AND AMERICAN RURAL SP©RTS. 
293 
the selection of which must depend on the circumstances 
of each individual case.” 
I am not aware of any other remedies worth notice, 
though a great number might be added, if we could give 
credit to the stories retailed by dealers in Dogs, as well as 
gamekeepers and huntsmen. Much will be found to depend 
on good nursing, and particularly to prevent the animal 
from taking cold. From what I have witnessed of Blaine’s 
medicine, I should not recommend it. 
It is very advisable to inoculate for the distemper. If 
you can meet with a Dog already afflicted, take a little 
mucous from his nose, and insert it up the nostrils of your 
whelp, after having prepared him by a dose or two of syrup 
of buckthorn; if the animal does not take the disease, 
repeat the operation. By inoculating for the distemper, 
the disease will be as much less severe, as the inoculated 
small pox compared to what is called the natural mode of 
taking it. 
A Dog rarely, if ever, has the distemper twice; nor 
does it' often attack him after he has attained the age of two 
years; but frequently makes its appearance before the ani- 
mal has reached his twelfth month. A notion became pre- 
valent a few years back, that by inoculating a Dog with 
the cow pock, the distemper would be prevented. 
Johnson’s Shooters’ Annual. 
Other recipes: — 
“One ounce of flour of sulphur, and half an ounce of 
antimony, mix them well together in paste of lard or butter 
— give a lump of this about the size of a nutmeg, in the 
early stage of the disease, every morning, to be increased 
and lessened in proportion as the disease advances or de- 
creases, in the animal. 
The Dog should be housed while giving this medicine. 
From one teaspoon full to one tablespoon full of antimo- 
nial wine, according to the age of the subject. In less than 
two hours, the medicine will begin to operate, and the dis- 
ease partly or wholly removed immediately afterwards; 
should it continue the day after, the same dose may be 
repeated. — Am. Turf Reg. and Sport. Mag. 
HYDROPHOBIA. 
Not one Dog in twenty, reputed mad, is so in reality — 
the cure, or rather the prevention, therefore, is certain in 
many instances; and where it happens otherwise, and the' 
Dog was labouring under the hydrophobia, the result is 
most melancholy; but then it is immediately and unblush- 
ingly asserted, that the medicine had not operated in a 
4 E 
proper manner — it had not remained upon the stomach, or 
been taken in sufficient quantity; and thus the cheat con- 
tinues, though on a much more circumscribed scale. 
The fact is, that the only certain remedy hitherto disco- 
vered for this dreadful disease, is the application of the 
knife: — the blood becomes infected by the saliva from the 
dog’s teeth; and unless the bitten part can be immediately 
cut out, death will most likely be the result, though the 
precise time will be very uncertain; for so capricious is 
this malady, that, after infection, it sometimes lies dormant, 
as it were, in the system for months, sometimes for weeks; 
while instances, I believe, are not wanting, where it has 
appeared in all its terrible symptoms in the course of a few 
days. 
It is possible that a person might be bitten by a mad Dog, 
and yet escape the hydrophobia: if, in the act of biting, the 
animal’s teeth pass through a thick woollen coat, or other 
garment, so that his teeth in passing through are wiped 
dry, he might inflict a wound without any of the infectious 
saliva or fluid reaching it. 
Respecting the bite of a mad Dog, Dr. Vandeburgh very 
judiciously observes: — “Not a moment should be lost to 
destroy the poison from the wound (even if only on suppo- 
sition of the animal being mad ;) many remedies are recom- 
mended, but should not be trusted to; the only effectual 
method is to destroy the foundation of the poison, and 
give the following, course of medicine: — the part bitten 
must be entirely cut out with a sharp instrument, and the 
edges of the wound seared with a red-hot iron, to prevent 
the smallest particle of poison remaining; afterwards, 
warm poultices of oatmeal and water to be applied as hot 
as the patient can possibly bear, to produce a quick and 
copious discharge of matter or suppuration: The follow- 
ing pills should be given: — 
Calomel, one scruple, 
Opium, half a scruple, 
well mixed and divided into ten pills of equal size, one pill 
to be taken every four hours; two drachms of strong oint- 
ment of quicksilver to be well rubbed in on the thighs and 
arms, morning and evening, which, with the medicine, 
must be continued till the mouth becomes sore and spitting 
is produced; when matter discharges from the sore, it 
should also be dressed with strong ointment of quicksilver, 
thickly spread on lint, and the poultice continued over it: 
this treatment must be pursued for the space of one month, 
then the wound healed with Turner’s cerate spread on 
lint, but the mouth kept sore and slight spitting prolonged 
for at least two months, as hydrophobia has been known to 
make its appearance five and six months after the bite of 
the animal: sea-bathing is strongly advised; but I would 
always recommend the foregoing treatment in preference, a 
