BEFORE WHELPING. 237 



must be regulated are practically the same as those in 

 force when young are not being carried. And although 

 a larger proportion of that important animal food is 

 demanded it cannot safely be allowed unless the con- 

 ditions are right. Or, in other words, the increase must 

 be attended by an increase, in corresponding degree, of 

 the amount of exercise. And, manifestly, were the first 

 requirement met and its associate neglected the blood of 

 the bitches would become heated up and in consequence 

 they would have skin eruptions from which they must 

 suffer great annoyance, whereas at such trying times they 

 should be not only healthy but undisturbed and restful. 

 Moreover, did any such affections due to internal causes 

 exist during the period of gestation they would be either 

 transmitted directly to the offspring, or there would be 

 created in them a predisposition or special liability to the 

 same disorders. 



The giving of bone-meal in the food has been advised 

 by many writers to supply material for the bones of the 

 puppies in titero and prevent the accident — softening and 

 decay of the bony structure of the mother — noted by the 

 German physician whose experiment has been described. 

 This meal, however, is of doubtful value as a preventive, 

 for it undergoes only slight solution in the intestinal 

 canal, but to give the precipitated phosphate of lime — 

 a product of bones — during the period in whelp is advisa- 

 ble, especially to large breeds, the offspring of which in 

 these days are notoriously "deficient in bone" and sin- 

 gularly liable to suffer from rickets. 



This agent, which is a white powder and odorless and 

 tasteless, should be given once daily with the food during 

 the first month of gestation, and twice daily from then 

 on until the puppies have been weaned. The dose usually 

 advisable for the largest varieties is an even teaspoonful, 



