28 NOTITIA VENATICA. 



aud in many instances the operation fails to have the desired effect ; not 

 unfrequently bitches thus imraatroued will show the same desire for 

 copulation as others which have not been so cruelly tortured, and in 

 several instances I have known them absolutely to produce whelps. In 

 the sprino- of the year 1831, when the late Mr. Russel was master of 

 the Warwickshire hounds, and under whose indefatigable care and 

 directions that pack obtained so great a celebrity, the operation was 

 performed upon nine couples of bitches ; with what effect the reader 

 may iudo-e for himself, as out of the number several came on heat, and 

 two or three absolutely produced whelps, but much deformed, as some 

 had foro-otten to bring their heads into the world, and others their legs, 

 the two most requisite members for a young foxhound. 



In some instances, where bitches have come into use, but have, never- 

 theless, not been allowed connection Avith the dog, when the nine weeks 

 have expired — namely, the period at which they would have wheljjed — 

 they will be found to have all the symptoms attendant upon pupping 

 (though not in the enlargement about the belly), even to the secretion of 

 milk ; this, however, will all pass away in the course of a few days. I 

 met with a book, some time since, entitled " An Exposition of the Signs 

 and Symptoms of Pregnancy, iic." by W. F. Mongomery, M.D., and was 

 struck Avith the following extract. In speaking of spurious pregnancy, 

 where women have all the symptoms usual in all cases of real pregnancy 

 up to the time when they should be dehvered, at which time, when it 

 arrives, they are not with child at all, he says — '* It should be remarked 

 here that these sympathetic affections, or constitutional disturbances, 

 occurring at the time that they might naturally be expected, as the 

 usual changes connected with or consequent upon the termination of 

 utero-gestation, had that condition really existed, are not confined to the 

 human female, but have been observed in the lower animals also. A 

 friend of mine had a favourite and very valuable sporting bitch, which 

 he was anxious should not breed ; in order to prevent which she was 

 always carefully locked up whenever she came on heat, so that inter- 

 course with the dog was pi-evented ; but on several occasions, when the 

 time expired which would have been that of her bringing forth, had she 

 been allowed to breed, she was observed to be very dull, to wander about 

 the whole day as if seeking for something, and presently afterwards her 

 teats used to fiU with milk in such abundance as to drop from her on the 

 o-round." Such facts did not escape the observation of Harvey.* 

 '* Your little bitches," says he, " which are kept too j>U'nt}fidly , and 

 thereupon admit coition without success, are, notwithstanding, observed 

 to be sluggish about the first time whereat they ought to puppy, and 

 bark as if they were in distress ; and likewise filch away the whelps 

 from another bitch, and lick them over and cherish them as tenderly as 

 if they were their own natural productions, and fight eagerly to keep 

 them from their true parent. Nay, some of them have milk or boast- 

 ings (as they call it) in their teats, and are obnoxious to the distempers 

 incident to those that have reaUy puppicd." 



* Generation of Animals. 



