128 Random RkcoIvLKCtions of the 



In earlier days mange amongst foxes was 

 practically unknown, and when hounds hap- 

 pened to kill a diseased animal — which was 

 rarely — the disorder could, in nearly every 

 instance, be traced to a beaten fox in a heated 

 condition having taken refuge in a wet or foul 

 drain, which produced surfeit of the skin, and 

 was not true mange. How the increase of the 

 insidious malady of which many hunts com- 

 plain has been brought about is difficult to 

 explain. In cases where cubs have to be 

 imported, and are brought up in a semi- 

 domesticated state, it is probable that they can't 

 stand the weather, and occasionlly succumb to 

 adverse influences, whilst putrid flesh of any 

 description is sure to have baneful effects. 

 But why a transference of foxes from either 

 mountain or lowland to artificial coverts in 

 other districts should be the means of inducing 

 mange — as alleged by some — I am at a loss to 

 understand. 



Perhaps the worst and most direful scourge 

 to fox hunting of the present day lies in the 

 adoption of wire. It cannot be denied by those 

 who observe signs of the times that twenty-five 



