FOREST AND STREAM 
887 
the Detroit Free Press tells us of his experience once upon 
a time with one of these omniscient old frauds :— 
The writer of this article once lost a dog ; it was far re¬ 
moved from beauty, aud not even ugly enough to attract 
attention. It was a “ yaller dog,” too, and possessed all 
the vagabond instincts of its worthless race, From being 
an on welcome intruder in the household, it became tol¬ 
erated and at last commanded a certain degree of respect 
by having in a spasm of fright routed a burglar; its short, 
snappy bark was the terror of ragmen and grocers' boys. 
One morning the yellow dog was gone ; days passed, it 
did not return, and the owner really missed it “ Adver¬ 
tise it,” said a friend, and forthwith a card appeared, 
with a description of the canine and the usual indefinite 
offer of a liberal reward. A week passed, and another 
advertisement that appeared in juxtaposition with the 
one for the missing dog, suggested a fortune teller. 
Why not! The idea was so well received that no time was 
lost in seeking the reader of the past, present, and future, 
who could fortell speedy marriage and restore lost prop¬ 
erty. The home of the prophet was not palatial and did 
not indicate any remarkable success in reading her own 
fortune. For the sum of $1—which amount would buy 
yellow dogs by the hundred — the dog’s owner was ad¬ 
mitted to a sitting in a small apartment, dimly lighted 
and poorly ventilated, and sat down in a dilapidated easy 
chair with the feelings ol' one entering a, scene of en¬ 
chantment. The seeress was old and brown as parch¬ 
ment, and had a weird voice. 
“You would know the future," she said, in gloomy, 
measured tones ; “I will read it for you : I can tell you 
everything.” Then, after a prolonged stare : “ You will 
marry the one you love, and cross the water, live in a 
white house, with green blinds, have seven children, 
and — ” 
“ No, no! You are quite mistaken, It is something en¬ 
tirely different. You say in your advertisement you find 
lost property, and—” 
“ Yes, I see now. I was mixing you up with the last 
person that came; histories cross each other; did you 
ever spekilate enny?” 
11 No; I have lost-” 
The. countenance of the seeress became luminous with 
wisdom. Contracting her features as if going into a 
trance, she asked monotonously :— 
“ Did you ever lost yer father ?” 
“ No.” 
“ Did you ever lost yer mother f J 
“No,” 
“ Did you ever lost a dorgV” 
“ Yes, oh ! yes.” 
“ Was it a white dorg?” 
“No,” 
“ Was it a black dorgf” 
“No.” 
•* Was it a yaller dorg 
“ Yes! yes 1” 
“I thought so. I can read the future. Ther’s a dark¬ 
haired woman and a light-haired man, aud the dark 
woman — no, it’s the fair man — has the dog, and you’ll 
never see him no more, but the dark-haired woman—” 
But that was enough ; the fate of the dog was mani¬ 
fest, and its, owner went home sadly musing on the 
vague improbabilities of the future, as revealed at a dol¬ 
lar a head, and fell over some obstruction on the home 
door mat, and was immediately overwhelmed with a 
series of caresses from muddy paws. The yellow dog had 
taken his day, and has staid contentedly at home ever 
since. 
CITIZEN VON CUL1N ON DISTEMPER. 
Delaware City, Del., Nov, 21st. 
I F you believe, as I do, that distemper is highly conta¬ 
gious, upon the first sign of the disease remove the 
patient to the quarter best suited to treat him, as I have 
described. If you fail to do this in time, your kennel will 
soon be a general hospital. Both in the general mid med¬ 
ical treatment of distemper wo greatly simplify matters 
by dividing it into forms, as indicated by the symptoms. 
First, mild distemper so-called or classed, is when the 
early symptoms do not progress to severity, but subside 
from treatment or otherwise. 
The first stages of distemper are always mild, and that 
we must watch carefully the development of each symp¬ 
tom, and administer the proper remedy promptly, I 
cannot too often remind you, and upon which depends 
its progress and development into the more serious form. 
As in other similar diseases, the dog is kept lying down a 
long time, and especially in warm weather, sores on the 
hips, hocks, shoulders and sides of the heads are apt to 
appear, called bed-sores. 
To remedy this, bathe the parts, morning, noon and 
night, with strong alcohol, to which is added tincture of 
aconite root, thirty drops to the ounce of alcohol. A long 
continued inactive recumbent position in all cases of ill¬ 
ness aggravates prostration, and bad he not the. fearful 
drain of the disease upon his vitality, he would, from this 
cause alone, when he commenced to exercise of his own 
accord, stagger, pant, and otherwise show his debility. 
Consequently, because he is convalescing, do not con¬ 
sider him safe, nor relax one particle of your vigilance : 
rather, if anything, increase both your medical and diet- 
etical invigorating treatment. Medically, remedies Nos. 
