248 THE BOOK OF A NATURALIST 



As a naturalist I was interested in the muzzling 

 order, and after noting its effects my interest in the 

 subject has continued ever since. It should also, 

 I imagine, be a matter of interest and importance 

 to all who have a special regard for the dog or who 

 are " devoted to dogs," who regard them as the 

 " friends of man," even holding with the canophilists 

 of the old Youatt period of the last century that 

 the dog was specially created to fill the place of 

 man's servant and companion. Strange to say, I 

 have not yet met with any person of the dog-loving 

 kind who has himself noticed any change in the 

 temper or habits of the dog during the last fourteen 

 or fifteen years or has any knowledge of it. One 

 can only suppose — and this applies not only to 

 those who cherish a peculiar affection for the dog, 

 but to the numerous body of London naturalists 

 as well — that the change was unmarked on account 

 of the very long period during which the order was 

 in force, when dogs were deprived of the power 

 to bite, so that when the release came the former 

 condition of things in the animal world was no 

 longer distinctly remembered. It was doubtless 

 assumed that, the muzzle once removed, all things 

 were exactly as they had been before : if a few 

 remembered and noticed the change, they failed 

 to record it — at all events I have seen nothing 

 about it in print. Circumstances made it impossible 

 for me not to notice the immediate effect of the 

 order, and at the end of the time to forget the state 

 of things as they existed before its imposition. 



