320 KENNEL SECRETS. 



oils of wormseed and male fern are mainly relied upon. 

 These are highly efficacious and safe when wisely employed. 

 But all are to a certain extent absorbed by the system, 

 some depress it more than others, and all have peculiar 

 properties which specially recommend them for certain 

 kinds of worms, consequently that the best results may be 

 attained from their use the writer will dwell upon them at 

 considerable length. 



While in occasional instances puppies are seriously dis- 

 turbed and even destroyed by worms before they have 

 passed the third week, as a rule these dangerous tenants do 

 not give positive evidence of their presence until after the 

 weaning, which seems to have rather an exasperating effect 

 upon them. And but for this tendency to delay to make 

 themselves felt the mortality from them must be infinitely 

 greater than it is now, for puppies previous to the period 

 stated are yet feeble and poorly able to withstand the 

 effects of simple drugs, much less those of depressing 

 vermifuges. 



Nor is it expedient to try to relieve nursing puppies of 

 worms by the means of drugs given the mother and sent 

 out to them through her milk. Theoretically this plan 

 seems sound, but practically it is a failure. As a matter 

 of fact, while some medicines enter the milk the number 

 of such is much smaller than generally supposed. Again, 

 the proportional quantities of those that appear in that 

 secretion are very much less than accepted ; and really 

 only the most powerful drugs acting through the milk 

 would have any decided effect upon the nursing off- 

 spring. 



Take turpentine, for instance, that is readily absorbed 

 from the intestinal canal and from the lungs. But it is 

 eliminated by the breath and kidneys, and only a very small 

 proportion of it enters the milk. And assuming that a 