2 and 3, alternate every two or three hours, and for diet 
all of the different food I have recommended. Be very 
careful how you allow him to return to regular kennel 
diet—gradual, gradual, gradual. In warm weather flies 
and fieas-are a source of greater annoyance to a sick dog 
than the common observer would credit, the remedy for 
both of which is flea and insect powder, rubbed well 
on the dog and thrown in thebed. Tobacco stems or leaveB 
scattered on the bed are also good, but are very repug¬ 
nant to the (log. I do not wonder a.t this, as one drop of 
the oil of tobacco on a dog’s tongue will kill him in one 
minute. Old carpet, bags or such material is preferable 
in warm weather to hay or straw, from its being cooler, 
and not so good a harbor for vermin, With the dog the 
eye is almost as good an indication of bis condition as 
his pulse. A congested blood-shot eye, full and standing 
out, indicates an overcharged system. The above eye, 
with a wild, restless look from one object to another-, un¬ 
able to keep it fixed, indicates a confused mind; the 
congested eye, with a dull, sleepy look, indicates a con¬ 
gested brain, overcharged with blood or symptoms of ap- 
poplexy ; a watery eye indicates languor, debility, or the 
nervous condition felt after- fever ,- sunken, shriveled 
mucus eye denotes extreme debility. Can the pulse 
speak plainer ? I venture to say it does not. 
In cases of high-bred dogs 1 caution yon not to be de¬ 
ceived with regard to their condition by the degree of 
spirit they may show. In distemper I have seen them 
display a degree of will power second to no hitman deeds 
of valor, where a glorious death was counted next to vic¬ 
tory. One case I will always remember. A lemon bel- 
ton bitch (setter), by Rock (Adams), out of Pickles, eight 
or ten months old, bad run through six weeks of distem¬ 
per, and was without doubt convalescing, when she took 
a cold and diarrhrea came on again, as is usually the case, 
worse than before. This bitch belonged to a friend for 
whom 1 was raising and training her. She was a great 
favorite, as she gave great promise. 1 scarcely left her 
an hour at a time for two days and a night. The last 
morning I very unwisely called her out of her kennel, 
more to see how much strength Bhe had than anything 
else. She staggered out on the grass. I not only acted 
unwisely in this, but foolishly threw a pad. for her to 
fetch, which she did three times, but. oh, so feebly. I 
sat on the grass to see what she would do when she went 
to her kennel. Just at this moment Mrs. Yon Gulin 
called me to breakfast. I ate my breakfast and went out 
to give her a dose of medicine, and to my astonishment 
she was dead in not less than half an hour. Another is 
the case of the champion Irish setter bitch Fire Fly, 
which I have since sold to Mi-, H.W. Gause, of Wilming¬ 
ton, Del. She and her litter brother — Champion Rufus 
II. — both had distemper in my kennel at the same time 
and kenneled together during their illness. Fire Fly 
being very affectionate and intelligent, I favored her as 
a companion, and often allowed her to go with me to 
the store or post-office. On such occasions she was not 
satisfied’until I gave her something to carry. About 
noon the changing of my coat and hat was the signal for 
going for the mail. Before going I always looked in at 
the sick (logs to see that all were comfortable as possible, 
and Fire Fly seeing the change in my clothing was never 
too ill to show signs of her readiness to go, though for a 
week or more she was unable to rise without assistance. 
Rufus II. also gave evidence that he was obedient unto 
death. 
Poor old fellow ! he received an injury which disfig¬ 
ured him for life, and he was sold and passed through 
several hands until I have lost sight of him, which I 
hope some day to recover. Distemper emaciation is 
next to wonderful; I mean that of such a rack, such a 
disfigurement of Ms former grace and beauty. In mak¬ 
ing post-mortems of distemper cases we have seen them 
when it would be impossible to scra pe half a pound of 
flesh from the entire body, with not sufficient blood in 
the entire circulating system to properly fill the heart 
so that it could expand and contract for a single final 
struggle for life. The wonderful part is, that so extreme 
an emaciated condition of the body will sustain life so 
long ; in fact, much longer than in any other known 
disease. He staggers ; and the wonder is that he stands 
at all. In head distemper he is more apt to stagger eas¬ 
ily than in the other forms ; convulsions also are more 
frequent in thi s form of the disease. Distemper convul¬ 
sions differ in different forms of the disease, and 
in different dogs, some being almost as violent as the con¬ 
vulsions of epilepsy, and others so mild as scarcely to be 
discernible as a convulsion; varying from a* slight 
twitching of the eyebrows and lips to violent contortions 
of the entire body, with frothing at the mouth, biting of 
the tongue and lips until they bleed, making the saliva 
bloody. The dog will also often vomit, purge, and urin¬ 
ate wMle in the convulsion. Often repeated convulsions 
are a bad indication. From the convulsion they are apt 
to grow into a drowsy state, from which tbey'are hard 
to arouse, and wMcb ultimately ends in coma and death. 
