214 WILD NEIGHBORS CHAP. VIII 
junctivis) follow, and have been known to produce 
blindness in a few cases, though usually the injury 
disappears in a week or ten days. The effect upon 
the throat and lungs of inhaling any considerable 
quantity of this substance long ago suggested its 
value.as a specific “in certain spasmodic affections 
of the air-passages, such as asthma, hooping-cough, 
and asthmatic croup,” but it must be used with 
caution, if at all, since more than one sufferer, 
while confessing the relief given, has abandoned the 
remedy as worse than the ailment. Audubon and 
Bachman tell a funny story of how an asthmatic 
preacher emptied his church one morning by at- 
tempting to take a sniff of the medicine in the pul- 
pit, and somehow losing control of the stopper of 
the vial. A sequel of this benefit from the gland- 
substance has been the application of the oil from 
the fat of the animal to the relief of similar ail- 
ments, without any real effect, of course. 
Dogs howl with pain when they get a charge 
full in the face, and rush anywhere in evident 
agony, plunging their noses into the dust, drag- 
ging their faces against the ground, and showing 
every sign of intense pain. It is doubtful whether 
the vileness (to us) of the odor has much to do 
with their distress ; but this point, and its bearings 
on the question of the value of this discharge as a 
means of defence, will be considered hereafter. 
The animal makes use of its artillery by turning 
its stern toward the enemy, elevating its tail, and 
