No one not attached to the animal should attempt to master it

No one not attached to the animal should attempt to master it

No one not attached to the animal should attempt to master it

Dog-doctoring is, in fact, a separate branch of science so intricate as to call for intense study strengthened by constant observation. No one not attached to the animal should attempt to master it, for success in such a case would be hopeless. The annoyances are so great that the patience is continually being tried; and the facts on which reliance can be placed are so few, that he who is content to depend upon the received assertions will never be able to realize his expectation. Nothing is more erroneous than to believe that there is any close analogy between man and the dog in the operation of medicinal substances. Aloes, rhubarb, &c., are not purgatives to the dog; but castor oil, which to the human being is a gentle laxative, to the dog is an active purge; while Epsom salts are a violent hydragogue to the canine patient, producing copious and watery stools. Common salt is in large doses a poison, and in apparent small quantities is so strong an emetic as to be dangerous. Salivation speedily ensues upon the use of minute quantities of mercury, which therefore cannot be considered safe in the hands of the general practitioner. Secale cornutum has little specific action beyond that of inducing vomiting; and strychnia cannot be with security administered, on account of its poisonous operation upon the animal. Other instances, casting more than suspicion upon the inferences which every writer upon Materia Medica draws from the action of drugs given to dogs, could easily be quoted, but they would here be somewhat out of place; and probably sufficient has been said to check a dangerous reliance upon results that admit of no positive deduction.