84 DOGS: THEIR MANAGEMENT. 



utmost gentleness should be employed. The stranger 

 should advance quietly, and not bustle rudely up to the 

 animal. He should speak to it in accents of com- 

 miseration, which will be better comprehended than 

 the majority of reasonable beings may be willing to 

 admit. 



The hand after a little while should be quietly offered 

 to the dog to smell, and that ceremony being ended, the 

 pulse may be taken, or any other necessary observation 

 made, without dread of danger. Every consideration, 

 however, ought to be given to the condition of the beast. 

 No violence on any account should be indulged ; it is 

 better to be ignorant of symptoms than to aggravate the 

 disorder by attempting to ascertain their existence. If 

 the brain should be affected, or the nervous system sym- 

 pathetically involved, silence is absolutely imperative. 

 No chirping or loud talking ought under such circum- 

 stances to be allowed, and the animal should not be 

 carried into the light for the purpose of inspecting it. 

 The real condition of the patient, and the extent or 

 nature of its disease, will be best discovered by silently 

 watching the animal for some time, and attentively 

 noting those actions which rarely fail to point out the 

 true seat of the disorder. Consequently manual inter- 

 ference is the less needed, and in numerous instances I 

 have, when the creature has appeared to be particularly 

 sensitive to being handled, trusted to visible indications, 

 and done so with perfect success. The hand certainly 

 can confirm the eye, but the mind, properly directed, 



