The Sporting Dictionary, and Rural Repository, Volume 1 (of 2) / Of General Information upon Every Subject Appertaining to the Sports of the Field

After all the dissections and minute investigations that can possibly be made, the distemper, in respect to its original or remote cause, sets every enquiry at defiance; and it remains in the same state of uncertainty in which it has continued for thirty years past. Great and indefatigable exertions, however, on the part of Mr. Blaine, (a professional gentleman of anatomical and medical celebrity,) have done much in the investigation; and as his researches are constant and unwearied, the SPORTING WORLD have yet much to expect from his perseverance. Mr. B. most candidly observes, that, "amidst all his investigations, although unable to discover the original cause of the disease, and after many experiments made upon probable ground to provide a cure for it, what enquiry, conducted on principles of reason and science, could not do, was effected by chance; and a remedy was found as certain in its effects, as it is possible for a remedy to be. Under a fair trial it has never been known to fail; even in the worst stages, when the convulsions were very frequent, it has removed the complaint; yet, where the disease is so malignant, the certainty must be diminished."

Mr. Beckford, whose series of "Letters upon Hunting" are amongst the happiest efforts of truth and accurate observation, communicates a remedy for the distemper, transmitted to him by a friend whose hounds had derived great benefit from the experiment, of taking "an ounce of Peruvian bark in a glass of port wine twice every day;" whether as a ball or bolus does not appear; but, perhaps, upon trial, it will be found, that an ounce of bark in powder will absorb (or take up) four glasses of wine, before it can be rendered sufficiently fluid for administering in that form.

Mr. Daniel has so largely and judiciously treated upon the subjects of the distemper and canine madness in his Rural Sports, that it is impossible to add a single thought or line upon either, without the most palpable appearance of plagiarism: his own observations, blended with a collection of well-authenticated facts, are so numerous, so just, and the inferences drawn so truly scientific, that nothing new or additionally advantageous can be introduced.

Dogs of every description are held in such general estimation, that the Legislature has thought proper to render the privilege of keeping them a matter of pecuniary contribution to the support of government, and the exigencies of the state; under which increased and accumulated act, they are become very efficient objects of taxation, as will be readily conceived by the annexed abstract.

"Persons keeping one DOG, not passing under the denomination of GREYHOUND, HOUND, POINTER, SETTING DOG, SPANIEL, LURCHER, or TERRIER, to pay the annual sum of six shillings."

"Any person keeping one or more dogs, of either of the above description, is to pay ten shillings for every DOG up to any number of DOGS so kept."

"Persons may compound for their HOUNDS at THIRTY POUNDS per annum."

Dogs, from their general utility, and the estimation they are invariably held in by their owners, have been thought worthy an ACT of PARLIAMENT formed solely for their protection; rendering them of proportional value with any other kind of property, and equally entitled to legal preservation. By this statute it is enacted, "If any person shall steal any dog, or dogs, of any kind or sort whatsoever, from the owner thereof, or from any person entrusted by the owner thereof with such dog or dogs; or shall sell, buy, receive, harbour, detain, or keep any dogs of any kind or sort whatsoever, knowing the same to have been stolen as aforesaid; every such person being convicted thereof upon the oath of one credible witness, before two Justices of the Peace, shall for the first offence forfeit and pay any sum not exceeding 30l. nor less than 20l. and the charges of conviction."

And "in case such penalty shall not be forthwith paid, the offender to be committed to gaol for any time not exceeding twelve months, nor less than six, or until the penalty and charges are paid. Any person guilty of a subsequent offence, to forfeit and pay any sum not exceeding 50l. nor less than 30l. together with the charges; which penalties to be paid, one moiety thereof to the informer, and the other to the poor of the parish. On non-payment, the offender to be imprisoned for any time not exceeding eighteen months, nor less than twelve, or until the penalty and charges shall be paid, and be publicly whipped. Justices may grant warrants to search for dogs stolen; and in case any such dog or dogs, or their skins, shall, upon such search, be found, to take and restore every such dog or skin to the owner; and the persons in whose custody any such dog or skin shall be found, are liable to the like penalties and punishments. Persons aggrieved may appeal to the quarter-sessions, and the determination there to be final."

It is a matter too universally known to require much information, that DRUGS of different kinds (or qualities) are sold under the same denomination at various prices; by which the prudent and the experienced may easily judge of the gradational shades of ADULTERATION by which those prices are reduced. The lower class of FARRIERS, particularly in the country, are remarkable for purchasing the cheapest articles they can obtain, and have of course the regular channels through which they are supplied. The paltry articles sold for LIQUORICE POWDER, DIAPENTE, FŒNUGREC, ANISEED POWDER, and TURMERIC, are mostly a compound of flour, bean meal, oatmeal, and various kinds of rubbish, slightly impregnated with a small proportion of the genuine drug or medicine it is intended to represent. See Adulteration.

The DRUGS and MEDICINES indispensibly necessary for the professional embarkation of the VETERINARIAN, are as follow; and without the entire possession of which, it will be impossible to do justice to the good opinion of his employers, or to the reputation he may be anxious to obtain.

