REMARKABLE DAYS IN JULY. 
471 
REMARKABLE DAYS IN JULY. 
[The gentleman, a Y. S., to whose kindness we are in¬ 
debted for the following, observes to us—“ I am doing all I 
can in my neighbourhood to suppress the practice of tying 
dogs up at this particular time of year. If “ The Veterin¬ 
arian” would only invite the members of our profession to a 
sense of their duty, to themselves as well as to the public, we 
should annihilate this abominable custom, alike disgraceful 
to us and to the country at large. We should, too, be exer¬ 
cising a right peculiarly our own , conferring a good upon the 
canine race, and, I should opine, not a little credit upon our¬ 
selves.”— Ed. Yet.] 
The most remarkable days in July are the Dog-days and 
St. Swithin. On the third of the month, in our popular 
almanacs, appears the awful announcement, “ Dog-days 
begin.” The beginning of the Dog-days has varied in diffe¬ 
rent countries ; but the event has always been regulated by 
a peculiar rising of the Dog-star, otherwise called Sirius. The 
first method of calculating the matter was to date from the 
time when the star became visible after it had been concealed 
by the greater light of the sun; whereas the modern method 
is to date from the time when the star begins to rise with the 
sun, or is in conjunction with it. 
The origin of the name Sirius or Dog-star, was this :—A 
long experience taught the inhabitants of Egypt that soon 
after the time when the star escaped from the sun, the 
periodical inundation of the Nile took place; wherefore the 
natural indicator of so very important an event obtained the 
name of Si/ior, meaning “ the Nile” of the heavens. But the 
Greeks adopted the name without caring about the cause of 
it, and, according to the rule of their language, wrote it 
Seirios j as the Latins, according to the genius of their lan¬ 
guage, wrote it Sirius , which is the name at present used by 
astronomers. 
The Greeks having thus vaguely adopted the name of an 
indicator, soon found reason for believing that the peculiar 
rising of the star in summer indicated the event of sultry 
weather, and its various injurious effects; and such theories, 
of course, passed on with the name to Italy. But, in this 
latter country, the star was moreover called by names which 
meant a Dog, or Dog-star, for reasons, no doubt, which also 
prevailed in Greece; and the “ sultry” object became the 
supposed “ direful spring of woes unnumbered.” He was 
