LETTER XXVIII. 305 



been accustomed to sheep and cur dogs, without ex- 

 hibiting any great desire to kill and eat either the one 

 or the other, certainly not the latter, I should say, from 

 choice. 



To prove how far air and exercise will go to amelio- 

 rate the effects of distemper, I will merely say, that I 

 tried the experiment with three young hounds, which 

 were seized with the usual symptoms a short time since. 

 They caught the distemper from another dog, not be- 

 longing to me, which died in convulsions. Being satis- 

 fied in my own mind of the necessity of air and exercise, 

 as most efficient assistants in reducing the virulence of 

 this disease, I tried what these would do alone, with- 

 out giving any medicine at all, not even an emetic or 

 spoonful of salt and water. These three puppies, not 

 quite ten months old, were attacked with the usual 

 symptoms — a dry husky cough, with discharge from the 

 nose. I fed them twice a day ; for breakfast a little 

 warm skim milk, with barley meal, scalded, which they 

 had about eight o'clock. At ten o'clock I took them out 

 walking over some fresh ploughed fallows, and then home 

 through pasture fields, to have a good run, if they felt 

 inclined. They had another hour's exercise about four 

 o'clock, and were fed again at six in the evening. I 

 pursued this plan of walking them over the fresh- ploughed 

 land twice a day, sometimes behind the plough. The 

 running at the nose ceased in three or four days, and in 

 ten, from the time they were first attacked, they were 

 as well as if they had never had the distemper at all. 

 Having stated this fact, to prove what air and exercise 

 can effect, I leave it with masters of hounds for their 

 consideration. 



X 



