dogs: their management. 109 



struct the pupils concerning the dog. The lectures, how- 

 ever, embrace but little, and that little is principally 

 devoted to wandering remarks upon the osseous structure. 

 Of the value of such teaching some opinion may be 

 formed when the skeleton at the College actually exhibits 

 the bones placed in wrong cr unnatural situations. After 

 the proof thereby afforded, with what reliance can any 

 sane mind accept the awful declarations of those anato- 

 mists who, upon the living bodies of these creatures, have, 

 according to their own accounts, exhibited a. nicety and 

 certainty of skill which the profoundest acquaintance 

 with the various structures and parts would still leave 

 incomprehensible ? Such reports evidence only the pre- 

 sumptuous folly of individuals — the publication of such 

 records testifies no more than the ignorance of the age. 



To give medicine to the Dog often creates more bustle 

 than the magnitude of the creature appears to justify. 

 Moreover, if the parties concerned in the undertaking 

 are not quite up to their business, the animal, which, 

 between its gasping, howling, and struggling, will find 

 time to bite, increases the activity by provoking human 

 exclamations. I have known this species of confusion 

 to have been continued for half an hour ; during which 

 work was stopped in a forge, and three brawny smiths 

 joined a veterinary surgeon's efforts to give a pill to a 

 little spaniel that could not have weighed above eight 

 pounds. The dog was beaten and hands were bitten, but 

 after all, no pill was swallowed. The result was the 

 natural consequence of the manner of proceeding. No 



