THE SOG. 



tuumal must not cease. Its diet must still be scrupulously 

 regulated, and the following tonic pill prepared: — Disulphate 

 of quinine, one to four scruples ; sidphate of iron, one to four 

 scruples ; extract of gentian, two to eight drachms ; powdered 

 quassia, a sufficiency. Make into twenty piUs and give three 

 daily. This is Mr. Mayhew's prescription, as iudeed are all the 

 others contained in this chapter. 



It will sometimes happen in distemper cases that the animal, 

 irritated beyond control by the violent itching of a parti- 

 cular member, — either of its feet or tail, — will commence to 

 nibble at it with his teeth. Nor wiU he stop at nibbling, but 

 proceed to downright gnawing. A dog has been thus known 

 to consume the first two joints of his tail. Applications of 

 nauseous drugs to the itching parts are sometimes recom- 

 mended as a preventive, but the best remedy is to encase the 

 offending member in a socket of leather, of the same substance 

 say as gentlemen's boot-tops are made. 



With regard to the animal's eyes, however bad they may 

 appear, do not meddle with them. According to the best au- 

 thority all water, either warm, tepid, or cold, every kind of 

 lotion, or any sort of salve or powder, will do harm, either by 

 weakening or irritating the organs of sight. Nature, if left to 

 herself, will probably restore the animal's eyes to their former 

 perfection, but any meddling with them wUl certainly put it 

 to great pain and not improbably destroy the sight, or at least 

 leave on the eye a white seam to remind you of your foUy. 



LAWS BESPECTISG DOGS AND DOG-KEEPING. 



The keeping of vicious or destructive dogs, except under 

 proper precautions, is illegal, and the owner of the offending 

 animal is liable for the damage done unless it can be clearly 

 shown that the fault lay with the party injured. Measures of 

 precaution may be enforced against dogs suspected to be savage. 

 If a man have a dog which h^ suspects to be of a savage 

 nature and addicted to bite, and he allow it to go in a fre- 

 quented place without being muzzled or otherwise guarded, so 

 as to prevent its committing injury, he may be indicted, in 

 England, as for a common nuisance. If the dog be of a 

 ferocious kind, as a mastiff, it has been held that it mast be 

 muzzled, and it will be no defence in an action of damages 

 against the master that the person injured trod on the dog's 

 toes, for he woidd not have trod on them if they had not been 



