in zoology: An animal remarkable for its natural docility, fidelity, and affection for its master; which qualities mankind are careful to improve for their own advantage. These useful creatures guard our houses, gardens, and cattle, with spirit and vigilance. By their help we are enabled to take not only beasts, but birds; and to pursue game both over land and through the waters. In some northern countries, they serve to draw sleds, and are also employed to carry burdens. In several parts of Africa, China, and by the West Indian negroes, dogs are eaten, and accounted excellent food. Nay, we have the testimony of Mr Forster, that dogs flesh, in taste, exactly resembles mutton*. They were also used as food by the Romans, and long before them by the Greeks, as we learn from several treatises of Hippocrates. In the present times, their skins, dressed with the hair on, are used in muffles, made into a kind of buffkins for persons in the gout, and for other purposes. Prepared in another way, they are used for ladies gloves, and the linings of muffs, being thought to make the skin peculiarly white and smooth. The French import many of these skins from Scotland, under a small duty. Here, when tanned, they serve for upper leathers for neat pumps. Dogs skins dressed are exported under a small, and imported under a high, duty. The French import from Denmark large quantities of dogs hair, both white and black. The last is esteemed the best, and is worked up in the black list of a particular kind of woollen cloth; but is not used, as many have supposed, in making of hats, being entirely unfit for this purpose.

With regard to the qualities of dogs, those bred in the island of Britain are justly reckoned superior to the dogs bred in any other country. The swiftness of the greyhound is amazing; as are also the keenness and perseverance of other hounds and beagles; the boldness of terriers in unearthly foxes, &c.; the sagacity of pointers and setting dogs, who are taught a language by signs as intelligible to sportsmen as speech; and the invincible spirit of a bull-dog, which can be quelled only by death.—All the nations in Europe not only do justice to the superior qualities of the British dogs, but adopt our terms and names, and thankfully receive the creatures as presents.—It is remarkable, however, that almost every kind of British dogs degenerates in foreign countries; nor is it possible to prevent this degeneracy by any art whatever.

For the natural history of the dog, see CANIS.

Choosing of Dogs. In order to choose a dog and bitch for good whelps, take care that the bitch come of a generous kind, be well proportioned, having large ribs and flanks; and likewise that the dog be of a good breed and young, for a young dog and an old bitch breed excellent whelps.

The best time for hounds ritches, or bratchets, to be lined in, are the months of January, February, and March. The bitch should be used to a kennel, that she may like it after her whelping, and she ought to be kept warm. Let the whelps be weaned after two months old; and though it be some difficulty to choose a whelp under the dam that will prove the best of the litter, yet some approve that which is last, and account him to be the best. Others remove the whelps from the kennel, and lay them severally and apart one from the other; then they watch which of them the bitch first takes and carries into her kennel again, and that they suppose to be the best. Others again imagine that which weighs least when it sucks to be the best; this is certain, that the lighter whelp will prove the swifter. As soon as the bitch has littered, it is proper to choose them you intend to preserve, and drown the rest: keep the black, brown, or of one colour; for the spotted are not much to be esteemed, though of hounds the spotted are to be valued.

Hounds for chase are to be chosen by their colours. The white, with black ears, and a black spot at the setting on of the tail, are the most principal to compose a kennel of, and of good scent and condition. The black hound, or the black tanned, or the all liver-coloured, or all white: the true talbots are the best for the stronger line; the grizzled, whether mixed or unmixed, so they be shag-haired, are the best verminers, and a couple of these are proper for a kennel.—In short, take these marks of a good hound: That his head be of a middle proportion, rather long than round; his nostrils wide, his ears large, his back bowed; his fillet great, his haunches large, thighs well trussed, ham strait, tail big near the reins, the rest slender; the leg big, the sole of the foot dry, and in the form of that of a fox, with large claws.

Keeping Dogs in Health.—As pointers and spaniels, when good of their kinds and well broken, are very valuable to a sportsman, it is worth while to take some care to preserve them in health. This very much depends on their diet and lodging: frequent cleaning their kennels, and giving them fresh straw to lie on, is very necessary; or, in summer-time, deal-havings, or sand, instead of straw, will check the breeding of fleas. If you rub your dog with chalk, and brush and comb him once or twice a-week, he will thrive much the better; the chalk will clear his skin from all greasiness, and he will be less liable to be mangy. A dog is of a very hot nature; he should therefore never be without clean water by him, that he may drink when he is thirsty. In regard to their food, carrion is by no means proper for them; it must hurt their sense of smelling, on which the excellence of these dogs greatly depends. Barley-meal, the dros of wheat flour, or both mixed together, with broth or skimmed milk, is very proper food. For change, a small quantity of grease from which the tallow is pressed by the chandlers, mixed with flour, or sheep's feet well baked or boiled, are a very good diet; and when you indulge them with flesh, it should always be boiled. In the season of hunting your dogs, it is proper to feed them in the evening before, and give them nothing in the morning you intend to take them out. out except a little milk. If you stop for your own refreshment in the day, you should also refresh your dogs with a little bread and milk. It has been already observed that dogs are of a hot constitution; the greatest relief to them in the summer is twitch-grafts, or dog-grafts, which is the same thing. You should therefore plant some of it in a place where you can turn them into every morning: they will feed freely on it to be cured of the sickness they are subject to, and cured of any extraordinary heat of blood: but unless the grafts be of this sort, it will have no effect.

