It was a sultry summer’s day, and Trimbush and myself were luxuriating under the wide-spreading and deep shade of a walnut tree growing near the kennel. Five or six of our companions, on the free list, like ourselves, were lounging about in the coolest spots, and their only occasional signs of life, as they laid upon the ground, consisted in brushing the buzzing flies from their nostrils and hides, and, now and then, making a snap at their enemies. Wearied, at length, with my own laziness, I made an effort to draw Trimbush into conversation, by asking him the cause of kennel lameness.

The old hound rolled on his side, and giving a wide yawn, stretched out his legs as far as possible, with his stern stiffly turned over his back.

“That’s comfortable,” said he, “very. And so you wish to learn the cause of one of the greatest afflictions that can visit us?”

“Yes,” rejoined I, “it is my wish to know everything concerning our interests. For if mankind be the proper study for man, so must hounds and hunting be the proper study for me.”

“A sensible remark,” returned my companion; “and as you are always ready to listen, there can be no doubt but that you’ll attain proficiency.”

“I’m greatly obliged for your encouragement,” added I.

“I remember two seasons ago,” said Trimbush, “hearing Tom Holt read aloud from The Sporting Magazine a remarkably sensible article on the subject you wish to be informed about, and it made so deep an impression that I can now repeat it nearly word for word.”

“I’m all attention,” I replied.

My friend cleared his throat, and then commenced.

“Peculiar conditions of the atmosphere have generally the effect of some disorders, which attack men and animals to so great an extent as to be denominated the prevailing diseases of the time—such as cholera, typhus fever, influenza, and many others. These results are not always contemporary with the weather, which in reality produces them. Indeed, they most frequently make their appearance some little time after a change of temperature has taken place, by which certain influences have been established, which become the sources of disorder in the functions of animal economy. Such disorders as those which are peculiar to any particular districts cannot fail to receive an impulse from such a season as the one we have lately experienced. Kennel lameness ranks among the number as likely to be one over which these powers may be expected to have a very considerable control. Much has been said and much has been written on the subject, and many possibilities have been suggested, and remedies proposed, which have so little reason for their basis, that it appears extraordinary how they could ever have entered the brain of reasonable and thinking men: but before going into a detail, I will introduce a few remarks on endemic diseases, for the purpose of more clearly establishing the point, ‘that certain situations produce the complaint, and will for ever be the cause of its continuance so long as those situations are preserved’; and also that certain modes of treatment are the causes of its prevailing in some instances with a greater degree of inveteracy. Indeed I have no hesitation in declaring, that bad management will, even on healthy sites, produce a modified degree of rheumatism, which assumes the name of kennel lameness.

“There are certain diseases which afflict the human body, and which are found to rage in particular localities, termed endemic. They are attributable to some peculiarities of the soil, the air, the food, and in some instances of the habits of the inhabitants. Poverty, want of cleanliness, and, the consequence of poverty, bad and insufficient food and raiment, may be enumerated among the most conspicuous causes. A removal of them will naturally be followed by the disappearance of the endemic. So with hounds: if a slight degree of rheumatism exists, produced by irregular treatment, alter the treatment, and if those already affected do not recover, the list of invalids will not be augmented by its appearance in fresh subjects. Some may oppose me on this point, by observing, if bad management produces the complaint in a slight degree, may it not do so in a greater? To this I answer distinctly, No; inasmuch as in some kennels the disorder has never been known to emanate, but that unsound hounds brought from other kennels have recovered: besides which, there are many kennels in which the disorder rages where the hounds are treated precisely upon the same system as in establishments which are perfectly free from it.

“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