178 DOGS: THEIR MANAGEMENT. 



medicine often performs that which no one, if persevered 

 with, will accomplish. 



All writers, when treating of distemper, speak of worms, 

 and give directions for their removal during the existence 

 of the disease. I know they are too often present, and 

 I am afraid they too often aggravate the symptoms ; but 

 it is no easy matter to judge precisely when they do or 

 when they do not exist. The remedies most to be de- 

 pended upon for their destruction, are not such as can be 

 beneficial to the animal laboring under this disorder ; but, 

 on the other hand, the tonic course of treatment I propose 

 is very likely to be destructive to the worms. Therefore, 

 rather than risk the possibility of doing harm, I rely upon 

 the tonics, and have no reason to repent the confidence 

 evinced in this particular. 



The treatment of distemper consists in avoiding all and 

 everything which can debilitate ; it is, simply, strength- 

 ening by medicine aided by good nursing. It is neither 

 mysterious nor complex, but is both clear and simple 

 when once understood. It was ignorance alone which 

 induced men to resort to filth and cruelty for the relief of 

 that which is not difficult to cure. In animals, I am cer- 

 tain, kindness is ninety-nine parts of what passes for 

 wisdom ; and, in man, I do not think the proportion is 

 much less ; for how often does the mother's love preserve 

 the life which science abandons ! To dogs we may be a 

 little experimental ; and with these creatures, therefore, 

 there is no objection to trying the effects of those gentler 

 feelings, which the very philosophical sneer at as the in- 



