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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Before any instrument is employed, the pup should be within the pelvis. The forceps sold in shops are made with the intention of dragging the fœtus from the womb; and one of the difficulties the practitioner is supposed to encounter in parturition of the bitch, is taught to be the impossibility of hauling the fœtus from the horn of the uterus. One pup generally occupies the body of the womb, and the rest of the litter are located in the horns. That is their natural situation; and as in the gravid state the length of the horns is greatly extended, of course some occupy a place far within the abdomen. The length of the horns, however, though supposed to constitute the only obstacle, is not the single cause which prevents the pup being reached by instruments. The horns, in consequence of their greater length, become bent, or folded upon themselves; so that an instrument which should drag the pups to light, where more than two or three are present, should be made to pass forward in the first instance, and then be constructed to take a backward direction. Those who invented these instruments to deliver bitches with, would seem to have been ignorant of this necessity; and I here mention it to prove how perfectly inadequate such things are for the purpose intended.
