400 
ANIMAL PATHOLOGY. 
considerable difficulty in seizing; his food. He will frequently 
make two or three attempts before he will be able to grasp it. 
Ho not make any experiments about this : I once got an ugly 
scratch, on which I was obliged to use the caustic, in trying how 
far this incertitude of aim went, in a very quiet dog that was 
rabid. 
The natural appetite usually fails, and to it succeeds a depraved 
one. In the early stage of the complaint there is nothing dis- 
gusting about it, at least in the parlour dog. He is eagerly 
occupied in picking up every little bit of thread about the room; 
and it is curious to observe with what eagerness and method he 
sets to work, and how completely he effects his object. If, 
however, he has opportunity, the depravation of appetite is shewn 
in a plainer and, at length, truly disgusting way. Every bit of 
straw that he meets with he chews and swallows. He licks 
off the hair from his leg or his side, and forms it into a ball and 
swallows it — if he can get to a parcel of soft mould, he nuzzles 
in it, and swallows a portion. At length the scene becomes 
perfectly horrible: he eats all kinds of dung that come in his 
way, horse-dung, occasionally human excrement, and, at length, 
his own dung. 
Some breeds of spaniels are sadly filthy feeders. There is 
nothing too revolting for a Blenheim spaniel occasionally to eat, 
and human ordure seems to be his supremest luxury. The rabid 
dog eagerly selects the excrement of the horse, and his own. 
Some care, however, must be exercised here. At the period 
of dentition, and likewise of the commencement of the sexual 
affection, the stomach of the dog, and more especially that of 
the bitch, sympathizes with or shares in the irritability of the 
gums and of the constitution generally, and there is a some- 
what perverted appetite. The dog also feels the same propen- 
sity which influences the child, that of taking hard substances 
into the mouth, and seemingly trying to masticate them. Their 
pressure on the gums facilitates the passage of the new teeth. 
A young dog will, therefore, be observed to be gathering up hard 
substances, and if he should chance to die, a not inconsider- 
able collection of them is sometimes found in his stomach. But 
they are of a peculiar character — they are all of a cleanly nature — 
they consist of small pieces of bone, stick, and coal. The con- 
tents of the stomach of the rabid dog are of the most filthy 
description. Some hair, some straw, is usually found ; but the 
greater part is composed of horse-dung, or of his own. The 
hog may like to wallow in and devour all kinds of abomi- 
nations— -the domesticated swine, and his relative the rhinoceros, 
may frequently be seen turning over and selecting portions of 
