DISEASES OE DOGS. 



'OGS are much more nearly allied t» 

 ourselves in constitution than either horses, oxen, or 

 sheep; hence their diseases are more like our own; 

 and living, as (hey do with us, a hfe of art, their 

 diseases become not only very numerous, but very 

 mixed and irregular. This places their medical treat- 

 ment v/ithout the leach of the common farrier ; and 

 even txie veterinarian, who follows analogy only, 

 without a particular attention to the structure, oeco- 

 nomy, habits, and manners of the dog, will find 

 himself totally at a loss in the same ; and though the 

 similarity of their constitutioDS, from their eating, 

 like us, mixed food, and beiiig immediately domes- 

 ticated W'th ns, gives their diseases a reseniblance 

 to our own, yet the great diiference in their mode 

 of expressing these di&ea.ses, and the peculiar eiTect 

 that some medicines have on them, render the hu- 

 man surgeon, without a decided attention to the 

 subject, perfectly incapable of acting from analogy : 

 independent of v*'hich, dogs have several specific dis- 

 eases equally unknown to horses, or ourselves. 



Without a very strict and very extended attention 

 to the subject, no one would be aware how very nu- 

 merous are the diseases of these animals. Rheuma- 

 tism, both chronic and acute, is very common among 

 them. I have seen an affection producing chalk- 

 stones in the joints of the toes, not unlike human 



