ON THE BENCH. 195 



Quite a common error at shows is rxiuch too high 

 benches for the largest dogs. These when loaded down 

 with fat or well along with pup are about as capable of 

 jumping as a man carrying an anvil, consequently in 

 getting in and out of high stalls they are much strained 

 in the back and possibly otherwise injured. 



Most people when they have diphtheria or other infec- 

 tious disease in their homes hang about the sick-room 

 cloths wet with carbolic acid, or place here and there 

 saucers filled with the chloride of lime, thinking that 

 thereby they kill the germs of disease floating in the 

 air. As a matter of fact these agents so used have no 

 action whatsoever upon disease germs, and simply render 

 the air still more impure. 



So it is with many of the disinfectants used at shows ; 

 they give off a pungent odor, but affect disease germs no 

 more than a blank cartridge would a grizzly. These so- 

 called disinfectants, however, are not objectionable solely 

 because they are worthless for the purpose for which they 

 are sold; they are really injurious to dogs as well as man 

 when used freely as at shows, for some of their elements 

 rise and float in the air and render it highly irritating — a 

 fact of which no old exhibitor needs to be assured, for he 

 has suffered too often from stuffiness of the nose, dryness 

 of the throat and other evidences of inflammation of the 

 air-passages, while in dogs their ill effects have been mani- 

 fested by hoarseness and bloodshot eyes. 



Economy as well as utility considered, it seems as 

 though show managements would do well to prepare 

 their own deodorizer and disinfectant. And as good an 

 ao-ent as any is the permanganate of potassium, two> 

 pounds of which added to water will make thirty gallons 

 of as efficient disinfectant — safety considered — as can 

 be obtained anywhere ; although, by the way, manufac- 



