18 
THE CATHETER PASSABLE IN DOGS. 
importance, I could quote many cases illustrative of the benefits 
it confers. In one dog, which ultimately recovered, I daily with¬ 
drew several ounces of fluid; and in another, of not more than eight 
pounds weight. I extracted no less a quantity than nine ounces at 
one time. This last case, which was brought to me for my opinion 
by a gentleman of high professional standing, can, if needful, be 
attested, and I can also appeal to the evidence of many persons 
who have witnessed me do that which, when the prejudice con¬ 
cerning its possibility is rejected, requires but little skill to ac¬ 
complish. 
Considering how long the catheter has been in general use, it is 
surprising that its application to any of our domesticated animals 
should be a novelty; but in none of the works which treat of 
canine pathology do I find it recommended, and in the London 
school I know its employment was by the teachers actually pro¬ 
scribed. How much agony might have been mitigated, how many 
lives might have been saved, if reason had been earlier exerted to 
ascertain the facts on which opinion was based, it is now useless 
to inquire. For the silence of an author we may find some excuse;; 
but for the temerity of a teacher, who boldly issues his groundless 
assumptions as if they were knowledge founded on experience, and 
makes his office the medium for propagating error, there can be 
discovered nothing bearing even the likeness of palliation. The 
dog, however, though the most attached of animals, and that one 
which comes nearest to the sympathies of man, is generally ne¬ 
glected. Its tortures are made the playthings of ignorance, and the 
vaguest hypothesis or the most dreamy surmise seems to be deemed 
ample warrant for its pretended cure. The medicines given for its 
alleviation are mostly inoperative or dangerous; and I know not 
whether its life is not more secure when the power of nature is 
singly depended upon, than when, even with those who are pre¬ 
sumed to be best informed, its anxious master entrusts its re¬ 
storation. 
As no one appears to pursue this branch of our science, I shall 
hereafter presume to offer to your notice a few examples of the 
gross extent to which the action of the most ordinary restoratives 
has been hitherto mistaken in the instance of the dog. Many of 
the doses now customarily exhibited are enormous, others are so 
low as to be wholly without effect; and when, added to this, several 
medicines turn out to have on the animal an operation the very 
opposite of that which they are given to produce, it is no longer 
a matter for surprise that the treatment of canine diseases is not 
popular with our profession, there being but /very few who will 
undertake to administer to them. 
I have the honour to be, &c. 
1G, Spring-street, Westbourno-terrace. 
