108 HUNTING DIRECTORY. 



Dumb Madness. 



minute for the information of spoi'tsmen in general, par- 

 ticularly as I have been informed, that the disorder which 

 I have attempted to describe, or something very much 

 resembling it, has carried off, within the last few years, 

 great numbers of valuable dogs, especially in Yorkshire. 

 Should a similar case occur with any of my dogs, I 

 should force food, (nourishing broth, for instance), down 

 the throat, with an instrument adapted for the purpose ; 

 and if I found it impossible to get it down, I would inject 

 it into the bowels, when a sufficient quantity would be 

 taken up by the absorbents, to sustain life till the dis- 

 ease of the glands abated. In the first place, I should 

 feel a disposition to bleed the afflicted animal, as this 

 would prevent any superabundant pressure of blood upon 

 the parts affected, which I might perhaps rub well with 

 mercurial ointment. 



It is a lamentable fact, that so little attention has been 

 paid to the diseases of this invaluable animal, though no 

 creature which has yet been taken under human pro- 

 tection affords so good an opportunity for observation, 

 or is so much entitled to the assistance and kind offices 

 of its master. The dog vhas become a domestic of the 

 most familiar description, whose greatest delight is in 

 administering to the pleasures of the sportsman, or those 

 by whom his services are called into action ; his civiliza- 

 tion may be said to proceed in the precise ratio with that 

 of human nature, and he uniformly takes his tone from 

 the circumstance or the situation of his master. As he 

 has closely associated himself with man, therefore, he 

 has brought upon himself a train of diseases, resulting 

 from his artificial mode of life ; and from which, in a 



