338 DOGS : THEIR MANAGEMENT 



it to ; and great as may be the ignorance of the parties 

 who go about the country under various assumed deno- 

 minations, to torture the canine race, surely, they who 

 pay such fellows, or allow their animals to be abused by 

 these pretenders, display a want of sense even more de- 

 plorable ? Still this is done every day. The nobility 

 continue to be the profitable dupes of a host of confident 

 impostors ; and strangely seem to be infatuated with 

 the belief that the man who sells a dog can likewise 

 administer to the diseases of the creatures in which he 

 trades. 



The bitch is most unfortunate in the variety of severi- 

 ties she is compelled to undergo. Some foolish persons 

 have imagined they can at will induce the periodical 

 desire for offspring in the animal. To do this, violent 

 stimulants are employed ; being often given by the 

 mouth, but more frequently injected up the passage. 

 I have no proof that such means are ever successful ; 

 and were they capable of doing all they are employed 

 to accomplish, I would certainly refuse to make use of 

 them. Nature cannot be coerced to man's profit; and 

 any interference with her laws is always dangerous. The 

 consequences may not be so immediate that in every 

 instance the effect is traced to the cause ; but the ma- 

 jor portion of the affections of which the female genera- 

 tive organs of the dog are too commonly the seat, may 

 be attributed to the carelessness, or cruelty of the owner, 

 or of those by whom he is surrounded. 



Various morbid growths are apt to appear upon or 



