THE REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM. 43 



the preventing of the sexual intercourse, which is, a troublesome 

 accumulation of milk in the mammae or teats ; for the various or- 

 gans of generation have such a sympathetic connexion with each 

 other, that when females are denied the dog, still, when the cus- 

 tomary period of gestation or going with young has passed, milk 

 will nevertheless appear in the lactiferous glands. This some- 

 times occurs to a very considerable degree, and occasions much 

 heat and distention. It is more particularly observed in such 

 females as have already had young ones, and they invariably suf- 

 fer most in the future privation. In such cases, it is proper gently 

 to press out the milk daily, which will greatly relieve the animal ; 

 the teats should also be frequently bathed with a mixture of brandy 

 and vinegar a little weakened with water. Food should be given 

 sparingly, and that of a vegetable nature is best ; strong exercise 

 should also be encouraged, and an occasional dose of physic will 

 prove useful. The author of an elegant Treatise on Greyhounds 

 (whose opinion, as an observant sportsman and breeder, ought to 

 have due weight), remarks that where breeding has been always 

 prevented, he has never found any injurious eflfects whatever to 

 follow from it. It is undoubtedly true, and it accords with my 

 own experience, that the constitution having once been sub- 

 jected to the reproductive process, or, in other words, that it is 

 in those which have been once allowed to breed, that the injurious 

 consequences are most observed ; in every instance they are more 

 liable to suffer from the future deprivation of it than those in 

 whom the constitutional sympathies have never been fully excited 

 throughout the generative system. It may also be remarked, in 

 answer to the above statement, that sporting and other dogs ac- 

 customed to moderate feeding and regular exercise (which are 

 evidently those Sir W. C. draws his inferences from) will bear 

 this deprivation with much greater impunity than those that are 

 more confined and altogether more artificially treated. But as a 

 law in the animal economy, and as one applicable to the general state 

 and constitution of the dog, the reproduction of the species is a 



