XOTITIA VENATICA. 77 



the neiglibourhood where I resided, and with whom I was upou terms of 

 intimacy, constantly assisted me, not only in many and frequent opera- 

 tions upou my hounds, but also in the choice of divers medicines and 

 other remedies. I have read attentively nearly every sporting book that 

 has ever been published since the " Gentleman's Recreation," but with 

 little benefit to myself, as I have seldom, if ever, met with one single 

 instance of any recipe succeeding which I may have been induced to try. 

 The only book from which I have derived the least information is one 

 entitled " Canine Pathology," by Mr. Blaine ; and I must confess that 

 that book stands alone amongst the many wliich have been foisted upou 

 the pubhc, as one which may be entirely depended upon. No sports- 

 man should be without it ; it gives not the effects of theoretical and in- 

 experienced advice, but the effusions of the understanding of a man who 

 has made the study of the diseases of the dog his chief pursuit, and who 

 has most eminently succeeded in the undertaking. 



When compared with the horse, the dog is subject but to few mala- 

 dies ; this is, in a great measure, owing to the coldness of his tempera- 

 ment, the hardiness of his constitution, and the great strength of his 

 digestive powers. He is seldom attacked with inflammation, although 

 cases of enteritis or inflammation of the bowels are sometimes to be met 

 with. Inflammation in the eyes, although not so frequent as one might 

 expect, from the continual and laborious occupation which dogs of all 

 descriptions are doomed to undergo when working in cover, is generally 

 of not so formidable a character as when that member meets with severe 

 injury in the horse ; still it is attended with much danger, and the total 

 loss of the organ is sometimes the consequence of a puncture from a 

 thorn or a mis-aimed blow from the lash of a whip. 



Section First. 



The distemper, which is the first disease to which hounds are gene^ 

 rally subject, is, in the opinion of all men, the most fatal which has ever 

 discovered itself in the canine race ; thousands are annually swept off by 

 this dreadful plague ; and as it breaks out in so many various forms, the 

 possibility of finding remedies to counteract it is rendered far more difii- 

 cult. In the report of the Veterinary Medical Association for March, 

 1838, a Mr. Simonds, in expressing his congratulations at the prospect 

 of the diseases of dogs becoming the siibject of inquiry amongst the 

 veterinarians of the present day, goes on to say that " distemper is pri- 

 marily an affection of the schneidcrian membrane ; thence, in certain 

 constitutions, it is transmitted to the lungs, and we have pneumonia in 

 one of its various forms ; sometimes to the intestines, and we have diar- 

 rhoea and dysentry ; and sometimes by simple proximity, or through the 

 medium of the ethmoidal processes, it attacks the brain, and we have 

 epilepsy ;" and very justly adds, " it is clear that we have no specific 

 for such a disease." There certainly is no specific for the distemper; 

 and, not unfrequently, the very medicine which is given to one dog 

 which recovers, when administered to another wiU cause immediate death. 

 I have tried numbers of remedies upon dogs of all ages and conditions ; 



