LKTTER V. 49 



occasionally, but with great difficulty in swallowing it. 

 The laudanum had the effect of reducing the paroxysms 

 after the first day, and by its continual use the dogs be- 

 came listless and drowsy. On the fourth day, however, I 

 found them dead, but so quietly had they died that they 

 were curled up as if asleep, and had gone off without a 

 struggle. Several others were seized and treated in a 

 similar manner, with doses of laudanum and morphine, 

 but with the same result. I then tried prussic acid, 

 beginning with four drops and going up to twenty. This 

 powerful medicine had a most decided effect in alleviating 

 the paroxysms more quickly than laudanum, but nothing 

 could arrest the progress of the disease. All my patients 

 sunk gradually, but died without convulsions ; nature 

 appeared completely worn out. 



I had now lost fourteen hounds by this terrible disease, 

 all young, strong, and healthy, only a few days before. 

 For a week no new cases appeared, and we began to 

 think we had nothing more to fear. The whole pack 

 had been, of course, well watched, and Epsom salts, with 

 other alteratives, administered. A month passed, and 

 another without any symptoms again appearing, and my 

 whipper-in and myself were congratulating ourselves, 

 thinking all danger was now^ pasto Just, however, nine 

 weeks after its first appearance, as we were feeding the 

 hounds, a young dog chopped at his food in the trough 

 in an unusual manner. I always attended at the feeding 

 hours, and called the hounds in by name myself. At 

 once my attention was rivetted on this hound. I called 

 for a pair of couples, put them quickly round his neck, 

 and told the whipper-in to shut him up immediately by 

 himself. " Why, Sir," he said, *' what's the matter witli 



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