OF DOGS UNDER DISEASE. 91 



quantity of oil of turpentine will kill a dog ; when in human prac- 

 tice, a considerable dose is frequently given as a vermifuge'*. 

 Between the eflfects produced by many medicinal articles on the 

 stomachs of other domestic animals, and that of the dog, a still 

 more marked distinction, or at least a more universal one, exists. 

 Without knowing better, one might be misled by the accounts we 

 read and hear from sportsmen of the monstrous doses they give 

 of some medicines : the fact is, the stomach rejects it at once, — a 

 dog is soon vomited, and thus is not destroyed ; give him half the 

 quantity, and it would kill, because it might not be immediately 

 rejected. It will therefore be evident, that neither the human 

 physician nor the veterinary practitioner can be equal to a suc- 

 cessful medical practice on dogs, without much attention to the 

 subject, and much experience in it. It adds to our difficulty in 

 collecting the diagnostic signs of disease, that our patient, like the 

 human infant, cannot speak ; with dogs, nothing but very long 

 habit of observation of these appearances in a vast number of cases, 

 united with a natural quickness of perception, can enable the prac- 



® The critic should beware sometimes when he wields the lash, for fear the 

 stroke may recoil. When this work first appeared, and was reviewed, great siir- 

 prise was expressed, because I had made so palpable an omission, as not to insert 

 oil of turpentine as a vermifuge for the dog. Perhaps the reviewer was the 

 same gentleman noticed by Mr. Youatt, in The Veterinarian, vol. ii, p. 11, who 

 gave one or two drachms of it to a stout spaniel for tape- worm, which destroyed 

 him instantly. In a late sporting work of great volume, we find it also recom- 

 mended to give half a pint of linseed oil and two drachms of oil of turpentine 

 as a ^* sovereign remedy''' for worms. It would be no easy matter to get the 

 quantity down, and the quality of the turpentine would in all probability kill : 

 the same work recommends, as a cure for fits, from two to eight grains of 

 tartar emetic. Very few dogs would survive the taking of the larger dose. I 

 saw a large and valuable dog destroyed by ten grains, given at the instance of 

 a veterinary surgeon even. It is much to be regretted, that gentlemen and 

 authors are so ready to ofier medical instructions on matters they know nothing 

 about There is certainly no more reason why the most finished sportsman 

 should be able to prescribe for the diseases of horses or dogs, than that the 

 valets who attend on them, or the barber who shaves them, should understand 

 their diseases. 



