A Sportsman at Large 195 



But it was done ! And in this wise. 



The dogs had been taken to a military shed near the port 

 of embarkation, where the conspirators proceeded to chloro- 

 form them. Each inanimate corpus was thrust into a specially 

 constructed kit-bag and taken aboard by Tim. They were 

 all revived in the officer's cabin, and when the chalk hills of 

 Old Blighty were near at hand, the anaesthetic was again 

 administered and the dogs were landed in the same fashion 

 as they had been embarked ; arrangements having been care- 

 fully made for their revival when they had been " cleared." 

 This was a clever bit of work ; but it was risky and hardly 

 moral. Risky, because dogs of all breeds are peculiarly 

 susceptible to chloroform and its kindred vapours. A large 

 percentage succumb, even when administration is by an 

 expert anaesthetist. Immoral, because the quarantine of 

 imported dogs is essential to the prevention of that most 

 terrible disease rabies. There is little doubt but that the 

 outbreak which occurred in 1916, and which was not entirely 

 exorcised until 1922, was due to the wickedly selfish conduct 

 of certain air pilots, who evaded quarantine by using their 

 planes to bring into this country dogs collected in foreign 

 districts where rabies was at that time rampant. 



13* 



