SCIENCE OF FOXHUNTING. 81 



sound wholesome food should be given — coarse 

 old Irish or Scotch oatmeal being the staple. 

 Durinof the summer months other farina has been 

 tried by masters, such as rice meal, Indian corn 

 meal, sago, biscuit, and coarse-ground wheat meal, 

 with one result — disappointment. Dog biscuit, so 

 called, is manufactured for the purpose, and con- 

 tains a great amount of rubbish ; but those prepared 

 from genuine coarse flour, unadulterated — of which 

 there is little chance — might answer the pur- 

 pose, when hounds are not in work ; but having 

 once used wlieaten flour, ground from our own corn 

 at a country mil], when oatmeal had risen to the 

 enormous price of £22 per ton, we must speak of 

 it as a failure, and Indian corn also. 



If, preparatory to cub-hunting, hounds should 

 require dressing at all — which with the rules we 

 have laid down for diet, alteratives, and exercise, 

 they ought not — the most simple and efficacious 

 remedy is one composed of three parts of rape oil 

 and one of turpentine, thickened to the consistency 

 of cream with sulphur, and rubbed in by hand, not 

 by brush. To this may be added a small propor- 

 tion of soft soap, which will cause the dressing to 

 adhere more closely to the skin, and assist also in 

 washing it off again. Avoid all mercurial prepa- 

 rations as you would poison, for which there exists 

 no necessity, except, as we have before stated, in 

 virulent cases of red mange. Sulphur we know to 

 be one of the most useful and efficacious remedies 

 which can be employed in all cutaneous diseases, 

 and when given internally, works its way quickly 



G 



