THE FOSTER-NURSE. 203 



the class who alone are likely to sell the services of a nurse) 

 answers as well as any other, and her milk is generally plentiful 

 and good. For small breeds any little house dog will suffice, 

 taking care that the skin is healthy, and that the constitution is 

 not impaired by confinement or gross feeding. Greyhound pup- 

 pies are very commonly reared by bull-bitches without any dis- 

 advantage, clearly proving the propriety of the plan. It may 

 generally be reckoned, in fixing the number which a bitch can 

 suckle with advantage, that, of greyhound or pointer puppies, for 

 every seven pounds in her own weight the bitch can do one well; so 

 that an average bull-terrier will rear three, her weight being about 

 twenty-one pounds, and smaller dogs in proportion. "When the 

 substitution is to be made, the plan is to proceed as follows : — Get 

 a warm basket, put in it some of the litter in which the bitch and 

 her whelps have been lying, then take away all her own progeny, 

 and, together with the whelps to be fostered, put all in the basket, 

 mixing them so that the skins of the fresh ones shall be in contact 

 with the bitch's own pups and also with the litter. Let them 

 remain in this way for three hours, during which time the bitch 

 should be taken out for an hour's walk, and her teats will have 

 become painfully distended with milk. Then put all the pups in 

 her nest, and, carefully watching her, let her go back to them. In 

 ninety- nine cases out of a hundred, she will at once allow them all 

 to suck quietly, and if she licks all alike, she may be left with 

 them safely enough ; but if she passes the fresh ones over, pushing 

 them on one side, she should be muzzled for twelve hours, leavino- 

 all with her, and keeping the muzzle on excepting while she is fed. 



