SCIENCE OF FOXHUNTING. 277 



" how could you tliiuk of giving any medicine to 

 mad dogs ? ^' 



" You have heard/^ we said^ '' that there is some 

 method in madness ? ^' 



" True ; but that is a madness quite different to 

 hydrophobia. If one of these hounds had bitten 

 you whilst administering these doses of laudanum, 

 nothing could have saved your life, and no medicine 

 with which I am acquainted can save the life of any 

 other hounds which may be attacked in a similar 

 manner. Many nostrums and quack medicines 

 have been prescribed by enthusiasts as certain 

 remedies in this most melancholy malady, but not 

 one upon which any man of common sense could 

 pin his faith. Physicians and surgeons are all alike 

 in the dark on this incomprehensible visitation. 

 We may subdue the paroxysms but we can do no 

 more ; and the best and only advice I can offer you 

 is to destroy every dog which exhibits signs of hydro- 

 phobia.^^ 



It did not suit our humour then to follow the 

 doctor^s advice. Other hounds were seized, and as 

 we had discovered they never showed any disposition 

 to bite their master, we continued giving them 

 laudanum and prussic acid, in the hope of alleviat- 

 ing their agony, if not of curing the disease. In 

 the former we succeeded — not in the latter. One 

 by one they died away, curled up as if asleep, but 

 Avithout any suffering. We had now lost fourteen 

 hounds, some of our finest young bitches, by this 

 terrible scourge, and as no new cases had appeared 

 for a month, began to congratulate ourselves upon 



