CH. XVIIL] MEDICINE, HOW GIVEN. 317 



quickly removed that slight symptom of illness. Perhaps the best 

 age to operate upon puppies is when they are well recovered from 

 their weaning." 



576. The balance of testimony and experience is, in my opinion, 

 quite in favour of vaccination ; but there are authorities of weight 

 who think that no good results from it. It is, however, certain that 

 it cannot be productive of harm. Elaine writes that, as far as his 

 experience went, " vaccination neither exempts the canine race from 

 the attack of the distemper, nor mitigates the severity of the com- 

 plaint." He adds, however, that the point was still at issue. 



577. It appears right to observe that Elaine and Jenner were 

 contemporaries at a period when the medical world was greatly 

 opposed to the vaccination of children. It is not surprising, there- 

 fore, that there should have been an unjust prejudice against the 

 vaccination of puppies. 'Youatt is altogether silent on the subject, 

 although he quotes Dr. Jenner's description of distemper. Colonel 

 Cook, in his observations on fox-hunting, &c., says, " Vaccination 

 was tried in some kennels as a preventive, but it failed, and was 

 abandoned." Mayhew* does not allude to it. 



578. Not until after the foregoing remarks on vaccination were 

 written, was I aware that Colonel Hawker recommended the plan, 

 or, of course, I should, in former editions, have quoted such high 

 authority. Speaking in 1838, he observes, " I have ever since 

 adopted the plan of vaccination ; and so little, if any, has been the 

 effect of distemper after it, that I have not lost a dog since the year 

 1816." " This remedy has been followed with great success both 

 here and in the United States. The plan adopted is to insert a 

 small quantity of vaccine matter under each ear, just as you would 

 do in the human arm." 



579. I know of many dogs in the south of England having been 

 cured of a regular attack of distemper by a lump of salt, about the 

 size of a common marble, being occasionally forced down their 

 throats ; say, for a grown-up pointer, half a dozen doses, with an 

 interval of two or three hours between each. The salt acts as an 

 emetic. Nourishing food and warmth are very requisite. 



580. To some few of my readers it may possibly be of use to 

 observe, that with a little management, it is very easy to trick a dog 

 into taking medicine. 



581. If your patient is a large animal, make a hole in a piece of 

 meat, and having wrapped the physic in thin paper, shove it into 

 the hole. Throw the dog one or two bits of meat, then the piece 

 containing the medicine, and the chances are that he will bolt it 

 without in the least suspecting he has been deceived. A pill, 

 enveloped in silver paper, emits no smell. If a powder is well 



* " Dogs, their Management," judgment ; one who dares think 



published by Routledge, a work for himself, not servilely treading 



evidently written by akind-hearted in the footsteps of his predeces- 



man of reflection, experience, and sors. 



