596 
MR. YOUATT’S HISTORY OF THE BOG. 
cruelty that the magistracy — somewhat hastily confounding the 
abuse of a thing with its legitimate purpose — forbad the appear- 
ance of the dog-cart in the metropolitan districts, and were in- 
clined to extend this prohibition through the whole kingdom, 
it is much to be desired that a kindlier and better feeling may 
gradually prevail, and that this animal, humanely treated, may 
return to the discharge of the services of which nature has ren- 
dered him capable, and which he is never happier than when 
discharging to the best of his power. 
In another and very important particular, as the preserver of 
human life, the history of the dog will be most interesting. The 
writer of this work has seen a Newfoundland dog that on five 
distinct occasions preserved the life of a human being ; and it is 
said of the noble quadruped whose remains constitute one of the 
most interesting specimens in the museum of Berne, that forty per- 
sons were rescued by him from impending destruction. 
When this friend and servant of man dies, he does not, or may 
not, cease to be useful, for in many countries, and to a far greater 
extent than is generally imagined, his skin is used for gloves or 
leggings, mats or hammer-cloths; and while even the Romans 
occasionally fattened him for the table, and esteemed his flesh a 
dainty, many thousands of people in Asia, Africa, and America 
now breed him expressly for food. 
Then if the publication of the present work should throw some 
additional light on the good qualities of this noble animal — if it 
should enable us to derive more advantage from the services that 
he can render — to train him more expeditiously and fully for the 
discharge of those services — to protect him from the abuses to 
which he is exposed, and to mitigate or remove some of the dis- 
eases which his connexion with man has entailed upon him— if 
any of these purposes are accomplished, we shall derive consider- 
able “ useful knowledge,” as well as pleasure from the perusal of 
his history. Y. 
