“It is well known to what an extent various diseases, such as cutaneous complaints and scurvy, have identified themselves with peculiar situations, more especially after certain seasons. Medical practitioners are of opinion, that, for the thoroughly comprehending the nature and the cure of endemical diseases, an accurate study of topography is essentially necessary. The inhabitants of countries or places where diseases prevail endemically are very often exempted from other serious indispositions; and the natives of a country or district frequently become inured by habit to influences which at once manifest their power over newly-imported strangers, especially in tropical regions. In countries inhabited by different races of men, the same circumstances do not always produce the same effects upon different varieties. The water of the Seine produces disorder in the Londoner, to which the Parisian, who is accustomed to it, is exempt. The treatment also of similar diseases often requires to be very different in consequence of the locality where it appears, and also the constitution and habits of the patient.
“The miasmata, or particles which emanate from the surface of the earth, produce marked effects upon the human constitution in those places where they prevail. The districts where they are most conspicuous are the marshes, fens and swamps in Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, and Essex: intermitting fevers and agues are the consequence. Although marshy districts are pre-eminently capable of engendering miasmata, they are not exclusively so: the result of numerous observations proves that the circumstances essential to this phenomenon are the presence of water, or moisture, and the influence of solar heat: when the quantity of water is great at any particular time, the effects do not manifest themselves until it subsides. Many circumstances are supposed to influence the development of the effects of these exhalations. It is also asserted, that it has sometimes been carried to considerable distances, to situations naturally healthy, by currents of air. This is a consideration of vast importance in forming an opinion upon the fact of kennel lameness being indigenous to certain situations, and shows most clearly how little benefit can be anticipated in those cases where the malady is severe, by the interposition of impervious concretes, asphaltum, and such like preparations.
“It has been asserted that attacks of paralysis have been mistaken for kennel lameness. How such mistakes can have originated with any persons conversant with the characteristics of the latter malady, it is difficult to conceive, unless that term is intended to comprehend all disorders in which lameness is apparent. If so, ere long, we shall have hounds, when lamed by thorns or bruises, included in the list. Kennel lameness, properly so termed, is intended to convey the idea of a malady whose distinctive symptoms are so identically similar to rheumatism, that there appears scarcely any visible reason why it should be distinguished by any other term; but as it has now acquired a standing in the huntsman’s nomenclature, it would be presumption to attempt to displace it: nevertheless, the term rheumatism would be quite as applicable and more universally comprehended. Before a physiologist pronounces to what class a disorder belongs, and before a physician attempts to prescribe a remedy for its cure, it is requisite to investigate the symptoms which exist. Now the symptoms of paralysis and rheumatism are so distinctly at variance, that it is utterly impossible to fall under a mistake. Paralysis is a nervous affection, in which the nerves, acting on the muscles, interrupt their motion, relaxing their tone and fibre, and very frequently distorting some particular limb. Rheumatism is a rigid or contracted state of the muscles, attended with a slight inflammatory condition of the tissue which covers the muscles, having the effect, when the animal has been some time at rest, of creating a certain degree of adhesion. Thus a hound badly affected with kennel lameness, on first being taken out, is so stiff and sore as scarcely to be able to move—a state in which I have seen so many, that the remembrance is accompanied with feelings of commiseration and pity that would prompt me to any trouble or exertion that would produce the effect of subduing the complaint. When hounds thus disordered have been in motion a short time, so as to increase the circulation of the blood, the extreme rigidity or stiffness goes off to a certain extent, dependent upon the violence of the attack. But paralytic affections would not be attended with any such results: exercise would rather tend to increase than to improve the capabilities of action.
