THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 45 



they evidently obey his voice from compulsion rather 

 than inclination, it is the result either of want of temper, 

 or bad manner with them: probably, of both. They 

 should seem to bask in the sunshine of his smiles ; they 

 will get so familiarized with him, that a whistle, a wave 

 of his hand, or the slightest indication, will convey to 

 them his desire : they will thus, in casting, wheel right 

 .or left, and move in column, like a squadron of horse on 

 a field-day. 



There is, in the human constitution, what is, by 

 medical and learned men, termed idiosyncracy, — a fine 

 long word, meaning a peculiarity ; I should, perhaps, say 

 individuality^ — requiring separate and distinct treat- 

 ment. The plain English may be found in the old 

 saying, that " What is one man's meat, is another man's 

 poison." In the discovery of this peculiarity in the 

 human system, consists the skill of the physician, supe- 

 rior to the common run of ordinary practitioners, upon 

 general principles. There is no less in hounds an 

 idiosyncracy,—^ peculiarity in their several dispositions, 

 which requires the skill of a professor to cope with. 

 Some young hounds enter instinctively ;~from their first 

 to their last appearance in the field they do no wrong ;— 

 they commence with the scent to which they were bom, 

 and afford a moral to beings of higher class, in their 

 devotion, through their lives, to the purposes of their 

 creation. Others, equally good, will take no notice of 



