ON DISTEMPEll AND MADNESS AMONG HOUNDS. 123 



exists for introcliicing a little dangerous learn- 

 ing' among- the lower classes, while '^ education," 

 if it is to be called so, has already increased the 

 list of the most revolting and serious crimes, as a 

 reference to the police statistics will most unmis- 

 takably show. 



When my kennel of greyhounds at Beacon Lodge 

 was suffering from the worst and most fatal attack 

 of distemper madness I ever saw, that did not pre- 

 vent me from close and personal attendance ; the 

 young greyhounds were all mad, as mad as com- 

 plete aberration of intellect could make them, and 

 not only exchanged snappish hites with each other, 

 but they bit at anything tliat came near them, or 

 the wood-work of their kennel, if they staggered 

 into sudden contact with it. 



Well knowing what their ailment was — contagious 

 onadness, or hydrophobia, from their teeth, I knew 

 to be out of the question — I ordered such remedies 

 as I deemed necessary to be given to them by 

 my servant, and stood by w^ith a pitchfork in my 

 hand, the prong of which, on cither side of the 

 poor insane neck, afforded a sufficient shield to 

 keep them off, or if forced to use it, to prevent 

 more serious attacks, a necessity not likely to 



