598 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [Vor. XXXIV. 
** The Management and Diseases of the Dog,” ! by John Woodroffe 
Hill, is a most valuable addition to canine literature, containing the 
results of the author's many years of exceptional experience with 
canine diseases. We are glad to notice that in the preface Mr. Hill 
most emphatically expresses his views on the absurd law for muzzling 
dogs during a rabies panic as follows: “utterly ineffectual in stamp- 
ing out rabies; partial and aggravating in its administration ; inju- 
rious and cruel to the subject." His views with relation to the cure 
of this disease are interesting and somewhat at variance with those 
generally entertained at the present time, in so far as the human 
subject is concerned. After stating that * it was recognized centuries 
ago, and the alarm engendered appears to have been as great then 
as in the present day," he goes on to say that *rewards have been 
offered for the discovery of a cure, but the probability of their ever 
being claimed is extremely dubious, — especially so long as spurious 
hydrophobia and various phases of hysteria are indiscriminately 
mixed up and mistaken for the real malady." The measures to be 
taken when human beings have been bitten by a suspected dog are 
described, and as these are of such vital interest, it seems best to 
quote his directions. 
* With regard to ourselves, all dog bites, as a precautionary meas- 
ure, should be treated as if they were inflicted by a rabid animal, że., 
by immediate suction, followed by the application of the actual 
cautery, nitric acid, or pure carbolic acid. When rabies is suspected 
the suction should be directly followed by complete excision of the 
wound, performed as quickly as possible; after which, without loss 
of time, the cautery or acid should be freely used. Compression 
above the wound, especially in the first instance, is also valuable. 
Failing the adoption of these measures, or even accompanying them, 
the Russian or Turkish bath should, if possible, be immediately had 
recourse to, and, in the absence of such measures, free and intense. 
perspiration should be promoted by other means, such being the 
most efficacious treatment at present known.... I also advise a 
powerful stimulant before taking the bath, and subsequently full 
doses of chlorate of potash and iron." 
The opening chapter is on general management, food, exercise, 
washing, grooming, clothing, kennel arrangement, disinfection, ad- 
ministration of medicine, and nursing. This last is a subject little 
studied in connection with animals, but it is far. more difficult to nurse 
1 Fifth edition. London, Swan, Sonnenschein & Co.; New York, The Mac 
millan Company, 1900. 531 pp., 8vo 
