"A young dog of mine," says he, "was lost in London, and, being aware
that if a noise was made about it, a great price would be asked for
it, I gave out that I wanted to purchase one: I was shown my own dog.
I seized it; but there were several scoundrels present who professed
to belong to it, and threatened to kill the dog if I did not pay for
it. I proceeded to describe it as my own, stating that it had 'bad
back or double teeth'. Judge of my surprise when, after great
difficulty, and the dog crying greatly, its mouth was opened, and all
the back teeth had been taken out! I paid two pounds for it before
they would let me take it away; but, in consequence of the injuries it
had received, it died a few days afterward."]
* * * * *
INTRODUCTION TO CANINE PATHOLOGY.
BY THE EDITOR.
PREDISPOSITION TO, AND CAUSES OF, DISEASES IN DOGS.--THE
CLAIMS OF DOGS UPON US.
"Unnumbered accidents and various ills
Attend thy pack, hang hovering o'er their heads,
And point the way that leads to death's dark cave.
Short is their span, few at the date arrive
Of ancient Argus, in old Homer's song
So highly honour'd."
The dog from early youth, in fact oftentimes at the very period of
birth, is exposed to many dangerous and troublesome affections, the
result of causes not less complex and multifarious than those that exert
an influence over the human organization. Many diseases are the
consequence of their domesticity and the hereditary defects of their
progenitors, others are dependent upon accidental circumstances, bad
treatment, and improper nourishment. Not a few, however, of their most
mortal maladies are the production of contagion, infection, and other
like causes, all exercising a general tendency to disease difficult to
define and impossible to avoid.
Although every species of dog is more or less subject to certain
diseases peculiar to their race, those breeds of most value and more
particularly subservient to the will of man are liable to a greater
number of ills and casualties than other dogs, for the reason that they
are more frequently exposed to unnatural fatigue, extremes of heat and
cold, as also to the various dangers dependent upon the chase of wild
animals. Those diseases resulting from specific causes, either natural
to the race or artificially produced by the animal itself in a state of
morbid derangement, are most frequent and fatal, as witnessed in
distemper, rabies, mange, &c. The intimate connexion existing between
the diseases of our canine friends and those of the human race, as also
the strong similarity in the action of many drugs over the two systems,
render the study of one branch almost synonymous with that of the other.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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