“I have very little doubt but the severe work which staghounds occasionally undergo, and the numerous changes of temperature which they have to contend against, are causes for the aggravation of this malady. A foxhound generally has some preparatory exercise, besides the exertion of going to covert, which latter is equivalent to the staghound going to the place of meeting. The former has to draw for and to find his fox, in which effort his powers are more gradually brought into play, and the circulation of his blood is more rationally increased; but the staghound is laid on to the scent of his game without any preparatory excitement of the system, when he immediately goes to work, straining every nerve in his ardour for the chase, and very frequently maintains those efforts during the period of several hours; and frequently, when in an evident state of exhaustion, a time when immersion is dangerous, he plunges into rivers, canals, or lakes—places which stags have such inordinate propensities for when severely pressed.
“The high and stimulating food, which is no doubt found necessary to maintain condition during a long chase, is another cause for symptoms of kennel lameness making their appearance with staghounds. The circumstance of the canine species not throwing off perspirable matter through the pores of the skin, appears to be a very powerful reason why they are so susceptible of rheumatic affections, and more especially that it should assume a chronic character when once introduced into the system. It is asserted that the dog perspires through the tongue; admitting that as a fact, it is to a very trifling extent, and not equivalent to the vast effusion of violent perspiration which must ensue from the laborious exertions of the chase, providing a hound generates an equivalent proportion according to his bulk that either a man or a horse does under similar efforts; besides which, making its escape from one part only, the general relief to the animal cannot be equivalent to that which is experienced by those animals who have outlets in the immediate proximity of almost every muscle. It is very evident that a great portion of the extraneous fluid, which in some animals flies off in perspiration, is by the hound voided in urine. The vast quantity which he passes is a proof of this, and it is a reason why medicines acting upon the urinary functions should be resorted to, in cases of kennel lameness, as a palliative.
“Seeing the announcement some months ago that ‘our right trusty and well-beloved friend’ and faithful correspondent, Ringwood, had forwarded his opinions and suggestions on the subject of Kennel Lameness, and appreciating most highly his experience on sporting subjects, I was buoyed up with the hope that his discoveries would have thrown some new light on the case; but was much disappointed at reading his recommendations to try the effect of fires in the lodging-rooms. Knowing them to have been tried by Sir B. Graham, Mr. Boycott, also in the kennels occupied by Mr. Nicol, I believe also by Lord Kintore, with prejudicial consequences, it only remains to intimate that the practice is incompatible. Moreover, the diuretic tendency which it produces, in encouraging hounds to perform their evacuations in the lodging-rooms, instead of in the yards, is a reason why the adoption of fires, however secured, in kennels, cannot be carried out consistently with the usual discipline and necessary observance of cleanliness. One of the most positive cases in proof, that on some occasions kennel lameness proceeds entirely from the unhealthy situation of their habitation, is that of Mr. Foljambe. With the utmost attention to kennel management, a long series of years passed with nothing but disappointment and vexation to crown the most liberal and judicious experiments. Nothing that human skill could suggest or accomplish was left untried, until at length it was determined to remove the hounds to a kennel at another part of the country, where, under precisely the same management, they are sound and well.
“In conversation with a friend a short time since, a M. F. H., he made the remark, that if I could make the discovery of a cure for this disorder, I should be entitled to honors and distinctions too superfluous to mention. My reply was simply this: ‘A remedy has been discovered, not by myself, for I desire no merit which I am not entitled to, but it is clearly proved that removal to a healthy site will effect all that is desired.’ The removal must not, however, be undertaken without mature consideration, in order to ascertain if the proposed new situation is perfectly free from the causes which produce the disorder. Clay soils may be denominated the most eligible; light sandy soils and light soils on chalk, are the worst. Any attempt to cure the complaint on a situation which so evidently engenders it, is like trying to heal a wound while the substance which created it remains within. Removal on the first discovery that the kennel is so located as to be injurious will most assuredly be found the most satisfactory, and, in the end, the most economical determination.”
I managed to keep myself from a most seductive doze during my companion’s somewhat prosy delivery; but scarcely had he finished, than I was in the land of dreams, and toying with
“The children of an idle brain,
Begot of nothing but vain fantasy.”