108 DOGS: THEIR MANAGEMENT. 



could easily be quoted, but they would here be somewhat 

 out of place ; and probably sufficient has been said to 

 check a dangerous reliance upon results that admit of no 

 positive deduction 



It is painful to peruse the " experiments" made espe- 

 cially by the French authors. We read that so much of 

 some particular agent caused death to a dog in such a 

 period ; but he must be wise indeed who learns anything 

 from statements of this kind. The word dog represents 

 animals of various sizes and very diverse constitutions ; 

 therefore no conclusion can be drawn from an assertion 

 that does not embrace every particular. Unfortunately, 

 however, the operators think it no disgrace to their sci- 

 entific attainments to put forth such loose and idle asser- 

 tions ; nor do they seem to hold it derogatory to their 

 intelligence that they assume to reach a show of certainty 

 by experimentalising upon a creature about which, as 

 their reports bear witness, they literally know nothing. 

 Equally unsatisfactory are the surgical and physiological 

 experiments made upon these creatures. No results 

 deduced from such acts can be of the slightest impor- 

 tance. The anatomy of the dog is not by them generally 

 understood. There is no book upon this subject that is 

 deserving of commendation; and, to instance the igno- 

 rance which prevails even in places where a superficial 

 knowledge ought to exist, I will mention but one circum- 

 stance. 



At the Royal Veterinary College there is a professor 

 of Particular Anatomy, whose duty it is specially to in- 



