Scent. 



6129 



previously put forlh, and tlie amount of azotised matter ingested as 

 food. Thus Professor Lehman ascertained that, by the substitution 

 of violent for moderate exercise, the quantity of urea was raised from 

 3*2j to 45j parts; and Simon found that, by two hours violent 

 exercise, the proportion of the urea in the urine passed half an hour 

 subsequently was double that contained in the morning urine." 

 (Id. 619), Now, when an animal is subjected to pursuit in the chase, 

 and compelled to make great and continued muscular exertion, 

 transudation is extremely copious, while the determination of fluid to 

 the bladder is very remarkably lessened ; and when we bear in mind 

 how great the "waste of the system" must be in an animal so 

 situated, it seems much more than probable that, allowing for the 

 greater proportion of urea in the small quantity of urine secreted, the 

 excretory action of the cutaneous glandula3 also will be greatly inten- 

 sified, and that, in consequence, greatly more of the azotised matter 

 will pass off through their agency. This conclusion certainly 

 harmonises very closely with the well-known fact, that an animal — a 

 fox, for instance, or a hare — which has been closely and continuously 

 hunted for some little space of lime, gives off scent both stronger and 

 more copious than at earlier periods of the chase, as also with this 

 other, that " the huntsman has the greatest fear of losing his fox, not 

 only at the beginning of the run before the hounds get well settled to 

 the scent, but also when the game is sinking. The old hounds, 

 towards the end of the run, make every effort to get to the head of 

 the pack, for they know the end is at hand. Yet even then, perhaps, 

 all at once all scent seems to be lost ; the fox has got into a ditch, or 

 even laid down upon the ground, and no dog can touch the scent, 

 even though w^ithin a yard of the animal." The explanation seems 

 easy enough, — the animal is exhausted ; in other words, the waste of 

 the system has continued so actively and so long, that it must of 

 necessity come to an end, and with its cessation is contemporaneous 

 the cessation of excretion and its dependent odour. 



In the next place I have to remark that perfect stillness or 

 quiescence in the scent-emitting creature, if of some duration, seems 

 to bring the emission down to the minimum, if not actually to inter- 

 rupt or neutralise it. Motion, on the other hand, though not in the 

 least degree rapid, or sustained, or energetic, appears to cause the 

 emanation to be given out very perceptibly. A hare or rabbit on its 

 form is often missed altogether, or run over by the pointer: if found, 

 the dog is usually within a very few feet or even inches of the 

 XVI. 2 N 



