inflammatory fever, is less frequent than it was before this 

 disorder was known. 



There are few'disorders to which dogs are so subject as the mange. Air 

 and exercise, wholesome food, and cleanliness, are the best preservatives 

 against it. Your feeder should be particularly attentive to it ; and when he 

 perceives any spot upon them, let him rub it with the following mixture : 



A pint of train oil, 



Three quarters of a pint of turpentine, 

 Three quarters of a pound of sulphur, 

 Two ounces of sulphur vivus, 



Mixed well together, and kept in a bottle. 



1 Hounds that have the distemper upon them have but little appetite. By feeding two 

 or three together, they eat more greedily. 



