102 HOESES AND HOUNDS. 



wHipper-in is no great favourite, and I question whetlier any 

 man of common sense (putting yourself and him out of the 

 question, as I consider you both bordering on insanity) would 

 undertake such a job — in short, you could not ask a man to 

 run such a risk." " I am quite of your opinion, doctor; and as 

 one of the fools cannot do it, the other must — so now to 

 business." 



His prescription was from ten to twenty drops of laudanum 

 (according to the violence and frequency of the convulsions,) 

 three times a day, which I gave them. I had some strong broth 

 made with sheep's heads, the meat stewed with it, of which 

 they would take a little occasionally, but with great difficulty 

 in swallowing it. The laudanum had the effect of reducing the 

 paroxysms after the first day, and by its continual use the dogs 

 became listless and drowsy. On the fourth day, however, I 

 found them dead, but so quietly had they died that they were 

 curled up as if asleep, and had gone off without a struggle. 

 Several others were seized and treated in a similar manner, 

 with doses of laudanum and morphine, but with the same result. 

 I then tried prussic acid, beginning with four drops and going 

 up to twenty. This powerful medicine had a most decided 

 effect in alleviating the paroxysms more quickly than laudanum, 

 but nothing could arrest the progress of the disease. All my 

 patients sank gradually, but died without convulsions ; nature 

 appeared completely worn out. 



I had now lost fourteen hounds by this terrible disease, all 

 young, strong, and healthy, only a few days before. For a week 

 no new cases appeared, and we began to think we had nothing 

 more to fear. The whole pack had been, of course, well 

 watched, and Epsom salts, with other alteratives, administered. 

 A month passed and another without any symptoms again 

 appearing, and my whipper-in and myself were congratulating 

 ourselves, thinking all danger was nov7 past. Just, however, 

 nine weeks after its first appearance, as we were feeding the 

 hounds, a young dog chopped at his food in the trough in an 

 unusual manner. I always attended at the feeding hours, and 

 called the hounds in by name myself At once my attention 

 was rivetted on this hound. I called for a pair of couples, put 

 them quickly round his neck, and told the whipper-in to shut 

 him up immediately by himself " Why, sir," he said, " what's the 

 matter with him T " Only this," I said, " that he will be raving- 

 mad to-morrow morning" — and so he was. This was, however, 

 the last case that appeared, and but for my quick detection of 

 the vslight alteration of manner in this dog when feeding, the 

 whole pack must have inevitably been destroyed, as he would, 



