LIVER COMPLAINTS MADNESS STATUTES. 173 



rabbit, with regular and careful attention, such as 

 has been pointed out, so that any sudden and acci- 

 dental disorder is best and most cheaply remedied 

 by a stroke behind the ears. But want of care 

 must be remedied, if at all, by an opposite conduct, 

 and improper food exchanged for its contrary. 

 Thus if rabbits become POT-BELLIED in the common 

 phrase, from being fed on loose vegetable trash, 

 they must be cured by good hard hay and corn, 

 ground malt or pease, toasted bread or captains' 

 biscuits, or any substantial and absorbent food. 

 Their common liver complaints, are incurable, and 

 when such are put up to fatten, there is a certain 

 criterion to be observed. They will not bear to be 

 pushed beyond a moderate degree of fatness, and 

 should be taken in time, as they are liable to drop 

 off suddenly. The dropsy and rot must be pre- 

 vented, as they are generally incurable ; nor is a 

 rabbit worth the time and pains of a probable cure. 

 Of the ' madness in tame conies,' on which our old 

 writers hold forth, I know nothing. 



By 7 and 8 Geo. 4th, if any person unlawfully 

 and wilfully in the night time take any hare or coney 

 in any warren or ground lawfully used for the keep- 

 ing thereof whether enclosed or not every such per- 

 son shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and persons 

 guilty of the same offence in the day time, or using 

 any snare or engine, are subject to a penalty of five 

 pounds. But this does not extend to the taking in 

 the day time any conies on any sea bank or river 

 bank in Lincolnshire so far as the tide shall extend, 

 or within a furlong of such bank. 

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