CURABILITY AND TREATMENT OF ANIMAL INSANITY. 359 



horse, which is perhaps ruined for its master's use. An 

 argument, this, for masters looking personally to the comforts 

 and good treatment of their horses, dogs, and cattle, and 

 for not deputing a trust so liable to abuse to underlings of 

 any kind. 



Fortunately the same general, and even to a certain ex- 

 tent, the same special treatment is applicable to other morbid 

 conditions than insanity. It is pro tanto suitable in the 

 case of 



1. Rabies, distemper, and many other bodily diseases ; as 

 well as of 



2. Many vices, such as shying, bolting, restiveness, morbid 

 timidity, and the physical conditions on which these dis- 

 abilities so frequently depend ; and, moreover, it is desirable 

 in the case of 



3. Animals merely suspected to be labouring under this 

 or that disease, mental or bodily, or under the prodromata 

 thereof, for instance of animals reputedly mad or rabietic. 



Animals themselves treat mental defects in their offspring 

 very much as man does, showing on the one hand the same 

 tenderness and thoughtfulness ; and on the other, committing 

 the same kind of mistakes. Thus, the bitch that recognises 

 mental imbecility in her pup, sometimes gives it special 

 attention by providing for its wants in the most considerate, 

 loving, self-sacrificing way. But, on the other hand, simple- 

 tons among young foxes are apt to meet with treatment of an 

 opposite, harsh, and injudicious kind, though not the result of 

 any intended cruelty. The object of the parents is obviously 

 to sharpen the dull wits of their stupid cubs, an object which, 

 by reason of mental defect, it is impossible to accomplish. 

 But the same sort of error is common to man, to parents 

 and teachers alike, in the attempted education of the incor- 

 rigible dullard, whose incapability or incapacity arises from 

 the same cause as the stupidity of the mentally imbecile fox-> 

 cubs congenital and permanent mental defect. 



