42 THE REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM. 



The heat or oestrum of bitches is the consequence of a sympa- 

 thetic action between all the organs concerned in generation, which 

 at these times become more highly susceptible and vascular, as is 

 shewn by tumefaction of the external parts, and a discharge from 

 the vulva. There are likewise strong marks of general excite- 

 ment throughout the body ; the plethoric and irritable state of 

 which is such, that those bitches that have been before subject to 

 fits are now peculiarly liable to them ; and convulsions often ap- 

 pear at this time in those that have not before been affected by 

 them. It is evident, therefore, that the precautions of cooling 

 food, judicious exercise, and opening medicines, are necessary at 

 these periods, for the young and delicate particularly ; and they 

 are still more so for such bitches as are intended to be debarred 

 from the dog ; for in these latter cases their excitement remains 

 long in action, when they are deprived of the satiety of sexual 

 intercourse. 



Bitches should therefore he allowed to breed, nor is it good for 

 their health to prevent it ; for nature almost invariably punishes 

 extraordinary deviations from her established laws, of which the 

 reproductive system is one of the most important. Breeding, 

 therefore, is so much a healthy and necessary process, that 

 bitches prevented from it rarely remain unaffected by disease, and 

 more particularly those whose confined and luxurious lives espe- 

 cially require the aid of such outlets to the superabundance of 

 the system as are opened during the processes of breeding and 

 rearing of young. In such, barrenness is particularly hurtful, 

 and greatly assists in producing, sooner or later, enormous and 

 diseased collections of fat, either universal or partial. The partial 

 collections frequently shew themselves by a swelling on each side 

 of the loins, the consequence of a deposit of adipose substance 

 around each ovaria. In other cases, particularly where barren- 

 ness is occasional only, the mammae, or milk glands, become af- 

 fected with small indurations, which are apt eventually to end in 

 confirmed scirrhi or open ulcers. See SCIRRHOUS DISEASES OF 

 Glands, Class V. — A more immediate evil likewise often awaits 



