The Dogs’ Home. 177 
persons who have neither the knowledge, the will, nor the 
facilities for keeping dogs under sufficient control, often turn 
them out to pick up what they can in the streets and sleep 
on the doorstep, and thus expose the community to serious 
risk. 
The disease of rabies is, by the testimony of veterinary 
surgeons in all parts of the kingdom, certainly on the in- 
crease, and if measures are not taken to stamp it out, it must, 
ere long, assume such proportions that little short of the 
destruction of the whole canine population, may become 
necessary, in'the interest of the public safety. 
There can be no doubt that that excellent institution, 
The Temporary Home for Lost and Starving Dogs, at Batter- 
sea, is doing valuable service in collecting the waifs and 
strays from the streets of London, returning to their owners 
those that are claimed, finding homes for others, and putting 
a merciful end to numbers of the crippled and diseased. 
Apart from its beneficent object, the public utility of such 
an institution must be apparent, when we reflect that the 
disposition of the dog when suffering from the virus of 
rabies, is to wander. He is taken charge of by the police, or 
by the officers of the Institution, and sent to the Home, 
where his condition is made the subject of close scrutiny. 
Should any suspicion arise, he is strictly isolated, and, if 
necessary, killed; while the dogs are at all times closely 
watched for the appearance of symptoms indicating this 
disorder. 
In the Twenty-third Annual Report of the Home, we find 
14,476 dogs were brought there in 1883 by the Metropolitan 
police, 103 by the City police, and 108 by private persons. 
Of this large total—14,687—1985 were claimed by their owners; 
2188 were sold; and the remainder, 10,514, were destroyed as 
diseased or totally worthless. Rabies has, from time to time, 
appeared, the number of cases certified during 1883 being 
thirteen—not a large proportion by any means among a class 
of animals which, as wanderers, would be specially exposed 
N 
