106 DOGS : THEIR MANAGEMENT, 



pound, and a large Newfoundland four times that 

 amount. The process, as might be anticipated, operates 

 upon the bowels ; but I have never found it to do so 

 with any dangerous power ; on the contrary, the laxative 

 effect is generally in these cases beneficial. 



Medicine to the dog requires to be administered with 

 caution. The nostrums which are so particularly recom- 

 mended by grooms and farriers ought never to be made use 

 of. The veterinary surgeon is less likely to commit error ; 

 but there are, however, few of the profession who devote 

 attention to the dog with the zeal which the comprehen- 

 sion of its diseases and their treatment demand. Hunts- 

 men and gamekeepers are generally from practical expe- 

 rience not altogether inapt dog doctors, where the larger 

 and more robust kind of animal is to be treated , but for 

 the smaller and petted species these persons ought not to 

 be consulted. Many of their receipts are harsh — not a 

 few of them inoperative — and some even dangerous; 

 while all for the most part are pushed down at random, 

 or in total ignorance of any effect the agents employed 

 may induce beyond the intended one of doing good or 

 working a certain cure. Nevertheless, with the kind of 

 animals generally entrusted to their charge, such persons 

 are so far successful that, in the absence of better advice, 

 they deserve to be consulted for the larger species of 

 dogs. The human physician will also, on occasions, 

 be enabled to prescribe advantageously for the canine 

 race ; but not knowing the treatment of the diseases, 

 and the symptoms being too often deceptive, the high- 



