upposition can be acknowledged. In the first place, although the dog is
to be found in warm climates, he thrives least in those to which the
jackal is entirely confined. Then all that has been urged against the
fancy which conceived the prototype of the dog was to be found in the
wolf, applies with even greater force to the jackal. However, to settle
the dispute, we here give the likeness of the beast, and leave to the
reader to point out the particular breed of dogs to which it belongs.

[Illustration: THE JACKAL.]

Beyond the circumstance of the habitats of the animals being distinct, is
the well-known fact that all domesticated animals have a disposition to
return to their original formation; but who ever heard of a dog, however
neglected, or however wild, becoming either a wolf or a jackal?

The dog is spread all over the world, and not only is the animal thus
widely distributed over the face of the earth, but there is no creature
that is permitted with such perfect safety to the human race to have such
continual and intimate intercourse with mankind. It is found in every
abode: the palace, the warehouse, the mansion, and the cottage, equally
afford it shelter. No condition of life is there with which the dog is not
connected. The playmate of the infant, the favorite of the woman, the
servant of the man, and the companion of the aged, it is seen in and
around every home.

Thus brought into intimate connexion with the human race, and continually
subject to observation, it is not a little strange that the dog should be
universally misunderstood. There is no quadruped which is more abused;
whether treated kindly or otherwise, the dog is equally made to suffer;
and probably the consequences of over indulgence are more cruel in their
result than is the opposite course of treatment. The health of the beast
is perhaps best preserved when neglect deprives it of man's attention;
then it may suffer from want, but it escapes many of the diseases which
caprice or ignorance entail upon the generality of the tribe. There exists
no creature more liable to disorder, and in which disease is prone to
assume a more virulent or a more complicated form. To minister to its
afflictions, therefore, demands no inconsiderable skill; and it becomes
the more difficult to alleviate them, since canine pathology is not fully
comprehended, nor the action of the various medicines upon the poor beast
clearly understood; yet there are few persons w