304? WORMING. 



I believe equally with Mr. Youatt, when we met with the dumb 

 variety, Had this dog ever been wormed ? and we were so often 

 answered in the affirmative, as, without other proof, to be fully 

 aware of its inefficacy. The same has fallen under the notice of 

 many other persons ; and I have met with several observant sports- 

 men, who, having been so often deceived by its unfounded pre- 

 tensions, now never practise it. These facts ought to set the matter 

 at rest ; for they are of constant occurrence, and as indisputable 

 as frequent. 



Let us, however, for a moment call philosophy to our aid ; and 

 then inquire how this matter can be otherwise than as we state it. 

 Let us try it by the aids of anatomy and physiology first. Before 

 we proceed to an examination of the part, we will again review the 

 various opinions entertained of it. The ancients universally, and 

 many of the moderns also, have considered it as the specific seat 

 of the virus : the most absurd of them regarded it as a poisonous 

 reptile : some, convinced of the error of distinct life in the part, 

 have yet continued to look on it as the germ of madness^ which 

 required only the fructifying power of the rabid poison to bring 

 forth its malignant fruit. Others there are whose acuteness, though 

 too great to allow them to adopt opinions so truly absurd, have 

 permitted themselves to be sufficiently led astray by sporting au- 

 thorities, and by circumstances inapposite, as well as viewed through 



wrong media, to allow, with Sir Wm. C n, the immunity 



granted by worming to be complete, but wholly derived " from a 

 mechanical cause'" that is, "the tongue, from being swollen, 

 hangs out of the mouth, and, having lost its natural check by the 

 removal of the ligament immediately under it, the dog cannot 

 withdraw it into the mouth to bite.^' There is at once so much 

 simplicity and apparent probability in this mode of reasoning, 

 strengthened as it is with facts, which, by a cursory observation 

 only might seem to bear immediately on it, that renders it par- 

 ticularly calculated to keep alive the error. Viewing it likewise, 

 in this way, and connecting it with the circumstance, that many, 

 nay most dogs, with the taciturn rabies, have some difficulty in 



