SCIENCE OF FOXHUNTING. 287 



selves with boots and gloves, in order to face the 

 enemy if he should offer to attack them. In short, 

 the whole people stand bravely upon their defence, 

 and seem by their present spirit to show a resolution 

 of being tamely bit by mad dogs no longer. Their 

 manner of knowing whether a dog be mad or not 

 somewhat resembles the ancient Gothic custom of 

 trying witches. The old woman suspected was tied 

 hand and foot and thrown into the water. If she 

 swam, then she was instantly carried off to be burnt 

 for a witch ; if she sunk, then indeed she was 

 acquitted of the charge, but drowned in the ex- 

 periment. In the same manner a crowd gather 

 round a dog suspected of madness, and they begin 

 by teasing the devoted animal on every side. If he 

 attempts to stand on the defensive and bite, then he 

 is unanimously found guilty, ' for a mad dog always 

 snaps at everything/ If, on the contrary, he strives 

 to escape by running away, then he can expect no 

 compassion, for ' mad dogs always run straight for- 

 ward before them/ Were most stories of this 

 nature well examined, it would be found that of 

 numbers of such as have been actually bitten, not 

 one in a hundred was bit by a mad dog." 



As a case in point, confirming Goldsmith's opinion, 

 we remember the highly-respected master of our 

 school being bitten on the fleshy part of his arm by 

 a young greyhound, which, from being seized with a 

 fit immediately after, and foaming at the mouth, our 

 kind-hearted doctor believed to be mad, and with a 

 resolution few would exhibit, he ran into the kitchen, 

 thrust a knife into the fire until it was red-hot, and 



