WORMING. 301 



(in the fully formed stage of the disease, but not until then), the 

 dog finds a difficulty in closing his mouth, with an effort suffi- 

 ciently quick and powerful to hite. This state of madness being as 

 common as the raging kind, it must frequently occur to dogs which 

 have been wormed ; and when such is the case, the lessened 

 danger from the swollen state of the mouth, and the actual dimi- 

 nished disposition to do mischief in the variety of rabies, is attributed 

 to the worming : I, however, hope to be able to shew, that worm- 

 ing is most erroneously considered a preventive against madness. 

 The error itself may probably be regarded as a very innocent 

 one, and it therefore may be aked, Why take such pains to com- 

 bat it ? Without laying any stress on the propriety of combating 

 all error whatever, I would inquire. Is the error really a harmless 

 one ? I could readily quote more than a dozen respectable au- 

 thorities, who urge the entire freedom from risk of rabies by 

 worming. Among them 1 would particularly instance the writer 

 of that classic morceau, the Treatise on Greyhounds, where we 

 find — " As a preservative against mischief, I can bear my testi- 

 mony to its efficacy. I have seen many and repeated instances of 

 its preventing any injury whatever in the strongest paroxysms of 

 the complaint ; and I have confined dogs who had died mad, and 

 had been wormed, with others of little value, for the express pur- 

 pose of the experiment, without the latter receiving any inconveni- 

 ence whatever." 



Mr. Daniel, a writer of no mean celebrity, has been at much 

 pains to enforce the same opinion ; and after these and many 

 other writers of repute, can we wonder that lesser sporting satel- 

 lites in abundance are seen to disseminate and keep alive this mis- 

 taken notion ? 



The dangerous tendency of the error I have witnessed in 

 many instances. I have very often had brought to me, or I have 

 been sent for to see, dogs labouring under the dumb variety of 

 madness, which having bitten other dogs (and sometimes the 

 owners also), the circumstance has been the occasion of much 

 surprise, because their owners being fully impressed with the 



