176 The Carnivora. 
pleted—are no more than twenty-eight. A considerable pro- 
portion of these must be deducted for erroneous diagnosis. 
We may conclude this, then, to be one of the rarest of 
diseases, and the chances against any one of us falling vic- 
tims to it, are something like seven hundred thousand to one. 
Nevertheless, it is a terrible disease, and, apart from its 
actual results, induces perpetual apprehension, which, in the 
aggregate, has a more serious effect on the community. 
The first measure is to render the public familiar with the 
symptoms, and the precautions to be taken. This, as has 
been pointed out over and over again for years past, in the 
Field and other journals, may be done by printing the in- 
formation on the back of the licence, or by posting it on 
the doors of all places of worship. The next is to make the 
owner of the dog responsible for any damage it does. On 
a licence being taken out, the licensee should receive a zinc 
plate, with a number, and the name of the owner and the 
issuing office stencilled on it, and be compelled to rivet this 
to the collar, the use of a false number being made penal. 
Any dog found without a number should be liable to be 
destroyed, after having been kept at the police station for a 
given time. Any owner who valued his dog, either for profit 
or pleasure — obviously no others are fit to keep such an 
animal—would comply with this provision, and his identifi- 
cation would be possible, and generally easy, in case of any 
mischief done by the dog. This would not be a hardship to 
any owner with a proper sense of what is due to his neigh- 
bours and his dog; while it would meet the case of him 
who is indifferent to both. 
Under present conditions, if any damage occurs to man or 
beast through the action of uncontrolled dogs, or they show 
symptoms of disorder, they are commonly disowned, with the 
view of escaping responsibility. Dog fancying has increased 
vastly within the last ten years, and, to gratify a passing 
vanity —that of possessing an animal with half-a-dozen 
drops of prize blood, or the reputation of it, in his veins— 
