AOB— ADMINISTKEIHO MEDICIITES. 3 



they offer to the eye. The approach of old age is evidenced by a 

 staidness and gravity of manner, disinclination to active exercise 

 except at the call of duty, the eye loses its lustre, and slightly sinks, 

 while around it grey hairs appear, which gradually extend over the 

 face. In pugs I have observed the black face turn grey at a very 

 early age, and the more intense in colour the mask, the earlier this 

 change appears. 



AGE TO WHICH DOGS LIVE.— The duration of life in 

 the dog varies greatly. Ouvier calculates the length of life of the 

 dog to be seven times that of the period of his growth. Blaine says 

 he knew a mother and son in good health and vigorous at the ages 

 of twenty and twenty-one, and Youatt says the dog has been known 

 to linger on till he reached his two and twentieth year ; and oc- 

 casionally cases are reported of a much greater age, but I have 

 never seen an instance supported by proof. Some time back a 

 number of correspondents favoured me with communications on this 

 subject in The Bazaar, but only in one case could I feel satisfied 

 that the dog had reached the age of twenty years. That dog was 

 of no particular breed, and was owned by a farmer near Guildford. 

 Dame Juliana Bemers, authoress of the " Book of Hunting," com- 

 monly called the "Boke of St. Albyn's," writing of the greyhound, 



says : 



"When he is comyn to the nynthe yere 

 Have him to the tannere 

 For the best hounde that ever bytche had 

 At nynthe yere he is fuU badde." 



Many dogs, however, retain almost pristine vigour until long past 

 that age, but, as a rule, at fourteen or fifteen, if not at an earlier 

 age, a dog becomes offensive in smell, and in many other ways 

 a nuisance. 



AGE OP KtATtTRITT.— The smaller breeds may be said to 

 attain full growth in about twelve months from birth; but the 

 largest breeds do not arrive at maturity much under two years, and 

 there are gradations between these consistent with the varieties. 

 First development of oestrum, or "heat," is often taken to be proof 

 of maturity in bitches ; but it is an error, and it is detrimental to 

 health to allow bitches to breed until full grown. 



SEODES OF ADMIITISTEBING UEBICINES.— Some 



medicines are readily taken in the food, and when this is the case it 

 saves much trouble and needless alarm and irritation to the dog. In a 

 little savoury broth or porridge most dogs will take castopofl, olive oil, 



B 3 



