124 DISEASES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



A strong dose of sulphate of magnesia was given every third day. After 

 four doses had been given it was impossible to force any more upon him. 

 The syrup of buckthorn was tried, but the fourth dose of that it was im- 

 possible to give. The dog was then sent into the country ; no fit occurred, 

 but there were occasional spasms. 



23rd September. He was brought back to town, and I saw him. During 

 the last month he had had many fits. His owner at length consented that 

 the actual cautery should be applied to his head. The searing-iron for 

 doctoring was used, and applied red-hot to the centre of the head. It was 

 exceedingly difficult so to confine the dog as to make the application 

 effectual, without destroying the skin. 



Under the influence of the sudden violent pain, he wandered about for 

 more than two hours, and then the spasms returned with greater force than 

 usual. He refused all food. 



We determined to try the cautery to its full extent. We chained him 

 up in the morning, and penetrated through the skin with the budding-iron. 

 The spasms were dreadfully violent, and he was scarcely able to walk or to 

 stand. This gradually subsided, and then he began to run round and round, 

 and that increased to an extraordinary velocity : he would then lie for a 

 while with every limb in action. The owner then yielded to all our wishes, 

 and he was destroyed with prussic acid. No morbid appearance presented 

 itself in the brain ; but, on the inner plate of the right parietal bone, near 

 the sagittal suture, were two projections, one-sixth of an inch in length, and 

 armed with numerous minute spicula. There was no peculiar inflammation 

 or vascularity of any other part of the brain. 



RHEUMATISM AND PALSY. 



I do not know any animal so subject to rheumatism as the dog, nor 

 any one in which, if it is early and properly treated, it is so manageable. 

 A warm bath perchance a bleeding a dose or two of the castor-oil 

 mixture, and an embrocation composed of spirit of turpentine, hartshorn, 

 camphorated spirit, and laudanum, will usually remove it in two or three 

 days, unless it is complicated with muscular sprains, or other lesions, such 

 as the chest-founder of kennels. 



This chest-founder is a singular complaint, and often a pest in kennels 

 that are built in low situations, and where bad management prevails. 

 Where the huntsman or whippers-in are too often in a hurry to get home, 

 and turn their dogs into the kennel panting and hot ; where the beds are 

 not far enough from the floor, or the building, if it should be in a suffi- 

 ciently elevated situation, has yet a northern aspect and is unsheltered 

 from the blast, chest-founder prevails ; and I have known half the pack 

 affected by it after a severe run, the scent breast-high, and the morning 

 unusually cold. It even occasionally passes on into palsy. 



The veterinary surgeon will be sometimes consulted respecting this pro- 

 voking muscular affection. His advice will comprise dryness, atten- 

 tion to the bowels, attention to the exercise-ground, and perhaps, occa- 

 sionally, setons not where the huntsman generally places them, on the 

 withers above, but on the brisket below, and defended from the teeth of 

 the dog by a roller of a very simple construction, passing round the chest 

 between the fore legs and over the front of the shoulders on either side. 



The pointer, somewhat too heavy before, and hardly worked, becomes 



