108 dogs: their managembnt. 



could easily be q^uoted, but tbey would here be somewhat 

 out of place ; and probably sufficient has been said to 

 check a dangerous reliance upon results that admit of no 

 positive deduction 



It is painful to peruse the " experiments" made espe- 

 cially by the French authors. We read that so much of 

 some particular agent caused death to a dog in such a 

 period ; but he must be wise indeed who learns anything 

 from statements of this kind. The word dog represents 

 animals of various sizes and very diverse constitutions ; 

 therefore no conclusion can be drawn from an assertion 

 that does not embrace every paxticular. Unfortunately, 

 however, the operators think it no disgrace to their sci- 

 entific attainments to put forth such loose and idle asser- 

 tions ; nor do they seem to hold it derogatory to their 

 intelligence that they assume to reach a show of certainty 

 by experimentalising upon a creature about which, as 

 their reports bear witness, they literally know nothing. 

 Equally unsatisfactory are the surgical and physiological 

 experiments- made upon these creatures. No results 

 deduced from such acts can be of the slightest impor- 

 tance. The anatomy of the dog is not by them generally 

 understood. There is no book upon this subject that is 

 deserving of commendation; and, to instance the igno- 

 rance which prevails even in places where a superficial 

 knowledge ought to exist, I will mention but one circum- 

 stance. 



At the Eoyal Veterinary College there is a professor 

 of Particular Anatomy, whose duty it is specially to in- 



