ize 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.

It is painful to peruse the "_experiments_" made especially by the French
authors. We read that so much of some particular agent caused death to a
dog in such a period; but he must be wise indeed who learns anything from
statements of this kind. The word dog represents animals of various sizes
and very diverse constitutions; therefore no conclusion can be drawn from
an assertion that does not embrace every particular. Unfortunately,
however, the operators think it no disgrace to their scientific
attainments to put forth such loose and idle assertions; nor do they seem
to hold it derogatory to their intelligence that they assume to reach a
show of certainty by experimentalising upon a creature about which, as
their reports bear witness, they literally know nothing. Equally
unsatisfactory are the surgical and physiological experiments made upon
these creatures. No results deduced from such acts can be of the slightest
importance. The anatomy of the dog is not by them generally understood.
There is no book upon this subject that is deserving of commendation; and,
to instance the ignorance which prevails even in places where a
superficial knowledge ought to exist, I will mention but one circumstance.

At the Royal Veterinary College there is