preferred to a dog in frosty weather, from being, by nature, less obstructed in landing on the ice.

If, on the other hand, you want a Newfoundland dog only as a retriever for covert shooting, then the case becomes different; as here you require a strong animal, that will easily trot through the young wood and high grass with a large hare or pheasant in his mouth.

298

DISEASES IN DOGS

ARE so universally prescribed for, and in so many different ways, that it will be needless to treat on any thing farther than the most common evils that happen to them; the Distemper, the Mange, Sore Feet, getting lamed by Thorns, &c. &c., with the prescription, which I have found to answer best for each.

DISTEMPER.

To enumerate the various recipes for this sometimes incurable disease would require a volume; but, of all that I have yet tried, none has answered better than the one I shall here give; and, as the remedy is so innocent, it may be safely administered, where there exists even a doubt as to a dog having the distemper.

The following prescriptions are each about a dose for a full grown pointer. They must, of course, be increased or diminished in proportion to the size and strength of the dog.

Repeat the dose, every third night, till the dog is recovered; taking care to keep him in a warm place,

and always fed with a warm liquid diet, such as broth, gruel, &c.

If the nostrils should discharge, have them washed, or syringed, twice a day, with a lotion of alum, or sugar of lead; putting about half an ounce of either to a pint of water.

The following is a recipe, which no bribe could tempt the vendor to part with; but, by means of some very clever chymists, I have ascertained it to be simply as follows:- (after some trouble in discovering the proportions, and discarding the ingredients by means of which it was disguised in a pill.)

One of these doses, mixed with butter, or in a small piece of meat, should be given to the dog every other morning, on an empty stomach. The food should be light and easy to digest; and the lotion, if required for the nostrils, should be observed here, as before mentioned.

Notwithstanding the trouble we had to discover this simple recipe, I should prefer the one first given, because there is less chance of a dog taking cold with that, than with any kind of mercurial preparation.

Since my earlier publications, I have been favoured with the following recipe from Dr. Taylor, of East Yarmouth; and from its great repute, as well as that of the gentleman to whom I am indebted for it, I am induced (though I have not yet tried it) to give this recipe insertion.

One to be given to a full grown dog, six following mornings (or half the quantity to a puppy).

The dog to be kept warm, and fed on milk and gruel.

The following extract is from the letter of an old sportsman to a friend of mine

"3d February, 1832.

"The recipe, No. 3., for distemper, I can assure the Colonel, on the authority of the Duke of Bedford's old keeper (Brooks), is invaluable. Dr. Taylor, it appears, first communicated it to your friend.

"For the YELLOWS - a disease little less destructive, the same experienced sportsman gives, with invariable success,

3 grains of calomel,

6 ditto of rhubarb, 12 ditto of jalap,

made up in three balls, one to be taken each morning on an empty stomach.

"I may remark that, in alluding to the first-mentioned recipe for the distemper, the quantity

30 grains of white hellebore,

20 ditto of gambouge,

should be made up in nine balls instead of six, as the 'Instructions' say (page 253.).

"With every deference to so perfect a sportsman as Colonel H. is, I venture to offer these hints for the next edition of a work that has become the standard in Field Sports."

By an anonymous letter, (for which I beg leave to thank the author of it, whoever he may be,) I was induced, with the able assistance of a medical sportsman, to try, as a preventive to the distemper, the vaccine inoculation. We made the experiment on several dogs, and we could not afterwards hear that any one of them had taken the disease. But whether this was the effect of chance, or whether the remedy can always be depended on, I must leave to the decision. of those persons who are better versed in dogs than myself. At all events, the remedy is so innocent that there can be no harm in trying it; and I shall conclude under this head, with the insertion of the letter, which, after what I have said, it would be negligent to omit.

"SIR;

"As a stranger I know not what business I have to trouble you, but, from the subject of my letter, you will, as a sportsman, probably pardon the intrusion. I should tell you I have lately purchased your Instructions to Young Sportsmen,' and I do not intend to flatter, when I say, it is by far the best book on shooting I ever read. And since, from its originality and excellence, I have no doubt it will go through another edition, I am induced to hope you will, in a future edition, say something on a preventive of distemper in dogs, which has been lately tried, if after a trial you should find it to answer. About two years ago, when in Sussex, I had frequently heard at table, that inoculating a dog with the cowpox virus would prevent it from having the distemper. About half a year afterwards, having a pointer puppy, a few months old, I inoculated it. The dog has never had the distemper yet; but since dogs sometimes escape this cruel disease till old age, and sometimes entirely, this can be no proof. However, you may possibly deem the supposed preventive worth a trial; and, as no one is a greater friend of the dog than I am, it would afford me the sincerest pleasure if you should find it succeed, and make it known. After