EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
472 
said to cleave the gaping fields with drought; to send worms 
and caterpillars ; to dry up springs ; to cause plague, pesti¬ 
lence, and famine amongst men and cattle ; to burn up the 
pastures; and to drive dofjs mad. Hence, brown dogs were 
sacrificed to this star, in emblem of its scorching influence ; 
and at Argos, during a Cynophontis , or ££ dog-killing” festival, 
all dogs found loose were put to death. 
This notion about the influence of Sirius on dogs resulted 
from a misinterpretation of the Egyptian hieroglyphic of the 
star, which was a dog, or a dog’s head. The hieroglyphic 
taught that the star gave the faithful warning of a watch-dog 
to the inhabitants of Egypt, in reference to the overflowing 
of the Nile; but in Greece and Italy the original import of 
the figure became altogether lost sight of, and fancy built on 
the hieroglyphic those popular fables which continue to in¬ 
fluence civilised England in the nineteenth centurv of the 
Christian era. 
Popular Notions about Hydrophobia. 
Great heat is most erroneously supposed to be the cause of 
this disease in dogs; whereas, as the celebrated John Hunter 
shows, not one case of it occurred in Jamaica for forty years ; 
and Dr. Thomas, who lived in the West Indies a long time, 
never saw, nor heard of, a case of rabies there. In Egypt 
the disease is unknown ; and at the Cape of Good Hope it is 
very seldom met with. The greatest number of cases of it 
in England occur in April and September.— See Cooper's 
Surgical Dictionary , article ££ Hydrophobia .” 
THE VETERINARIAN, AUGUST 1, 1852. 
Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat.— Cicero. 
At a season of the year when the ££ Dog Days ” are 
scarcely past in the calendar, and certainly while their 
ominous influence, so far as any excitement atmospheric 
heat may convey, still continues in force, a few cursory re¬ 
marks on mad dogs may not be out of place; particularly as 