When he recovers from the convulsion be will stare va¬ 
cantly, sometimes wildly, around him for several min¬ 
utes before he becomes composed. Almost every one who 
owns a dog tMnks be has a sovereign remedy for all Ms 
ailments, and you willl be offered advice and medicine 
-from many quarters, with the kindest intent; but I warn 
you, as you value Ms life, firmly but kindly to reject 
them all. If you have concluded to adopt my plan of 
treatment you must adhere to it strictly, aud 1 promise 
you success. Blisters, seatons, bleeding, plasters, and 
ointments, powders, and pills of calomal jalap, rhubarb, 
opium, aloes, turbiths, mineral, syrup of buckthorn, etc.,, 
and a host of other poisons which will be urged upon 
r ou as positive cures, must bo strenuously avoided. 
Some of these are useful in their places, but can you se¬ 
lect the proper place ? Bleeding is worse than out of 
place in any and all stages of distemper. In the earliest 
stage of the disease, on the first approach to inflamma¬ 
tion, had we no better remedy, bleeding would be bene¬ 
ficial in reducing the circulation ; but in number two we 
have a remedy wMch subdues the inflammation without 
Die extra, prostration caused by loss of blood. Constitu¬ 
tional debility being the leading feature of the disease, 
we must be on -our guard from the beginning to build up 
the system, to not tear down. Number two, given more 
or less frequently, by reducing the circulation subdues 
the fever without leaving a worse condition of the system 
to be restored. The only way I ever resort to pMebotomy 
is, by cupping where there is some organic trouble, such 
as inflammation of the substance of the lungs, fiver, etc.. 
wMch is frequently present in violent cases. Even then 
dry cupping answers most cases equally well (which any 
person can do), and should never be neglected when 
called for. In order to tell when the substance of the 
lungs is mflamed, if the distemper comes on with a 
chill, followed by fever, inflammation of the lungs or 
liver, or both may be looked for. The temperature of 
the body will be found Mgb, especially on the fourth or 
fifth day, often as high as 105—6 Fahrenheit. (I wish to 
state just here, that no man who owns dogs, and 
expects any of them to ever get sick, can afford to lie 
without a proper thermometer). These organic com¬ 
plications are the alarming features of distemper and 
must be closely watched. 
After the high temperature is discovered, place your 
ear over each lung, and, if you hear a crackling sound, 
very similar to that made by rubbing a portion of your 
hail- between Die thirntb and finger, wheu held close to 
the ear—the sound is only beard during inspiration— 
the techmeal name for tMs sound is crepitant rale, or 
fine crepitation of pneumonia, wMch is a positive sign of 
pneumonia. Upon the first indication of inflammation 
of the lungs or liver, as a complication, give No. 2, at in¬ 
tervals, longer or shorter, according to the emergency of 
the case. Should the symptoms not yield rapidly, use a 
mixture of equal parts of mustard and flour, mixed to a 
proper consistency with vinegar (thick as molasses), and 
apply to the side nearest the inflammation. Cover well, 
until it raises a blister ; then, let it dry. Do not under¬ 
take to wash off, as the dog may take cold ; when dry, it 
will comb out. This is a severe remedy, but it is far bet¬ 
ter than the cantharidel blister. Instead of raising a 
watery blister like oantbarides, the skin tliickeus, and 
pus forms under it. Oftentimes the skin breaks at the 
proper time ,- if it does not, you should puncture it. In 
extreme cases, you should blister it both sides, if it were 
not for the difficulty the dog would experience in lying 
down. In case of inflammation of the brain and kidneys, 
and in extreme sore throat, I also use-the mustard. As 
I stated above, convulsions, more or less violent, are al¬ 
most Bure to he present in any but a very mild case of 
distemper. One of the most popular remedies for these 
convulsions is an anesthetic, or anodyne injection ; sul¬ 
phuric ether and opium stand first—such injections often 
prove the indirect cause of death. The theory which 
led to the use of these injections is good enough ; besides 
the anodyne effect of the ether and opium, they are. a pow¬ 
erful nervous stimulant; and when once you start this 
artificial stimulant, it must be kept up until the system 
recovers sufficiently to sustainits own nervous energy, or 
the system sinks into such a state of nervous prostation 
that speedily terminates the case. Should the injection 
be repeated, say, every two or three hours, the termina¬ 
tion ol tho case in this way would be avoided : but, on 
the other hand, there is nearly as much danger from con¬ 
gestion of the brain. During the convulsive state, No. 3 
should be given not less than three hours apart. 
