90 ANIMAL KEPUTATION. 



Again, we borrow the term ' snappishness ' from the 

 dog not referring to the mere snapping at imaginary or 

 real insect tormentors, or at man interfering with its 

 rightful property a bone or deliberately provoking it by 

 blows, kicks, or otherwise. When we talk of a man or 

 his temper being ' snappish,' we refer to a kind of irrita- 

 bility shortness of temper that is much commoner in man 

 than in the dog, and which, when it occurs in the latter 

 animal, is usually at least produced by man's own provoca- 

 tion or bad usage. 



One of the commonest and most serious, and at the 

 same time most undeserved, of the evil epithets or repu- 

 tations attached to the dog in this country is that of 

 ' madness,' by which is popularly meant rabies. The well- 

 known proverb, ' Give a dog a bad name, and you may as 

 well hang him/ probably arose in connection with its sup- 

 posed liability to rabies. Whether this be the case or not 

 the proverb is specially applicable to, and true of, these our 

 own times ; for while I am writing these pages the news- 

 papers tell me that no less than 1,200 dogs have been captured 

 within a few days in the streets of Glasgow, and destroyed 

 wholesale by drowning, while the survivors are ordered to be 

 muzzled, all because three fatal cases of supposed human 

 hydrophobia have recently occurred in the infirmary of that 

 city. As the real character of this reputed ' madness ' is 

 discussed in another chapter, I must not, however, further 

 allude to it here. 



When a husband and wife fall out, when domestic un- 

 happiness pervades a dwelling in which connubial bliss 

 should tincture all things, when mutual bickerings and re- 

 criminations are substituted for mutual affection and respect, 

 when angry words lead to angry blows instead of the loving, 

 and cherishing, and obeying that ought to characterise the 

 relationship of human marriage we spea.k of such ill-matched 

 and ill-starred spouses as leading ' a cat and dog life.' And 

 it is quite possible that cats and dogs, under certain un- 

 favourable circumstances, may and do have their quarrels. 

 They may both figuratively and literally be * set by the ears.' 

 It would be singular if they were not. But here, again, their 



