178 FACT AGAINST FICTIOll. 



symptom of approaclimg death ? Even stryclmine, 

 in its deadly effects, miglit give time for an im- 

 mediate vomit ; yet in no case of poisoning have I 

 ever had it brought to my knowledge that a homid 

 or dog of any kind ever had recourse to tliis action 

 of the stomach to save his life. 



When mv bloodhound ^' Druid " was in the latter 

 years of his extraordinary and gifted life, to attemj^t 

 to give him physic, unless he chose to eat it with his 

 food, which he would sometimes condescend to do, 

 was to entail more exhaustion on him, through his 

 enormous exertions to resist the administration of 

 medicine, than to leave him to struggle through the 

 ailment, by the strength of his constitution, as best 

 he might. To dress a cut on his foot, or the bite of 

 an adder on his sweeping hips, was impossible to 

 anybody but me, and even then I could only 

 succeed in it just so long as it jileased Druid to 

 submit. The first time that he had an injured 

 foot, he was not aware of the nature of a muzzle, 

 and therefore he at once permitted me to fasten it 

 on. After that one occasion the very sight of a 

 muzzle displeased him, and to attempt to approach 

 him with it was to enter into deadly strife. In 

 the hot summers, the liottest days of July and 



