It appears odd to speak of such an affliction as loss of all motor power in the hind extremities, connected with deranged bowels. What can the stomach have to do with the legs? Why, all and everything. That which is put into the stomach, nourishes the legs, and that which enters the same receptacle, may surely disease the like parts. That which nurtures health, and that which generates sickness, are more closely allied than we are willing to allow. Thus, a moderate meal nourishes and refreshes; but the same food taken in too great abundance, as surely will bring disease; and it is of too much food that I have to complain, when I speak of the bowels as associated with paralysis. Dogs will become great gluttons. They like to do what they see their master doing; but as a dog's repast comes round but once a day, and a human being eats three or four times in the twenty-four hours, so has the animal kept within doors so many additional opportunities of over-gorging itself. Nor is this all. The canine appetite is soon satisfied; the meal is soon devoured. But it is far otherwise with the human repast. The dog may consume enough provender in a few minutes to last till the following day comes round; whereas the man cannot get through the food which is to support him for six hours, in less than half a division of the time here enumerated. Supposing one or two persons to be seated at table, it is very hard to withstand a pair of large, eloquent, and imploring eyes, watching every mouthful the fork lifts from the plate. For a minute or two it may be borne; but to hold out an entire hour is more than human fortitude is capable of. A bit is thrown to the poor dog that looks so very hungry; it is eaten quickly, and then the eyes are at work again. Perhaps the other end of the board is tried, and the appeal is enforced with the supplicatory whine that seldom fails. Piece after piece is thereby extracted; and dogs fed in this fashion will eat much more than if the whole were placed before them at one time. The animal becomes enormously fat, and then one day is found by the mistress with its legs dragging after it. The lady inquires which of the servants have been squeezing the dog in the door. All deny that they have been so amusing themselves, and every one protests that she had not heard poor Fanny cry. The mistress' wrath is by no means allayed. Servants are so careless—such abominable liars—and the poor dog was no favorite down stairs. Thereupon Fanny is wrapped in a couple of shawls, and despatched to the nearest veterinary surgeon.

If the gentleman who may be consulted knows his business, he returns for answer, "The dog is too fat," and must for the future be fed more sparingly—that it has been squeezed in no door—that none of the vertebrÆ are injured, but the animal is suffering from an attack of paralysis. He sends some physic to be given, and some embrocation to rub on the back. The mistress is by no means satisfied. She protests the man's a fool—declares she alone knows the truth—but, despite her knowledge, does as the veterinary surgeon ordered. Under the treatment the dog recovers; after which every one feeds it, and everybody accuses the other of doing that which the doctor said was not to be done. At length the animal has a second visitation, which is more slowly removed than was the first; but it at last yields; till the third attack comes, with which the poor beast is generally destroyed as incurable.

These dogs, when brought to us, usually appear easy and well to do in the world. The coats are sleek; their eyes are placid; and the extremities alone want motion, which rather seems to surprise the animal than to occasion it any immediate suffering. They have no other obvious disease; but the malignity of their ailments seems fixed or concentrated on the affection which is present. The first attack is soon conquered. A few cathartic pills, followed by castor-oil, prepared as recommended in this work (page 116), will soon unload the bowels, and clear out the digestive canal. They must be continued until, and after, the paralysis has departed. At the same time, some stimulating embrocation must be employed to the back, belly, and hind-legs, which must be well rubbed with it four times daily, or the oftener the better. Soap liniment, as used by Veterinarians, rendered more stimulating by an additional quantity of liquor ammoniÆ, will answer very well; more good being done by the friction than by the agent employed. The chief benefit sought by the rubbing, is to restore the circulation, and so bring back feeling with motion, for both are lost; a pin run into the legs produces no effort to retract the limb, nor any sign of pain.

The cure is certain,—and so is the second attack, if the feeding be persisted in; unless nature seeks and finds relief in skin disease, canker, piles, or one of the many consequences induced by over-feeding. The second attack mostly yields to treatment. The third is less certain, and so is each following visitation; the chances of restoration being remote, just in proportion as the assault is removed from the original affliction.