Bistort, s. A plant called snake-weed. The roots are a very powerful astringent. It has also styptic properties.
Bistoury, s. A surgeon’s instrument, used in making incisions.
Bit, s. The iron part of the bridle which is put into the horse’s mouth.
Bit, v. To put the bridle upon a horse.
Bitch, s. The female of the dog kind.
Bitches should be allowed to breed, nor is it good for their health to prevent it; for nature almost invariably punishes extraordinary deviations from her established laws, of which the reproductive system is one of the most important. Breeding, therefore, is so much a healthy and necessary process, that bitches prevented from it rarely remain unaffected by disease. Bitches in heat are very cunning, and often elude all but the greatest vigilance in their attempts to escape in search of a mate; and thus, for want of due caution, many frustrate the hopes of their owners in the desired breed; and many others meet their death by becoming lined by a dog so extremely disproportionate in size that the mothers are found unable to bring forth. Impregnation takes place sometimes at the first copulation, in others not until the second, third, or fourth; and in some cases it has been known, from decided proofs, that impregnation did not ensue until the seventh warding. Dogs should be suffered, therefore, to remain together some days to insure prolific intercourse. It is not easy to detect whether bitches are in pup until the fourth or fifth week after warding; about which time the teats enlarge, the flanks fill, and the belly assumes a fulness and rotundity unnatural to it at others. Pupping usually comes on the sixty-second, sixty-third, or, at farthest, on the sixty-fourth day. A quarter or half an hour, and sometimes a longer time, intervenes between the expulsion of each fœtus.
Dogs are certainly capable of superfœtation; that is, impregnation may take place at more than one warding, and that by distinct mates.
It would appear that this mental impression, which is perhaps usually raised at some period of œstrum, always recurs at that period, and is so interwoven with the organisation even, as to become a stamp or mould for some, if not all, of her future progeny. I had a pug bitch whose constant companion was a small and almost white spaniel dog, of Lord Rivers’ breed, of which she was very fond. When it became necessary to separate her, on account of her heat, from this dog, and to confine her with one of her own kind, she pined excessively; and notwithstanding her situation, it was some time before she would admit of the attentions of the pug dog placed with her. At length, however, she did so; impregnation followed, and at the usual period she brought forth five pug puppies, one of which was elegantly white, and more slender than the others. The spaniel was soon afterwards given away, but the impression remained; for at two subsequent litters (which were all she had afterwards) she presented me with a white young one, which the fanciers know to be a very rare occurrence.
The Rev. R. Lascelles, in his Letters on Sporting, p. 250, relates a case of a greyhound bitch, intrusted to the care of a servant, which whelped one perfect greyhound and six complete curs: the curs were the likeness of the dog she domesticated with in common; the single one resembled the greyhound she was taken to during her heat. There is little reason, therefore, to doubt that the bitch had been previously lined by the cur, and the single greyhound pup was the effect of superfœtation.
Sportsmen incline to the opinion, that the male pups are more strongly tinctured with the external form of the father than of the mother, and vice versâ; but though instances may occur to favour such a conclusion, it is not a uniform occurrence.—Blaine.