TAX ON DOGS. 
893 
into the nature of these transactions, nor will I describe the 
thousand instances which the peculiarity of ray practice used to 
bring under ray notice, of the inevitable destruction of humanity, 
honour, and honesty, in all who were deluded to frequent these 
sinks of infamy; but, without the slightest hesitation, I will 
affirm, that rabies is propagated, nineteen times out of tw^enty, 
by the cur and the lurcher in the country, and the fighting-dog 
in town. It was only yesterday morning that two bull terriers, 
belonging to some well-dressed young men, fell upon a poor half¬ 
blind, lame, and aged dog, and would have torn him to pieces 
had not their master, ashamed of the exhibition, at length inter¬ 
fered. To-day, the same scene has been repeated, and by the 
same brutal biped and quadrupeds. 
A tax should be laid on every useless dog, and doubly or tre¬ 
bly heavier than on the sporting-dog. No dog, except the shep¬ 
herd’s, should be exempt from the tax, unless, perhaps, the truck- 
dog, and his owner should be compelled to take out a license— 
to have his name in large letters on his cart—and should be hea¬ 
vily fined if the animal was found loose, or used for fighting. 
The disease is rarely propagated by petted and house-dogs. 
They are little exposed to the danger of inoculation: yet w^e 
pity, or sometimes almost detest, the folly of those by w'hom 
their favourites are indulged and spoiled even more than their 
children; and in the course of these lectures we have had to 
recount the narrow escapes which some have had, and the loss of 
life incurred by others, arising from the indefensible and beastly 
habit of fondling these animals. Dr. Murray bears very hard 
upon the ladies with regard to this. There is a most repre¬ 
hensible practice,” says he, ‘Mn making pets of snarling pup¬ 
pies, pug-dogs, or French poodles and Italian greyhounds ; and 
the lap of its mistress, or a couch of down, clothed sometimes 
with silk or satin, must be the brute favourite’s place of repose. 
Of all the degrading and contemptible acts exhibited in the 
drawing-room or the parlour, this is at once the most reprehen¬ 
sible and dangerous, and it is from this source that numerous 
cases of the ill-fated disease—rabies—have sprung. We cannot 
but condemn in the most unequivocal terms all such canine 
favouritism, as at once disgusting and degrading, and an insult 
to reason and humanity*.” While I am a friend to dogs, for they 
are honest creatures, and seldom fawn on those they love not, I 
do most cordially agree in the Doctor’s reprobation of a practice 
loathsome in itself and sometimes attended with danger. 
A person has had the misfortune to be bitten by a rabid dog;— 
^ Murray un Ily^lrophubia, |). - 17 - 
