178 FRACTURES. 



accumulating? — Washing the body well with soap-suds, and 

 directly afterwards carefully combing it with a small-toothed 

 comb, are the most ready means of dislodging these nimble 

 gentry. But it must be remembered, that the previous wash- 

 ing is only to enable the comb more readily to overtake them : 

 the water does not destroy them ; for dogs, who swim every 

 day, are still found to have fleas. These insects are very tena- 

 cious of life, and soon recover this temporary drowning ; the 

 * comb, therefore, is principally to be depended on for their 

 caption before they recover. But as w^ashing is not, in many 

 instances, a salutary practice, and as, in many others, it is a 

 very inconvenient one, so it becomes a matter worthy of con- 

 sideration how to be enabled to destroy them without these 

 means. 



Sopping the skin with tobacco water has been recommend- 

 ed ; but it has only a momentary effect, and it not unfrequently 

 poisons the dog. — See Mange. — Innumerable other means I 

 have tried to drive away fleas, but the only tolerable certain 

 one I have discovered, is to make dogs sleep on fresh yellow 

 deal shavings. These shavings may be made so fine as to be 

 as soft as a feather bed ; and, if changed every week or 

 fortnight, they make the most cleanly and wholesome one 

 that a dog can sleep on. But, where this is absolutely im- 

 practicable, it will be found useful to rub or dredge the dog's 

 hide, once or twice a week, with very finely powdered 

 rosin ; if simply rubbed in, add some bran. Fleas are not 

 only troublesome, but, by the irritation they occasion, they 

 produce a tendency to mange. 



-«^«s^««- 



Fractures, 



The limbs of dogs are very liable to become fractured ; 

 but the irritability of the constitution is so much less in these 

 animals than in ourselves, that they suffer comparatively but 

 little on these occasions ; and the parts soon reinstate them- 

 selves, even without assistance, though in such cases the 



