48 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



toils, and glory in his success. I take it, as a matter of 

 course, that he has his own infalhble specific for distem- 

 per; that his methods of physicking, bleeding, and dressing, 

 are all conducted, not only on the best principles, but 

 that, in his own idea, he is, in all his nostrums, superior 

 to his neighbours. To a certain extent, there is nothing 

 objectionable in his " making swans of all his geese ; " 

 nay, there is something laudable in the vanity with 

 which he will inculcate the doctrine of "old Tom Grant," 

 or some such patriarchal authority, and will back the 

 data of such and such a school, on which his own 

 practice is founded, against the world. It will be de- 

 sirable that he should have some knowledge of the 

 anatomy of a dog; a httle knowledge is, perhaps, a 

 dangerous thing : but I do not mean that which would 

 lead him into " experimental philosophy," in attempting 

 dangerous and difficult operations ; but something,, 

 beyond that of being able to bleed or blister a hound, 

 is highly useful.* 



Perfection enters not within the scale of human 



* One instance of this occurred in my own kennel. A valuable hound, 

 called Saladin, had been lame for two seasons before he came into my posses- 

 sion, the cause remaining undiscovered ; he could get through a day's work, 

 but was always more or less unsound. My huntsman, applying the knife to a 

 callous tumour on the back sinews of his near fore-leg, laid it open to the joint ; 

 and, from underneath the leaders, extracted an enormous piece of blackthorn, 

 which, having worked in, had bedded itself amongst the fibres, and there 

 remained for two years. The dog soon became perfectly sound. I have 

 preserved the thorn, measuring nearly three inches, as a curiosity. 



