312 DOGS : THEIR MANAGEMENT. 



man can invent without displaying rabies. They have 

 held themselves up to the world, and in their book have 

 duly reported themselves as capable of perverting sci- 

 ence to the most hideous abuses, and under its name 

 contemplating acts and beholding sufferings at which the 

 feelings of humanity recoil with disgust. 



It is rarely that more than one mad dog appears at a 

 time in England ; so, to perfect their experiment, it 

 would be requisite for the French philosophers to pro- 

 cure all the specimens of the canine species in .this 

 island, and doom them to torture ; since, of the predis- 

 posing disposition or circumstances necessary to the de- 

 velopment of this disease, man knows nothing. Igno- 

 rance is not to be concealed under the practices of bar- 

 barity. 



Irritation or teazing, by exciting the nervous irrita- 

 bility of the dog, appears more likely than any physical 

 want to excite rabies. 



TETANUS. I have witnessed no case of this descrip- 

 tion in the dog. Both Blairie and Youatt speak of tetanus 

 as extremely rare in that animal; but both mention 

 having encountered it, and that it was in every instance 

 fatal. Since such is its termination, I am in no hurry to 

 meet with it, and care not how long it remains a stranger 

 to me. If any of my readers were to have a dog sub- 

 ject to this disease, the best treatment would be the ap- 

 plication of ether internally as medicine, with slops or 

 light puddings as food. The effects of the ether ought 

 to be kept up for a considerable period at one time, and 



