392 DOGS : THEIR MANAGEMENT. 



the period of parturition. Women, when not in dis- 

 tress and otherwise afflicted, rarely indeed are guilty 

 of infanticide; and I have observed annoyance or ill 

 health proceed or accompany the like act in animals. 

 If the rabbit be looked at, her alarm seems to change 

 her nature ; and the bitch that devours her pups will, 

 upon inquiry, be generally found to have suffered some 

 species of persecution. That the brain is affected there 

 can be no doubt. The unnatural propensity is of itself 

 a proof ; but the strange appearance, and the altered 

 looks of the creature, sufficiently denote her state. She 

 is not then savage ; her ferocity has been gratified ; 

 and she seems rather to be afflicted with a remem- 

 brance of the act she was unable to resist. She is the 

 picture of shame ; she slinks away at our approach, and 

 her eye no longer confidently seeks that of her mas- 

 ter ; her aspect is dejected, but I think more with sor- 

 row than with crime. 



I would not plead for sin ; but what I have beheld in 

 dogs inclines me to think the majority of those who have 

 been hung for infanticide were legally murdered. There 

 is danger in admitting such an opinion ; but seeing all 

 animals at certain periods exhibit a particular propensity, 

 it is very doubtful whether the morbid feeling, as exem- 

 plified in the" human race, is really one that calls for mor- 

 tal punishment. 



When a bitch has devoured her young, let an emetic 

 be administered ; and should the bowels be costive, an 

 aperient be exhibited. A little fever medicine may fol- 



