176 NOTES OF THE DOG TRIBE. 



Who then can define the nature of this woeful 

 disease ? — so invisible, and for a length of time, so 

 harmless and so quiet in the body of its victim ; 

 but so outrageous and so incurable when it does 

 at last break out. This ought to warn incautious 

 people, how they become too familiar with any of 

 the dog-family. 



As regards myself, having been once in jeopardy, 

 I own that I have no great desire to see dogs in my 

 house. Firstly : the disease alarms me. Secondly : 

 T don't like to have my furniture bedewed every 

 time that a dog passes to and fro. Thirdly : the 

 yelping of a dog, on a stranger's arrival, is very 

 disagreeable to my ears ; and fourthly : dogs, by 

 prying into every bush and- corner, are sure to 

 drive the wild birds far away. Under these 

 considerations, I appropriate to dogs their proper 

 domicilium, which is the kennel. Mine is parti- 

 cularly clean and commodious. 



Many years have now elapsed, since the dog and 

 the Hanoverian rat, were forbidden to pass the 

 threshold of my house. 



I have heard of a professional gentleman in the 

 north, who doubts the existence of hydrophobia. 

 Facts, they say, are stubborn things. I have seen 

 too much myself to doubt that such a malady does 

 prevail : although 1 know not how it is engendered ; 



