DOGS! THEIR MANAGEMENT. 227 



fluid. It has under disease become a vast cyst, from 

 which, in a setter, I have actually extracted more than 

 two gallons of serum : from a small spaniel I have taken 

 this organ so increased in size that it positively weighed 

 one half the amount of the body from which it was 

 removed. The wonder is that the apparently weak cover- 

 ing to the liver could bear so great a pressure without 

 bursting. 



INDIGESTION. 



THINGS must seem to have come to a pretty pass when 

 a book is gravely written upon dyspepsia in dogs. 

 Nevertheless, I am in earnest when I treat upon that 

 subject ; and could the animals concerned bear witness, 

 they would testify it was indeed no joke. The Lord 

 Mayor of London does not retire from office with a 

 stomach more deranged than the majority of the canine 

 race, shielded by his worshipful authority, could exhibit. 

 The cause in both instances is the same. Dogs as they 

 increase in years seem to degenerate sadly ; till at length 

 they mumble dainties and relish flavors with the gusto 

 of an alderman. Pups even are not worthy of unlimited 

 confidence. The little animals will show much ingenuity 

 in. procuring substances that make the belly ache ; and, 

 with infantine perversity, will, of their own accord, gobble 

 things which, if administered, would excite shrieks of 

 resistance. A litter of high-bred pups is a source of no 



