J392 
ANIMAL PATHOLOGY. 
cover by what means the disease first got into the kennel : but 
hounds, both in the sporting season and their occasional exercise 
afterwards, are exposed to great danger from the worthless curs 
with which eveiy part of the country abounds, and against which 
the utmost care of the huntsman, or the whipper-in, is not al- 
ways a sufficient defence. 
One story more : it will illustrate two points of some import- 
ance to the practitioner. An elderly lady, for many a year a 
very kind patroness of mine, sent for me one morning at her 
breakfast hour. She had from her childhood been accustomed to 
dogs ; her husband kept a pack of hounds, and she had occasion- 
ally followed them, and was one of the best and boldest riders 
in the field. She was at breakfast when I arrived, and, sitting 
at the same table was a leading member of one of the Hamp- 
shire hunts. She had scarcely begun to speak to me when my 
eye glanced on a favourite terrier that lay in her lap. I regarded 
it for a moment, and perhaps thoughtlessly, but it was a natural 
impulse, and I did not afterwards repent it, exclaimed “ Good God, 
my lady ! why have you that dog in your lap ? Do you know what 
is the matter with it?” “Matter ! why, what is the matter?” 
“ It is mad.” She certainly put it on the floor, but was some- 
what indignant at the seemingly erroneous opinion which I had 
so unceremoniously advanced. “ Why, sir,” said the sportsman, 
“ I have lived among dogs all my life. I have kept a pack of 
hounds of my own. I know full well what madness is ; there is 
nothing like it here.” It was useless for me to contend against 
such odds. I got her ladyship to promise that she would not 
meddle with the dog until I saw her again, and left her exceed- 
ingly angry with me, and the gentleman very angry too, and not 
a little contempt mingling with that displeasure. 
I went immediately to her son’s residence. He was not at 
home, but a note from me speedily reached him. He thanked 
me, and begged me to try every means to get these dogs — for 
there was another that was with her night and day — into my own 
possession, saying that he would second me as far as he could. I 
had scarcely read this note, when her ladyship’s footman came 
in great haste, requesting me to come down again, for the dog 
had bitten him and the lady’s maid. I found her scarcely 
shaken in her opinion of the disease, yet anxious about her ser- 
vants ; and she urged me to tell her honestly what I thought. 
A messenger was soon dispatched for the surgeon, who did what 
was needful with regard to the servants; and, after a great deal of 
entreaty, I was permitted to take away the dogs, on condition 
that she might be allowed to see them when she pleased. 
I had scarcely gone before her Hampshire friend returned, as 
