And as dog-dealers are not so respectable

And as dog-dealers are not so respectable

And as dog-dealers are not so respectable

A most infamous fraud was now accused against him who had sold the dog; and as dog-dealers are not so respectable, and are almost as little credited as horse-dealers, any charge imputing dishonesty required no evidence to substantiate it. An infamous villain was convicted of having castrated the dog before he parted with it, in order that a valuable strain might not be rendered common. This same dog was brought to me. I could detect no testicles, and I could perceive no cicatrix. The body was fat and the disposition sluggish, but the frame well developed. It was possible the scar, if the operation had been performed early, should have disappeared: and there are means practised by which the testicles can be in a great measure destroyed without making an incision. Here, however, there was nothing to denote they had been present; or evidence to show they had been removed. I could by manipulation discover no bodies in the inguinal canals. Under the circumstances, I was unable to give a positive opinion; but I leant to the idea that the appearances resulted from defective conformation.