DOGS. 31 



THE DISEASES OF DOGS, 



THEIR CAUSES, SYMPTOMS, AND METHODS OF CUREy 



THE most prolific source of disease in dogs, is 

 mismanagement: this, again, may be considered 

 under two distinct heads, neglect and repletion: the 

 diseases resulting from neglect, are principally those 

 that arise from exposure to cold or damp, and affect 

 the digestive organs of the animal, as colds and the 

 like; and which for want of timely assistance settle 

 on the lungs and produce catarrhal affections, coughs, 

 asthma, or similar complaints; sometimes, indeed, 

 the neglect is even more discreditable, being a total 

 absence of attention towards the animal; and hence 

 productive of distemper and other cutaneous diseases; 

 this is often the case with the mongrel breeds that 

 infest the streets, the owners of which do not think 

 it worth while, or are too much engaged, to pay that 

 necessary attention to their dogs, which they yet 

 allow to breed indiscriminately, to the great annoy- 

 ance of the public and often to the peril of them- 

 selves; for it is not to be wondered at that hydrophobia 

 should prevail, when so many dogs are neglected 

 and suffered to roam at large in the streets, exposed 

 to all the vicissitudes of the weather, and compelled 

 by the cravings of hunger to feed on whatever comes 

 in their way. The law, in this respect, in not suf- 

 ficiently stringent; nor will the fatal and distressing 

 consequences of the horrible malady, to which this de- 

 scription of curs are peculiarly liable, be lessened till 

 some positive steps are taken to prevent or abridge 

 the indiscriminate increase of the mongrel races 

 of Dogs. 



