72 DISEASES OF DOGS. 



word spoken to a healthy dog", produce instant convulsions in 

 a distempered one who happened to be near ; and the fits that 

 come on spontaneously in distemper, almost instantly leave 

 the dog by soothing- notice, so open are they to mental im- 

 pressions. Joy and surprise will also often prove injurious 

 to them when they are very weak. 



Even among- those who conceive themselves minutely ac- 

 quainted with dogs (and who probably are so with the sport- 

 ing kinds, and with such as live more natural lives in the open 

 air of the country, with the advantages of moderate feeding 

 and due exercise) there will be many who will regard these 

 extreme cautions as unnecessary. The number and variety 

 of the diseases quoted will also probably excite their surprise ; 

 and, unaware of the existence even of many of them, they 

 will be apt to consider the diversity of symptomatic appear- 

 ances described, the cautions insisted on, and the minuteness 

 of detail in the medical treatment, as, in a great degree, su- 

 perfluous : but a little further inquiry will satisfy such, that 

 no animals can differ more widely than the dogs they are 

 accustomed to, and those that are born, bred, and perhaps 

 constantly reside in cities, towns, or other confined situations. 

 These instructions are necessarily confined to no one meridian: 

 as well as the more healthy country animal, they embrace 

 also the pet, and pampered favourite, that is perhaps im- 

 mured, twenty-three out of the twenty-four hours, in a hot 

 drawino- or bed-room, breathing the same confined air, eating 

 the same luxurious food, and exercising in the same easy car- 

 riage, with his owner. A life so wholly artificial alters the 

 mental and bodily properties to such a degree, of such as are 

 subjected to it, that their constitutional tendency to disease 

 is nearly as great as that of those they belong to : under dis- 

 ease their irritability is nearly equal, the diversities of their 

 symptoms nearly as numerous ; and, consequently, that they 

 require every portion of that caution and attention I have 

 prescribed to insure their recovery. 