Another complication in distemper, is inflammation of 
the kidneys. The urine will be scanty, with high color, 
usually saffron color, and frequent ineffectual attempts 
to urinate, only a few drops passing at each attempt. 
For this, No. 2 is the remedy; also apply the mustard 
blister over the loins. It sometimes happens that the 
bladder becomes so distended with urine, so as to cause 
the most excruciating pain, and if not rapidly relieved 
wifi terminate fatally. In this case the water must 
be drawn off with a catheter. With the male this oper¬ 
ation is very simple, hut with the female a knowledge 
ot the situation of the mouth of the urethra is necessary. 
There are quite a number of (to me) absurd popular 
notions about distemper. Yes, without reason, thev 
are simply notions. One is the absurd idea of burn¬ 
ing leathers or tar under Ins nose ; plasters of shoe¬ 
maker s wax on his nose, the administration of large 
doses of salts violent emetics, purges, etc. Dog and man 
m many of their symptoms are so near alike that the 
same remedies will act alike upon both. But it will not 
answer to put the slightest confidence in untried reme- 
dies. One of the distinguishing features is the dis¬ 
similarity of the action of the drugs in the case men¬ 
tioned. It is a well-known fact in medical science that 
some drug-s, upon man, are what is called accumulative 
m their actions—that is, the drug wifi apparently be 
dormant in the System for a time, and the practitioner 
seeing no effect from the drug, repeats the dose, when 
suddeafiy, without warning, the drug sets forth its most 
violent action, such as would be produced by an over or 
poisonous dose. The dog is highly susceptible to this 
accumulative action of drugs, and one needs to be 
well posted who would throw physic to dogs. And 
again , drugs which are the most virulent poison to man 
are almost inert when given to the dog, and vice versa 
Arsenious acid, the man poisoner’s weapon, can he given 
to a dog in quantities sufficient to kill a whole familv 
with impunity. Tobacco, the master of otherwise strong 
men, in quantities sufficient to settle a man’s dinner m 
the wav of a chew or smoke, would kill the largest dog 
instantly. Calomel, in the ordinary doses for man, would 
purge a dog almost to death. Opium sufficient to kill a 
man can be taken by a large dog with little or no incon¬ 
venience. 1 he continued smell of turpentine or carbolic 
acid will nauseate a dog sufficient to throw Mm off Ms 
appetite. m. Vox Gulin, 
HINTS O N CARE OF DOGS. 
Washing Dogs, — Do this only on a sunny, or at least a 
dyy day, and give a long run afterwards. Onceafort- 
mght is often enough to wash, but groom at least once a 
day. We greatly like the patent Ashworth metallic brush 
Rough towels should be used on the dog’s coat after wash- 
{ =T°^ ,nin , S B h >ald bo Performed, iwith^or 
before * a 111410 batt 0l1 ' After i<; is 911 over ’ feed 1 not 
4/fer Dog Shows.-We often hear of many 
exMhteld Per am ? ng d , og8 that have b een recently 
im h m ted - ourselves, have frequently seen unmis¬ 
takable cases of this tenable fever on the benches ; and 
we think even in cases that simulate the disorder the vet- 
brmary inspector should give the public the benefit of 
the doubt, and at least place the suspected animal on a 
quarantuie bench, if he did not care to refuse it an en¬ 
trance. One large show, we allude to Brighton, has just 
passed, and we would take it as an especial favor if some 
of our leaders would report to us the state their animals 
returned m whether good, bad, or indifferent. 
Tows.—We have once more to call attention to the 
mdi&ciiinmate administration of* tonics. People who 
keep dogs Usually think that any time their animals are 
low and a bttle out of sorts they can be pulled to¬ 
gether again by the use of tonics.whereas, whentbereis 
any irritation of the mucous membrane of an acute el¬ 
even subacute character, tonics do positive barm. Small 
doses of rhubarb from two to five grains, with from three 
to ten grams o the trisnitmte of bismuth, given twice 
fno a L? S • f ° r geUing tlie^ecreS 
in on lei. Attei a week ot this you may add a tittle oui- 
mne, from a quarter to two grains 3 q 
blvoo^Al^ 1 ^~ Ti 16 weatheris nowsensi- 
ply colder, and non it js necessary to give docs aperients 
thathiwCT rt.o dS f ^ 0ll | li: \ bo administered, and not those 
ES ■ Cns , tor oil with buckthorn 
^ . w. therefore, to be preferred to Glauber or Epsom 
salts or Fttljna, water, all of which are better suited for 
summer, Rhubarb, either in powder or extract is a 
'5T a ™ aperient. Dogs that are at all weakly in 
constitution should have as little opening medicine as 
