20 THE DISEASES OF THE DOG. 



Stimulants, Sedatives, and Narcotics sometimes are 

 very violent in their action on dogs of high nervous tem- 

 perament, but tbey prove proportionately valuable in the 

 hands of the skilled practitioner. Opium can be taken in 

 fairly large amounts, the crude gum resin being given in 

 doses oftwo to four grains, and laudanum from half a drachm 

 to a drachm. Blaine in warning us against adopting human 

 doses for the dog, tells us that " a dog could take without 

 any derangement a dose of opium which would destroy a 

 man ; on the contrary, the quantity of nux vomica or 

 crowfig that would destroy the largest dog would fail to 

 destroy a man." Mercurials require the greatest caution 

 in administration to the dog ; tobacco given internally or 

 applied externally is apt to cause death ; and carbolic acid 

 if applied over an extensive surface affected with mange, 

 or licked by the animal, rapidly and fatally disorganises 

 the blood. 



Chloroform, too, requires the greatest caution in its ad- 

 ministration to the dog, and probably laughing gas would 

 prove much better suited. In many cases there is a diffi- 

 culty in obtaining the anEesthetic effects of the drug and 

 the animal does not rally. Prom experience we may lay 

 down the rule that no animal which is debilitated by dis- 

 ease or with irregular heart's beat should be put under 

 chloroform. It must be remembered that the arguments 

 in favour of the use of Anjlsthetics are not nearly so strong 

 in the case of lower animals as in that of man, that we 

 seldom have the necessary skilled assistants available, that 

 in the dog we have not such command over the pulse in- 

 dications as in man and the larger herbivora, and that 

 chloroform is known to be frequently fatal to the dog. 

 With all due respect to the views of some authors, we 

 are fully of opinion that all minor operations on the dog 

 may be most safely and humanely performed without 

 chloroform. In giving chloroform to a dog we must 

 remember how freely he can and does breathe through the 

 mouth. The best method is to hold a sponge on which 

 chloroform has been poured under a cloth loosely thrown 

 .over the head of the animal, which is held lying on its side 



