ON COURSING. 95 



he has passed a sleepless night, " or groaned frequently in his Chap. IX. 

 sleep, 3 or thrown up any of his food, * it will not be safe to 

 take him out coursing. All these things the dog's bedfellow 

 will be acquainted with. 



Nothing can be worse than for dogs to sleep with each 

 other ; and more especially so, if they touch one another in 

 bed. For as all cutaneous irritation is removed by a man 

 sleeping with them, so, when they sleep together, they gene- 

 rate every sort of foulness of skin by warmth and close 

 contact, and are generally full of mange. ^ To which cause 



2. Ei yap aypvwfi(T€iev, l^dyeiv evl dripav ovk aff<pa\4s. We find in the Hieraco- 

 sophiuni, undisturbed sleep is deemed necessary for the hawk the night preceding 

 a flight, arapaxov vwvov /x.€T6X€TW. 



3. 'EirjCToleie — the common reading being probably corrupt, I have received the 

 emendation of Zeune in his Index Graecitatis, iiriffrevd^eie. 



4. OuS' €t Ti airefj.i(Teie tuu airioou. Such rejection of food by vomiting is an indi- 

 cation of indigestion ; and the latter, of course, of unfitness for the chase. 



Xenophou forbids hounds to be taken out hunting unless they feed heartily ; for 

 bad feeding is an indication of bad health. De Venat. c. vi. 2. 



5. ^wpas iiiiriirXaffdai. Mange is a chronic inflammation of the skin, consti- 

 tutional in some dogs, in others infectious, and in a few cases I have known it 

 hereditary. 



Ancient sportsmen had great dread of mange in their kennels. Gratius, the only 

 one who has entered much into canine pathology amongst the cynegetical writers, 

 recommends that the first dog affected with mange should he destroyed, to prevent 

 others from catching so loathsome a disease — a radical cure ! 



At si defornii lacerum dulcedine corpus Gratii Cyneg. 



Persequitur scabies, longi via pessima lethi, '• '**'^' 



In primo accessu triscis medicina ; sed una 

 Pemicies rediraenda anima, quas prima sequaci 

 Sparsa malo est, ne dira trahant contagia vulgi. 



If, however, the disease be of a mild type and slow in its progress, it is curable, he 

 says, with an ointment wliich he prescribes, but which I do not introduce here, as 

 the cutaneous detergents of the scientific Delabere Blaine will be found by the reader 

 far more efficacious. "Venesection and purgation, as recommended by Savary, are 

 most important auxiliaries to inunction : 



