ggravation of
the disorder; and when the chemist is next visited, he is told to make the
stuff stronger, because the other made the dog worse. No warning nature
can give will stop the proceeding. Night and day the dog is rubbed with
the poison, till its gums are sore, or its teeth fall out; the saliva
dribbles from the mouth; the glands enlarge, the dog refusing to eat, and
is so weak that it can hardly stand; then, fearing death, a doubt is for
the first time entertained, and a veterinary surgeon is requested to look
at the animal, and say what it wants.

Chemists are not qualified to administer the drugs they sell to human
beings; but they are fairly the murderers of a fourth part of the dogs
they physic. They know nothing about these animals, and dispense poison
under the name of medicine when they presume to treat them. I have had
creatures brought to me in the most terrible condition; and when they have
been under domestic treatment--that is, when the chemist has been
consulted--I always look to find symptoms of salivation. The signs are not
obscure; the gums are either soft, tender, and inflamed, or else very much
retracted; the teeth are of a yellow or brownish color, loose and mottled
on their surfaces, but not covered with tartar; the breath has a peculiar
fetor, and the saliva flows from the lips, while the glands at the jaw are
hard; the weakness is excessive, and the appearance dejected. Purgation
may be present, and in some instances the whole of the hair has fallen
off. One dog, a Scotch terrier, lost every portion of its coat, and was
nearly a year before it regained the covering.

Here is a portrait of a Scotch terrier, and the reader will perceive the
coat is by the artist truthfully depicted as remarkably long, full, and
hairy.

[Illustration]

The imagination can, from this likeness of the animal in health, conjure
up the resemblance such an object as the poor dog must have presented
without its coat. Nor was the loss of the hair the worst part of the
business; it never afterwards grew to its proper length. The other
symptoms which have been described were present. Fever also existed,
though the debility in a great measure concealed it; nor was the issue of
the case by any means certain for a week or even longer.

The health may be restored, but the teeth will never regain their
whiteness, nor the breath recover its natural odor. A mild acidulated
drink, made of sulphuric acid and sweetened water