PREPARATORY WORK. 153 



Steadily increased, provided always the dog is much at 

 rest. But submit him to a railway journey and the dis- 

 turbing influence of a show, and he will shrink rapidly 

 from the first day — his spurious fat melting as it were — 

 and ere he is home again he will not only be back to his 

 old form but thinner than when the use of the drug 

 was commenced. 



Iron is another agent often used in preparing for 

 shows. And as it is one of the first that the average 

 layman resorts to when he feels he needs a spur it is not 

 surprising that he assumes it to be suitable for his dog. 

 But the value of iron as a general tonic is very greatly 

 over-estimated ; and given indiscriminately, as it often is, 

 the proportion of harmful and good results is not less 

 than ten to one ; while many morbid conditions of the 

 system in which it was once supposed to be of high 

 remedial value are now known to yield much more 

 quickly and easily to other drugs. Again, there are an 

 immense number of preparations of iron, the most of 

 which have their special purposes and act well in certain 

 classes of cases, whereas if used in others they are quite 

 sure to do harm. 



This runs counter to the popular belief that if iron fails 

 to do good it can do no harm, but that is without founda- 

 tion, for when wrongly used the digestive organs are 

 made to suffer and other functions are more or less dis- 

 turbed. Considering all of which, iron should be kept 

 on the shelf with arsenic while one is conditioning his 

 dog. 



Yet another drug often resorted to when preparing 

 dogs for shows is quinine, which is supposed to have 

 special action on the appetite. This, also, has its place 

 among remedial agents, but as an appetizer it is of doubt- 

 ful value except in occasional cases ; and as a matter of 



