There is no day my hands are not spared

There is no day my hands are not spared

There is no day my hands are not spared

I have too many reasons to be grateful for the generosity of the brute, not to feel warmly toward it. There is no day my hands are not spared, for they are constantly exposed, and never protected; and I should long ago have been torn to pieces if the canine race were legitimate objects of dread. Therefore I merely discharge a debt, when I assert the magnanimity of the creature; and it is a duty on my part to do all in my power to benefit the despised brute. With that object I speak most unreservedly, in condemnation of the way in which instruments are employed during parturition. Many various inventions are sold in shops; and of these, the great majority are very dangerous. Of themselves, very few indeed are safe, with any skill; and most are seldom needed. In the mode of employing them, they are almost sure to do injury; for in ninety-nine cases out of every hundred, they are introduced much too early, and in the hundredth they are used with unnecessary violence.

The animal would be more esteemed

The animal would be more esteemed

The animal would be more esteemed

If men knew more of dogs, the animal would be more esteemed. The persons who pretend to dislike them are always ignorant of the creatures. It is impossible for human beings to see much of, and be acquainted with, these despised brutes, without becoming their admirers. To like dogs denotes no peculiarity of taste or strangeness of disposition; for he must be incapable of appreciating natural goodness, who can observe these animals and not grow fond of them. There is no mental sympathy between a shrub and ourselves; yet a passion for flowers is pretended to by many who cultivate a horror of the canine race. Both feelings are affections, and a person of good sense would be ashamed to acknowledge either. Flowers are sweet and pretty, but man cannot love such things; whereas, between us and dogs there can be a positive bond of affection. In this world no one should be proud of disliking anything it is possible for him to love, or indulge a hatred towards any life that can adore him.

Poetical as the dog is at all times

Poetical as the dog is at all times

Poetical as the dog is at all times

Poetical as the dog is at all times, I know of no circumstance that develops more pathetically the disposition of the creature than that of pupping. At such a time, the bitch in her agony seems to trust more confidently in mankind. Animals that at other periods have allowed no one to approach them, at such moments have seemed to welcome me, and have appeared to comprehend the motive which brought me to their sides. To be examined they submit; and the pain it will often occasion may cause the animal to cry, but it draws forth no sign of resentment. The eyes are fixed upon the operator, as if to tell him of the suffering, and entreat for his sympathy. The expression of the face is mild and even plaintive; but, if possible, still more appealing are the endeavors the creature almost invariably makes to assist her attendant's designs. She seems, by some process that I cannot otherwise than consider to be a mental one, to comprehend human motives, and to more than appreciate our intentions. Her gratitude now would appear to be intense, and her confidence to be boundless. Where I have reluctantly been necessitated to resort to force, the dragging of a dead pup through a swollen passage has produced the pain which brought a sharp shriek from the animal; the agony has been such that even the fortitude of the canine parent could not silently sustain; and under its almost maddening influence, the head has been turned instinctively to bite. The natural impulse, however, was never fully gratified; the nose has touched my hand, but the jaws have closed before they grasped it. I have then distinctly felt the snapping motion, and plainly heard the teeth rattle as they quickly hit against each other, but they have never injured me. The dog could not repress the natural instinct; but though the hand was against its mouth, the noble beast has bitten the air.

I have yet another custom here to deprecate

I have yet another custom here to deprecate

I have yet another custom here to deprecate

I have yet another custom here to deprecate; and I am sorry to add, it is one which books and teachers equally countenance. I allude to the employment of instruments in parturition, without any rule being pointed out as to the time when such aids are necessary. Hundreds of bitches are murdered by the misdirected efforts of Veterinarians; and of the brutalities resorted to by other persons, I designedly take no notice. Such fellows mere pretenders are below the contempt of every honest mind; and my indignation passes over them to face the persons by whom their interference is permitted. It is horrible to think of the amount of torture which man's favorite animal is hourly subjected to, through the culpability or weakness of those who should, in gratitude for the poor beast's affections, be cautious to protect it.

Writing of medicines as applied to certain descriptions of dogs

Writing of medicines as applied to certain descriptions of dogs

Writing of medicines as applied to certain descriptions of dogs

Consequently, when I, writing of medicines as applied to certain descriptions of dogs, assert a particular agent is not in its action such as various writers have described, it is just possible I may not contradict the declarations previously made.

We may probably be both speaking of our knowledge only of really different things. Nominally the creatures we each observed were dogs; but though they were the same in race, in capabilities and bulk, they were perfectly distinct. The dog of the pharmacologist is a kind of beast I know nothing of; I am ignorant entirely and totally ignorant of the creature that Magendie and other respectabilities report of. As to the tales told by the French physiologists, I confess an inability to credit one-third of them; and from the list of those narrated by English physicians, I am obliged to make a very wide selection. My unfortunate capacity for incredulity in this matter has been educated by a professional acquaintance with the animal; and gentlemen must pardon me if I am disposed to think, they who are not ashamed to publish their wanton disregard for life would not be very tender with respect to a mere report about the creature whose suffering they despised. Where sympathy is dead, the conscience cannot be very acute.

