PART THE SECOND. 



THE REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM; 



OR THE BREEDING ANEf REARING OP DOGS, THEORETICALLY AND PRACTI- 

 CALLY CONSIDERED : WITH THE GENERAL TREATMENT OF THEM, BOTH AS 

 PREVENTIVE AND CURATIVE OP DISEASE. 



THE breeding and rearing of dogs are important considera- 

 tions to the rural economist, the sportsman, and the lover of use- 

 ful anmials : the subject is also intimately connected with their 

 medical treatment ; for there are particular diseases attendant on 

 both mother and offspring while in a state of mutual dependance on 

 each other. The reproduction of the animal form is brought 

 about in dogs by desires that are not constant, but which among 

 the wild breeds occur about once a year : in domesticated dogs, on 

 the contrary, as shelter and nourishment under the fostering care 

 of man are present at all times of the year, so the periods of their 

 oestrum, or heat, return at uncertain intervals of six, seven, or eight 

 months, as confinement or highly stimulating food may hasten the 

 sexual excitement*. In the larger kind of dogs, however, a yearly 

 breeding is mostly observed. 



■* It has been attempted to bring on the sexual appetency or heat in bitches 

 by stiinulating injections, and it now and then succeeds : but as it is an un- 

 natural process, and as the constitutional sympathy cannot be supposed to be 

 so fiilly excited as to produce a general consent of parts, impregnation does 

 not always follow the intercourse, and, when it does, the progeny are sonietimes 

 aiFected by it, proving weak and unhealthy. I once saw a litter thus arti- 

 ficially urged into life, where every one was ricketty. 



