DOGS*. THEIR MANAGEMENT. 37l 



no day my hands are not spared, for they are constantly 

 exposed, and never protected; and I should long ago 

 have been torn to pieces if the canine race were legiti- 

 mate objects of dread. Therefore I merely discharge a 

 debt, when I assert the magnanimity of the creature ; and 

 it is a duty on my part to do all in my power to benefit 

 the despised brute. With that object I speak most unre- 

 servedly, in condemnation of the way in which instru- 

 ments are employed during parturition. Many various 

 inventions are sold in shops ; and of these, the great 

 majority are very dangerous. Of themselves, very few 

 indeed are safe, with any skill; and most are seldom 

 needed. In the mode of employing them, they are almost 

 sure to do injury ; for in ninety -nine cases out of every 

 hundred, they are introduced much too early, and in the 

 hundredth they are used with unnecessary violence. 



Before any instrument is employed, the pup should be 

 within the pelvis. The forceps sold in shops are made 

 with the intention of dragging the foetus from the womb ; 

 and one of the difficulties the practitioner is supposed to 

 encounter in parturition of the bitch, is taught to be the 

 impossibility of hauling the foetus from the horn of the 

 uterus. One pup generally occupies the body of the 

 womb, and the rest of the litter are located in the horns. 

 That is their natural situation ; and as in the gravid state 

 the length of the horns is greatly extended, of course 

 some occupy a place far within the abdomen. The 

 length of the horns, however, though supposed to consti- 

 tute the only obstacle, is not the single cause which pre- 