The dogs I am called to are not of this kind

The dogs I am called to are not of this kind

The dogs I am called to are not of this kind

The dogs I am called to are not of this kind. They have been tenderly fostered, and generally their health has been deteriorated by the excess of care bestowed upon them. They are high-bred animals, and their sensibility is equal to their caste. My object, also, is not to play with life, but to save it; and that at which the medical man would laugh, I have reasons to regard with a serious countenance. Therefore, the accident which to me would be most important, might to others be so trivial as to deserve no notice, and even to excite no remark. However, supposing no accident to occur, the vigorous and low-bred mongrel might well endure that which a delicate and high-bred pet could not sustain. The stomach of the one being strong, would retain that which should induce violent spasm in the morbidly sensitive organ of the other. Dogs, it is true, are but dogs; yet, as a group, they present such varieties that there can be many things asserted of them which shall be true or untrue as applied to individuals.

And explain the probable source of difference

And explain the probable source of difference

And explain the probable source of difference

To reconcile, in some measure, the opposite opinions, and explain the probable source of difference, let the reader consider the possible conditions of the animals I and others have subjected to observation. The medical man, when experimentalising upon a dog, generally buys the animal; and as he merely wants a life to practise upon, he does not give money to procure beauty or high breed; cheapness is an object with him; and any unfortunate straggling brute, that can with impunity be trapped, is sufficient for his purpose. Such unhappy creatures are to be caught roaming about the country; perhaps poorly fed, but strong and low-bred curs.

Another common failing in veterinary practitioners is

Another common failing in veterinary practitioners is

Another common failing in veterinary practitioners is

Another common failing in veterinary practitioners is, a belief that the ergot of rye, or secale cornutum, acts upon the dog as a direct uterine excitant, and thus promotes the parturitive function. In this belief, however, they are not single. Many writers speak with confidence of its operation upon the animal. The accounts are positive; and I would not lightly place my unsupported testimony to the fact against a host of authors who can be suspected of no motive to misstate. The gentlemen alluded to are authorities of such weight that a strong conviction of the truth is required to make me advance, against such and so many witnesses, my single word. The reader must, however, take both for what they are worth; and remember the truth is not the less true because there may be but one humble individual ranged upon its side. It is not my intention to say the authors who speak decidedly concerning the action of the ergot on the bitch had no grounds for the statements they advance. I should not be justified in making so gross an assertion; on the contrary, I believe sincerely they saw all which they narrate; but, nevertheless, I am prepared to maintain that secale cornutum is not an excitant to the uterus of the dog in that sense which would warrant the veterinary practitioner in regarding it as a lawful agent. To be so esteemed by such persons, it should be both safe and certain in its operation. It should not only possess a chance of doing good in one direction, but it ought to be attended with no probability of doing harm in another way. It may, in the hands of others, have caused the uterus to contract, and thus have favored parturition, or have brought about abortion. I have seen it do neither, but I cannot say it has never thus acted; I am in no position to prove the negative. When I have given it to the animal, it has disordered the stomach and induced vomition. The dogs I tried its action upon might possibly have been bad subjects for experiment, but I am not aware that they presented any peculiarity. In every case that has passed under my observation, secale cornutum has been injurious; and I fear lest it may be so, when employed by others; I, therefore, discountenance its use, declaring the custom of exhibiting it with a view to quicken labor to be dangerous. I have used it as an emetic, though, rarely; as, for ordinary circumstances, there are preferable agents at command; but for some time I have abandoned its employment as a parturient for the bitch.

May harrow the heart of an affectionate master

May harrow the heart of an affectionate master

May harrow the heart of an affectionate master

The shriek of the bitch during the time when a pup probably is being forced into the world, may harrow the heart of an affectionate master, and his sympathies may be wrought upon by beholding the convulsion which stretches every fibre of her frame. The sounds may grate upon the ear, and the spectacle may be terrible to look upon for in dogs I have seen misery so powerfully exemplified, that I do no wrong to any man, when I suppose the picture would be piteous to his humanity but it is not charity which would put a termination to the pangs. Place the bitch, then, in a warm bath, and the appearances almost instantaneously are changed. The animal rejoices in the ease which a cessation of torture produces. No doubt she, for the time, luxuriates, and her face expresses the sense of happiness she then enjoys. But her fate is with the pleasure sealed; and she obtains a momentary ease to meet with a lingering, or perhaps a frightful death, for I have known inflammation of the womb to follow the use of the warm bath. The use of the warm bath is, during labor, at best a mistake generated by ignorance; and unfortunately it is one of those errors which can rarely be afterwards redeemed; for the weakness it induces is so great, that the tonicity required in parturition is destroyed; and this no medicine can restore.

Is a sedative to organic muscular fibre

Is a sedative to organic muscular fibre

Is a sedative to organic muscular fibre

Warmth, therefore, is a sedative to organic muscular fibre; and now, let it be asked, if during labor we should seek to dispel the contraction of the womb? During gestation the muscular coat of the uterus is passive; but when that function has been perfected, Nature endues it with energy to expel the fœtus. Upon the violence of its contractions the performance of this important office is wholly and entirely dependent. Without it the young cannot be borne; and however painful may be its force, nevertheless, such pain is to be welcomed, and regarded thankfully. The throes may be agonizing, but it is more cruel to check than to promote them; for the temporary relief we obtain by causing them to cease, will certainly be purchased with the life of the animal that enjoys so dearly-bought a repose.