QUEER PATIENTS AND QUEER PHYSICIANS. 



447 



irascibility. The animal is apt to be 

 ' roused ' in more senses than one; it is li- 

 able or likely to confound friend and foe, 

 and to attack', or flee from both, according 

 to its natural disposition. In exceptional 

 cases, there is developed on the moment a 

 degree of excitement of the nature of de- 

 lirium or mania, or amounting to ferocity 

 or furiosity, all more or less dangerous to 

 man as well as other animals. And it is 

 probable that some sort of conviction that 

 such dangers are always liable to arise from 

 the violent, sudden awakening of a sleep- 

 ing animal, has given rise to the proverb 

 which urges us to ' Let sleeping dogs lie! ' 

 We should never forget that such a dog 

 may be dreaming at the moment of his sud- 

 den arousing, and that while he may be 

 revelling in imaginary joys, the arbitrary 

 cessation of which will give rise to keen 

 surprise and disappointment, he may 

 equally be an actor in some tragic drama, 

 involving danger to his own life. In which 

 case the sudden shock of his awakening 

 may naturally appear as but part of his 

 fancied reality, and he may show his belief 

 in the unreality by identifying those who 

 actually arouse him, with the imaginary 

 enemies to whom he attributes all his pains 

 or pangs." 



Very young children of civilized peoples 

 as well as the adults of certain primitive 

 races fall into a somewhat similar error — 

 they confound the real and the imaginary 

 and regard dreams as actual occurrences. 

 Even civilized adults, on occasions, are un- 

 able, for several seconds or minutes, to 

 separate dream from reality, but carry the 

 action of a dream drama on into their vig- 

 ilant, active consciousness. 



When animals have minds weakened by 

 disease, the delusions of their dreams are 

 prolonged and carried into their waking 

 state where they may last for some time, 

 thus becoming an evidence of true tempo- 

 rary insanity. The epileptic fox-terrier 

 mentioned above, on 2 occasions had his 

 delusions prolonged for 5 or 6 minutes after 

 he had been aroused from sleep, for he 

 chased imaginary rats about the room, un- 

 til he was stopped by a peremptory order. 

 A dreaming cat, after having been suddenly 

 awakened, has been seen to chase an im- 

 aginary mouse. A suddenly aroused star- 

 ling has been observed to dip its beak time 

 and again into an imaginary water-bottle, 

 then elevate its head and go through all the 

 motions of swallowing. 



When sick, some animals show conclu- 

 sively that they know how to secure relief. 

 The dog, when suffering with sick stomach 

 or nausea, due to indigestion, will seek out 

 and devour the long, lanceolate blades of 

 couch grass (Triticum repens). The horse 

 and the mule when ill with " scours " will 

 eat dust or clay. The horse which has con- 

 tracted the " scratches " will, if allowed, 

 hunt out some miry puddle and wade in the 



sofe ooze until his itching pasterns are plen- 

 tifully bud effectually daubed with the 

 clinging, pasty mud. Sick cats will find a 

 bed of catnip though it be a mile from their 

 homes. Clay, both moist and dry, seems to 

 be an universal remedy for a variety of ills 

 among the lower animals. Wounded ele- 

 phants have been seen, repeatedly, to plug 

 up shot-holes with lumps of wet clay. I 

 have seen a cow, in mid-winter, wade in a 

 shallow pond until she had thoroughly plas- 

 tered an ulcerating sore on one of her legs 

 with mud. She would do this several times 

 a day; always standing on the banks of the 

 pond until the mud had partially dried out, 

 thus forming an efficacious plaster. 



An acquaintance, a physician, vouches for 

 the following: A sow had been kicked in 

 the abdomen by a mule and severely in- 

 jured. Her owner had her removed to a 

 pen and confined therein. He noticed, on 

 the following day the sow's abdomen was 

 enormously swollen. She had left her com- 

 fortable straw bed, and stood by the door of 

 the pen, grunting as though asking for it to 

 be opened. My friend, the physician, hap- 

 pening along, suggested that the door be 

 opened. He told the owner that his hog 

 had peritonitis, and would probably die. 

 The door was opened and immediately the 

 sow proceeded toward a disused spring, 

 situated some distance from her pen. This 

 spring issued from beneath the roots of a 

 large tree, and, being strongly impregnated 

 with iron, was not used for potable pur- 

 poses, and was fenced about with rails. 

 When the animal arrived at this fence, she 

 stopped and resumed her grunting; noting 

 which, her owner let down the rails. The 

 hog walked through the gap, immediately 

 entered the shallow depression that formed 

 the bowl or bed of the spring and laid down 

 in the cool water. Here she remained for 

 5 days without food (though corn in abun- 

 dance was placed within her reach), and 

 then emerged from her sanitarium com- 

 pletely cured. 



When animals are treated for disease by 

 man and are benefited thereby, they fre- 

 quently remember their experiences and 

 seek the aid of man when they again need 

 his services. The sportsman and dog- 

 breeder mentioned elsewhere in this paper, 

 assures me that the following is absolutely 

 true: One of his dogs, a fine fox-hound, be- 

 came very sick with distemper, and it was 

 with great difficulty that he succeeded in 

 getting the animal to swallow a bolus of 

 sulphur and lard. The remedy acted 

 promptly and beneficially and, in a few 

 days, the dog regained his health. Some 

 time after, the same dog was again taken 

 sick with distemper, and, as soon as he saw 

 his master with the sulphur bottle and lard, 

 he crouched at his feet, then turned upon 

 his back, and, with open mouth, waited un- 

 til the bolus had been prepared, which he 

 at once swallowed. This hound evidently 



