BREEDING POINTERS, &C. 65 



treated) even injured by the distemper. I feed them in the man- 

 ner above described, and if they happen to be costive, I give 

 them a table spoonful of syrup of buckthorn. However, with 

 a view to ascertain the effect of a different mode of treatment, I 

 took a whelp into the house, fed him plentifully with bones and 

 flesh, and suffered him to lie before the fire and to take but little 

 exercise. He was attacked with the distemper when he was 

 nearly five months old, and died after lingering several weeks ; 

 but for a week before his dissolution, he became so exceedingly 

 offensive that it was impossible to keep him in the house. In 

 another similar experiment, the animal, by good nursing and 

 medicine, lived through the distemper apparently, but never 

 enjoyed health; it was incapable of much exertion, and was at 

 length attacked with convulsions, the violence of which encreased 

 to such a degree, that I was under the necessity of destroying 

 it, at the age of fifteen months. 



Spaying bitches or castrating dogs is a diabolical practice. 

 The animals, shortly after the operation, grow extremely fat, and 

 very soon become useless. 



Worming puppies is a ridiculous operation ; it will not have 

 the effect, which is erroneously attributed to it, namely, of 

 rendering the animal incapable of biting when labouring un- 

 der paroxysms of hydrophobia. How it ever could be supposed 

 that extracting a sinew which runs longitudinally under a dog's 

 tongue would have the above effect, is a matter of surprise ; 

 and I blush at my own thoughtlessness in adopting in several 

 instances the foolish idea, the offspring of ignorance, and putting 

 an animal to pain, where no possible benefit could ever be rea- 

 sonably expected. 



I have known cantharides given to a bitch, in order to induce 

 her to take the dog. It is an injurious, and consequently a bad, 

 method ; and such as I should not recommend under any cir- 

 cumstances* 



F3 



