DISEASE AMONG THE MID-LOTHIAN FOXHOUNDS. 47 
a hard day^s work, to which they had not been seasoned, 
which may be called the remote cause, and the vigour of 
the digestive organs would thereby be impaired to a corre¬ 
sponding degree ; the predisposing cause was the season of 
the year—a coincident one—what Sydenham calls the con¬ 
stitution of the atmosphere ; the proximate cause was the 
susceptibility of the digestive organs to functional excite¬ 
ment ; while the exciting cause was the food, which acted as 
a morbid irritant in the impaired functional state of the 
digestive organs. In accordance vnth this view, the ap¬ 
pearances upon dissection were such as might be expected 
to have been found. It is well known that the same ap¬ 
pearances present themselves in pigs which have died after 
being overfed. The stomach is found impacted with food, 
which acts as an irritant poison, causing inflammation of the 
stomach and intestines, and the cuticle is in the erythematous 
condition which I found in the carcass of one of the dogs I 
examined. Braxy in sheep affords an analogous example of 
the violent inflammatory action in the intestines produced by 
articles of natural food, when taken under peculiar conditions 
and in large quantities. This very unmanageable disease is 
w'ell known to commit its ravages towards the end of autumn, 
when the hogs accustomed to the dry and withered herbage 
of the past season are turned on rank aftermaths or secondary 
growths of grass in sheltered situations, and young heather, 
wdiich they are fond of, and greedily devour; and when an 
outbreak of disease among them occurs as speedily and fatally 
as the one in the East-Lothian kennel, on the dogs beino* 
first hunted for the season, having prolonged fatigue in a 
sultry day, and dieted with a mixture of animal food to 
which they had not been accustomed, until they are put to 
work, the morbid appearances after death being the same in 
both. Up to the thne of the second feeding, all the hounds 
seemed to be in a healthy state, and sympttoms of disease only 
supervened after the digestive functions had been excited into 
action by the presence of food, not many hours after it w as 
swallowed, while every dog became similarly affected in a 
longer or shorter time, all being at the same time exposed 
to the same exciting cause, the period and virulence of 
the attack being modified by age, strength, constitution, 
&c. This explanation as to the modus operandi of the food 
exciting inflammatory action may be objected to on the 
ground that no bad effects resulted from feeding on the 
previous afternoon, after the dogs had returned from their 
severe day^s work in covert. But it must be remembered 
that food which, in ordinary circumstances, acts as a natural 
