154 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



time, with very little power of swallowing, and in 

 doing so will cover the water with frothy saliva. I 

 have seen the dish from which they were lapping tilled 

 with froth and foam, and observed but very little dimi- 

 nution in the fluid. I have also known them to swallow 

 water to a great extent. In giving one of these 

 dogs, a greyhound, some physic, my man John Dewey, 

 now head keeper at Pilewell, had a cut on his thumb, 

 which he contrived to get well filled by the saliva 

 from the dog's mouth, and the fact gave him for a 

 time considerable mental uneasiness. I bade him 

 wash it well, and told him I would insure him from 

 any serious consequences, for the distemper in a dog 

 never yet made any body mad but their master. 

 Those dogs so aff'ected, generally speaking, recovered, 

 and a dog I saw them bite was never any the worse 

 for it. On dissection, those that died proved to be 

 in a violent inflammatory state, extending from the 

 windpipe to the lungs, intestines, and liver ; the brain 

 and the heart being alone untouched by the disease. 

 There is no specific cure for the distemper, and no 

 rule can be laid down for its treatment, because the 

 symptoms are so various and uncertain that the 

 remedy which might cure in one instance would kill 

 in another ; the lancet, seton. blister, and active 

 dose being called for in one periodical attack, and 

 quinine, sago, arrow-root, and every sort of dainty 

 that can provoke appetite or sustain strength, in the 

 other. Sometimes the distemper comes out in an 

 eruption of the skin, and that is the safest turn it can 

 take. The treatment which I recommend is, to watch 

 the disease, and at every turn of it assist nature 

 whenever she points the way. 



The advice which, at the commencement of these 