Diseases of Dogs.—1. Bites and Stings. If dogs are bitten by any venomous creatures, as snakes, adders, &c., squeeze out the blood, and wash the place with salt and urine; then lay a plaster to it made of calamint, pounded in a mortar, with turpentine and yellow wax, till it come to a salve. If you give your dog some of the juice of calamint to drink in milk, it will be good; or an ounce of treacle dissolved in some sweet wine.

2. Mange. Dogs are subject to the mange from being fed too high, and allowed no exercise or an opportunity of refreshing themselves with dog-grafts; or by being starved at home, which will cause them to eat the vilest stuff abroad, such as carrion, or even human excrement; or by want of water, and sometimes by not being kept clean in their kennel, or by foundering and melting in their grease. Either of these will heat the blood to a great degree, which will have a tendency to make them mangy. The cure may be effected by giving stone-brimstone powdered fine, either in milk or mixed up with butter, and rubbing them well every day for a week with an ointment made of some of the brimstone and pork-lard, to which add a small quantity of oil of turpentine. Or, boil four ounces of quicksilver in two quarts of water to half the quantity; bathe them every day with this water, and let them have some of it to lick till the cure is perfected. Or, a small quantity of trooper's ointment rubbed on the parts on its first appearance will cure it. It will also free lousy puppies from their lice. Or, take two ounces of euphorbium; flour of sulphur, Flan-ders oil of bays, and soft soap, each four ounces. Anoint and rub your dog with it every other day; give him warm milk, and no water. The cure will be performed in about a week. The following receipt is also said to be efficacious. Take two handfuls of wild crevices, and as much elecampane, and also of the leaves and roots of roerb and forrel, and two pounds of the roots of fodrels: boil all these well together in ice and vinegar; strain the decoction, and put into it two pounds of grey soap, and when it is melted, rub the dog with it four or five days successively, and it will cure him.

3. Poison. If you suspect your dog to be poisoned with nux vomica (the poison usually employed by the warreners, which causes convulsive fits and soon kills), the most effectual remedy, if immediately applied, is to give him a good deal of common salt; to administer which, you may open his mouth, and put a stick across to prevent the shutting it, whilst you cram his throat full of salt, at the same time holding his mouth upwards; and it will dissolve so that a sufficient quantity will be swallowed to purge and vomit him. When his stomach is sufficiently cleared by a free passage obtained by stool, give him some warm broth frequently, to prevent his expiring from faintness; and he will recover.

4. Worms. Dogs are very frequently troubled with worms; but more particularly whilst they are young. Anything bitter is so nauseous to these worms, that they are very often voided by taking two or three purges of aloes; or (which is the same thing) Scota pills, four or five being a dose for a large dog: this is to be repeated two or three times in a week. If this do not succeed, you may give him an ounce of powder of tin mixed up with butter, in three doses; which seldom fails to cure. Or of the herb savin, dried and rubbed to powder, give about as much as will lie on a shilling for a dose; which will entirely destroy worms and their seed.

6. Sore Feet. A pointer ought not to be hunted oftener than two or three days in a week; and unless you take care of his feet, and give him good lodging as well as proper food, he will not be able to perform that through the season. You should therefore, after a hard day's hunting, wash his feet with warm water and salt; and when dry, wash them with warm broth, or beer and butter, which will heal their soreness, and prevent a settled stiffness from fixing.

7. Strains, Blows, or Small Wounds. If your dog has received any little wounds by forcing through hedges, or gets any lameness from a blow or strain; bathe the wound or gripped part with salt and cold vinegar (for warming it only evaporates the fine spirit); and when dry, if a wound, you may pour in it a little friar's balm, which will perform the cure sooner than any method hitherto experienced.