To which may be added ointments detergent, digestive, and healing; lint, tow, syringes, pipes, bladders, &c. to meet all emergencies. Nothing so much betrays a want of medical knowledge and consistency, as the habitual indolence of being without the necessary apparatus, when suddenly called upon in cases of ALARM and DANGER. Judicious practitioners never fall into the slovenly mode of substituting one medicine for another, unless difficulties or distance prevent the possibility of their being obtained.

Many of the foregoing articles will also be found useful in the possession of gentlemen resident in remote parts of the country, or at a distance from towns; particularly as the practice of the VILLAGE SMITH or FARRIER may be too confined and unprofitable to admit of his keeping up a stock adapted to a more extensive concern. Sportsmen who are anxious for the uniform consistency of stable discipline, and the preservation of their studs in good condition, stand not in need of advice upon a subject become so universal; as very few sporting establishments are now to be seen, but what have their collection of medicines ready prepared for any unexpected emergency.

E.

Pain in the ear of a horse is discoverable immediately by its flaccidity, and painful deprivation of erection. The ear lays nearly flat either one way or another; the horse is almost every minute giving violent shakes of his head, which he as constantly leaves hanging down on the side affected; from which circumstances alone the seat of pain may with certainty be ascertained. Pains in the ear may arise from various causes, as colds, blows, the insinuation of, or sting from, forest flies, bees, wasps, or hornets. If the first is known to be the cause, the stimulus excited by mildly rubbing the inside with the half of a newly divided onion, will soon relieve the pain. If from a blow, rubbing the ear inside and out with two table-spoons full of camphorated spirits, mixed with two tea-spoons full of extract of saturn, will relieve. If from a sting, a plentiful impregnation of fine olive oil, to give the skin the power of expansion, will be right in the moment of increasing inflammation; after which, the swelling may be allayed with common white wine vinegar, verjuice, or strong vegeto mineral water.

Trimming the EARS on the inside is a very common practice, and adds considerably to the neatness and cleanliness of the head and appearance; but care should be taken never to let it be done during rainy weather, sharp and severe winds, or in the winter season; dreadful colds, as well as dangerous diseases, have often been produced by these means, without knowing from what cause the ill effect has been derived. The operation of trimming should be performed in warm, open, mild weather, and with SCISSARS in preference to the flame of a candle; which, with the additional use of the twitch, only serves to put the poor animal to a double degree of unnecessary misery. After the ears are trimmed, they may be rubbed over the inside with a small quantity of fresh butter, or a piece of fine linen impregnated with olive oil, both of which are excellent preventives to cold after the operation.

In 1770 he received forfeit 600 guineas, and won the King's 100 guineas at Newmarket; the King's 100 guineas at Guildford; the same at Nottingham; the same and 319 at York; the King's 100 guineas at Lincoln; 150 guineas, and the King's 100 guineas again at Newmarket, where orders having been privately given by his owner, "to go off at score, and run the whole four miles for speed," he double distanced his opponents, and was then taken out of training for want of a competitor. From this time he continued as a stallion at Epsom, in Surry, and afterwards at Cannons, the seat of Colonel O'Kelly, in Middlesex, where he died on the 27th of February, 1789, in the 26th year of his age; leaving a progeny of winners and stallions who are transmitting his blood to posterity in directions too numerous to be obliterated to the end of time.

He was sire of Firetail, Soldier, Corporal, Serjeant, Don Quixote, King Fergus, Nina, Charlemont, Competitor, Gunpowder, Hidalgo, King Hermon, Meteor, Pegasus, Scota, Serpent, Squeak, Stripling, Devi Sing, Eliza, Poor Soldier, Big Ben, Spitfire, Fair Barbara, Adonis, Mercury, Lily of the Valley, Volunteer, Bonnyface, Jupiter, Venus, Antiochus, Dungannon, Maria, Henley, Soujah ul Dowlah, Grimalkin, Dian, Thunderbolt, Lightning, Spinner, Horizon, Miss Hervey, Plutus, Pluto, and Comet; exclusive of a great number of winners, for the list and particulars of which, reference may be made to Weatherby's "Stud Book," and "Racing Calendar."

By adverting to these considerations, it will immediately appear, that even a temporary suppression of the natural evacuations must, in the first instance, inevitably prove the basis of pain or disquietude, and lastly of DISEASE. In the human body, great attention should be paid to diurnal evacuation, if a wish to preserve health is at all entertained. Infinite are the miseries originally brought on, and for years continued, (to a lingering death,) by an inconsiderate neglect or indolence in respect to the due proportion to be observed between repletion and evacuation.

This attention is not more necessary in the human frame, than it is with the HORSES of those who indulge the least desire to have their studs in high health and perfect condition. When a horse is observed to get above himself, or, in other words, to become loaded with flesh, too full in the carcase, round in the legs, thick in the wind, dull in the stable, and heavy in action, EVACUATION cannot be too soon promoted as a preventive to impending disease.