218 The Fox Terrier. 



expected to take effect. A vermifuge may even be given 

 when the puppies are on their dam, if worms are suspected. 

 Half a grain of santonine in a teaspoonful of olive oil, 

 administered two or three times at intervals of as many 

 days, will be found free from danger to everything but 

 the worms. Thymol in small quantities has been recom- 

 mended as a vermifuge, but I have never used it, so cannot 

 write of its effects. Puppies at six weeks old may be given 

 one grain in a capsule of oil shortly before a meal. A 

 correspondent in the Field recommended it strongly, 

 especially for delicate breeds, such as bulldogs. Older 

 animals will require two or more grains. 



At from four to six months old, during dentition, or when 

 younger, perhaps when older, distemper may appear, and 

 this often fatal complaint is always to be dreaded. Many 

 complications can ensue, but if the puppy has been reared 

 according to the directions thus shortly given, in ninety 

 cases out of a hundred the attack will be slight. If very 

 severe, the veterinary surgeon should be called in to see 

 the sick animal ; but ordinary cases will be cured by the 

 remedies advertised by Spratt's Patent, which — so easy to 

 administer — should be kept handy for cases of emergency. 

 I may say that during some ten years or so, when I bred 

 and kept fox and other terriers of " blue blood," I never 

 lost a single animal from distemper, and the only one 

 severely attacked was the well-known dog Nimrod after he 

 had won second prize as a puppy at one of the London 

 shows. I need scarcely say that the instructions I am 

 now giving my readers were rigorously carried out. 



Chorea, or " St. Vitus's dance," repeatedly follows dis- 

 temper, and, excepting in mild cases, is incurable. The 

 usual medicines recommended are arsenic, sulphate of 



