SCIENCE OF FOXHUNTING. 51 



then through deer-parks and hare and rabbit war- 

 rens, to accustom them to the sight of those animals 

 they are not to pursue. 



This exercising ought to commence on the third 

 or fourth day after the young hounds are brought 

 back to the kennel, and before they have shown 

 symptoms of distemper. Principiis obsta ; sero 

 medicina paratur, is a Latin proverb which 

 answers to our English one, " Prevention is better 

 than cure," peculiarly applicable to the treatment 

 of young hounds. At this most critical point of 

 their existence, due preparation to meet this disease 

 is almost equivalent to its cure, and this prepa- 

 ration consists in plenty of walking exercise and 

 rather low diet. When inflammation is most to be 

 dreaded, as in distemper, then every precaution 

 should be taken to keep the body in a healthy 

 state. We once cured a couple of deerhound pup- 

 pies by walking them twice a day after a team at 

 plough, and, save at the beginning, when the 

 cough began, giving each a dose of emetic tartar. 

 They required no other medicine, the fresh-turned 

 earth possessing such healing and invigorating pro- 

 perties. We cannot claim this idea as an original 

 one, since we have heard of medical men in former 

 years prescribing the same remedy for consumptive 

 patients with this distinction only, that they were 

 to ride instead of walk after the plough. If, in 

 addition to this airing, our young hounds were fed 

 upon whey in the morning, and porridge in the 

 afternoon only, we should not hear so much about 

 the ravages of distemper. 



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