8. Coughs and Colds. Dogs are very subject to a cough, with an extraordinary choking, which is thought to arise generally from a cold or some inward disorder; and probably it is often occasioned by their eating of fish-bones. To guard against it, order your servants to throw all such fish-bones where the dog can't get at them. But if the disorder be from a cold, let bleeding be repeated in small quantities, if necessary; but if it be what is called the dyspnoea in dogs, and they appear to be very low in spirits, the bleeding is better omitted. Let meat-broth, or milk-broth warmed, be the principal part of his diet, using at the same time the following medicine. Take flour of sulphur, cold drawn linseed oil, and salt-petre, of each an ounce; divide it into four doses, giving him one dose every other day, and let him have plenty of clean straw to lie on; or one spoonful of honey daily.

Dog-Madness. Of this there are no less than seven sorts common among dogs. The chief causes are, high-feeding, want of exercise, fulness of blood, and coliciveness. As for the two first, you must observe when you hunt them, that they should be better fed than when they rest; and let them be neither too fat nor too lean; but, of the two, rather fat than lean; by which means they will not only be preserved from madness but also from the mange and scab: which diseases they will be subject to for want of air, water, or exercise; but if you have but the knowledge to keep them in an even temper, they may live long, and continue sound. As for water, they should be left to their own pleasure; but for exercise and diet, it must be ordered according to discretion, observing a medi- DOG

Give them once a week, especially in the heat of the year, five or six spoonfuls of salad oil, which will cleanse them; at other times, the quantity of a hazelnut of mithridate is an excellent thing to prevent diseases. It is also very good to bleed them under the tongue, and behind the ears.

The symptoms of madness are many and easily discerned. When any dog separates himself contrary to his former use, becomes melancholy or droops his head, forbears eating, and as he runs matches at every thing; if he often looks upwards, and his stern at his setting on be a little erect, and the rest hanging down; if his eyes be red, his breath strong, his voice hoarse, and he drivels and foams at the mouth; you may be assured he has this distemper.

The seven sorts of madness are as follow; of which the two first are incurable. 1. The hot burning madness. 2. The running madness. The animals labouring under these are peculiarly dangerous; for all things they bite and draw blood from will have the same distemper; and they generally seize on all they meet with, but chiefly on dogs; their pain is so great it soon kills them.—The five curable madnesses are,

3. Sleeping madness, so called from the dog's great drowsiness, and almost continual sleeping. This is caused by the little worms that breed in the mouth of the stomach, from corrupt humours, vapours, and fumes which ascend to the head: for cure of which, take six ounces of the juice of wormwood, two ounces of the powder of hartshorn burnt, and two drams of agaric; mix all these together in a little white-wine, and give it the dog to drink in a drenching horn.

4. Dumb madness, lies also in the blood, and causes the dog not to feed, but to hold his mouth always wide open, frequently putting his feet to his mouth, as if he had a bone in his throat: to cure this, take the juice of black hellebore, the juice of spatula putrida, and of rue, of each four ounces; strain them well, and put thereto two drams of unprepared scammony; and being mixed well together, put it down the dog's throat with a drenching horn, keeping his head up for some time, lest he cast it out again; then bleed him in the mouth, by cutting two or three veins in his gums.

It is said, that about eight drams of the juice of an herb called hart/born, or dog's tooth, being given to the dog, cures all sorts of madness.

5. Lank madness, is so called by reason of the dog's leanness and pining away. For cure give them a purge as before directed, and also bleed them: but some say there is no cure for it.

6. Rheumatic or flavering madness, occasions the dog's head to swell, his eyes to look yellow, and he will be always flavering and driveling at the mouth. To cure which, take four ounces of the powder of the roots of polipody of the oak, fix ounces of the juice of fennel-roots, with the like quantity of the roots of milletoe, and four ounces of the juice of ivy: boil all these together in white-wine, and give it to the dog as hot as he can take it, in a drenching horn.

7. Falling madness, is so termed because it lies in the dog's head, and makes him reel as he goes, and to fall down. For the cure, take four ounces of the juice of briony, and the same quantity of the juice of peony, with four drams of staveacre pulverized; mix these together, and give it the dog in a drenching horn; also let him blood in the ears, and in the two veins that come down his shoulders; and indeed bleeding is necessary for all sorts of madness in dogs.

When a dog happens to be bit by a mad one, there is nothing better than their licking the place with their own tongues, if they can reach it; if not, then let it be washed with butter and vinegar, made luke-warm, and let it afterwards be anointed with Venice turpentine; but, above all, take the juice of the stalks of strong tobacco boiled in water, and bathe the place therewith; also wash him in sea-water, or water artificially made salt: give him likewise a little mithridate inwardly in two or three spoonfuls of sack; and to keep him apart; and if you find him after some time still to droop, the best way is to hang him.

Some have affected their having cured several creatures that have been bit by mad dogs, with only giving them the middle yellow bark of buckthorn; which must be boiled in ale for a horse or cow, and in milk for a dog; but that it must be boiled till it is as bitter as you can take it.

As to the preventive of worming dogs, see Worming.