The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-09-26 00:00:00

DESTRUCTION OF FOXHOUNDS,

By the 1r0ti...614-147-7.6. 1310171LEIRs.T7.irthe HOMO
armlets, and elsti-Vlsiatetion Journal.
. . . . . . . .

Again the Timms of the 31st of August sasists to " fright
the Isle from her propriety " by announcing to the inhabi-
tants the destruction of a pack of hounds, through that
"dreadful malady know as dumb-madness," the property
of Yr. Loftus W. Arkwright, in the county of Essex.
In the first place, the assertion that there is such an
Insanity among hounds and dogs," well known by the
name of "Dumb-Madness,' is an error of nomenclature,
as there is no such disease among the canine race; and the
statement, thus cast widely on nervous people of both
sexes, is therefore calculated to create a vast deal of
groundless alarm.
Does the Tillie-I, or do the people, think that a power of
voice distinguishes between degrees ef madness? The
hound is not a " dumb " animal, in his sense or out of
them, for he " speaks " by the voice which Nature has
given him, loudly, truthfully, and well, and as definitely
AB MLA.

—The Times states that "not • single hound of the males
(the dog hounda) in Essex has yet suffered, and it is hoped
that they may escape so contagions and dangerous a

Well then, according to this report, if there is anything
really in it, this so-called "dumb-madness" is sumpectW
to have arisen from some edidemic, and not from the
tooth of " Hydrophobia,"—hydrophobia not having, as 1
am quite sure it has not had, anything to do with it.
The Times then goes on to say "how healthfully the
kennels are situated," and that "the origin of the attack
cannot be traced."
. . . . . . .

Now, supposing that while these hounds had been out'
at exercise a strange but harmless dog had run into their
very midst, the entire outbreak of this diorama would have
been attributed to a "mad dog," or a "rabid dog," which
has been made to mean, in common or "veterinary
perinea' a dog whose jaws conveyed a dreadful death to
even living thing he bit.
We have, then, before us now the cruel and needless
destruction of two Jacks of hounds,—the hounds of the
" Durham Kennels, and the "Bitch Pack in Eases." On
I neither of these 00,1111i0011, I feel perfecW sure, need the
murder of the "Faithful Friends of Man " been thus
perpetrated. Nothing but nervous terror or gross ignor-
ance could have suggested so sweeping and cruel an act,
or an act that so utterly shuts the door against research
or useful investigation. The Essex "Bitch Peck" were
walled-in in their domicile, and therefore, no public
danger could have portended. Individual sufferers might
have been privately examined, and the disease alleviated
or watched to the last turn of its course,
On the vague accounts thus mischievously scattered
broadcast by the public press, it is impossible for me to
completely judge the situation, though on the mere face
of it I am perfectly sure that " Hydrophobia" had no
more to do with the illness of the "Essex pack" than it
had to do with the "Durham hounds ;" and that neither
in the one kennel nor the other ought a blind destruction
to have been resorted to.
On this subject (the one of the Essex hounds) I shall
for the present say no more, at least, until I have more
ample information.
In my kennel at Canford, where 1 kept stnghounds in
my earlier days of • huatsman's life, a disease broke out
to which I could nein no distinctive name; nor has half
• century of constant practice, and grave reflection been
able to enlighten main the remotest degree as to whence
or how that destructive disease originated.
The kennel was the one in which my father had kept
his foxhounds, eo that no fault could be found with the
situation of lodging-rooms or yard, yet during one summer
season my hounds kept dying off one by one, with short
intervals between ; and, if I remember at this moment
, correctly, the deaths amounted to 18 "entered" hounds.
However, the fact can he referred to in my Reminiscences
yesetihsrl 'Layman, published many years ago. All the
were during the night, and not one of these
hounds who so died showed any sort of indispceition up
to the time of going to bed at night—the night just
previous to their 'being found dead on their benches intim
morning. Either sex was equally subject to this sudden
and inexplicable death, and -I
came to dread the hour of
turning the hounds off their benches each morning, not
knowing which favourite might still lie on the spot he or
she had selected to sleep on, having died during the night
a calm and mysterious death.
There was nothing to which I could resort for explana-
tion that I did not put into requisition. Post-mortem
examinations afforded no sort of information whatever.
Sporting dogs not of the same kennel ate the same meal and
awed the same flesh, yet they did not die; and pigs
and fowls, by way of experiment, were fed on the same
oatmeal, yet nothing died except the hounds in their ken-
nel, and in the hours of night
I had played in one instance with a beautiful foxhound
bitch in her Bret season, in the kennel yard, up to eight or
nine at night, and at six o'clock the next morning she ley
curled up on her bench, as calm to all appearances as 11
she had felt no pain but dead and cold—a sad contrast te
the hour we had piked.
At last the devastating diagram Reel( died out, and never
appeared again. During the time it lasted there were
some people who suggested to me to destroy all these pets
of my lithium hours. 'lest the disease, whatever it was,
should show itself under a more dangerous phase ~" but
such cowardly ideas were scouted, and the hounds that es-
caped the incomprehensible attack held their own there-
after in many a joyous field.
I have tried to incaulcate the following counsel on the
public—never to destroy a dog that is said to be Ayd
.elly used on an occasion of his having bitten, er=
wise, man, woman, or child, or any living thing. But, if
possible, take that dog alive, and confine him in some
secure and healthful for the express purpose of
seeing him die or him recover. If he dies, and
refusal water, the latter act would incontestably go far
to prope that he was hydrophobic; if he died, but had
drunk water, then, though he might have been mad, and
did die, it was an affection of the brain like that so
frequently observable from the severity of the common
distemper. If he recovered and was himself again,
supposing him to have bitten anybody, etc, the terrible
incubus of morbid apprehension would be at once
removed from the mind, because no really hydrophobic
dog could recover, an th d therefore e dreaded infliction
had not happened,
It is really a lamentable calamity that some surgeons
and veterinary surgeons should take on themselves to
assign deaths to • disease that they had never seen. It is
I also as lamentable that assuming writers should attempt
to lay down, for the enlightenment of posterity, signs gad
symptoms by which hydrophobia could be denoted from
all other insanities; whereas there really is but one
distinction, and one that never fails, and that is, the test
' of water, gedropliobis shuns it, while dogs inane from
dietereper, or mad or rabid from other CUM* Will
I greedily seek for it, and at times, from • spasmodic
affection in the throat, if unable to swallow, they will ffli
the water vrith frothy saliva
kI roe Lot th,tto being forotel, in the cause of humanity, to
recur auth"etZrettod tale; but if humane do
net exert yes to repress fallen" as well as to
mgte torbltrea,—in some instances as wanton as. they
an uman—why, then, pity for the belpless DI DO
longer an attribute'of man, and the demon of cruet/
' rides rainless and renigh-shod over all.
Alderney Mann, Prob. Wernher gth.

The remit of the polling in Bucks was declared on
Friday at Ayiesbuiy. The lion. T. F. Fremantle,
(Conservative) Mad returned by a mjority of 156 over
the Hon. Rupert emington (Liberal) the numb.
being :—Fremantle, 2,275• Carianton,
539.
Wlininsanav evening at litridgewater, a barge waa
driven by tn. tide Wool tha Pier et railway
bridge crossing the river Parrett,. and immediately
sank. The owner of the boat and another man were
drowned.
ANIMICAN papers brought by • French steamer contain
an amount from en eye-witness of the massecm by Ihdlana
of General Ouster" division. were alsegatered,
°speared being an eye-witness, and be
treasneenwisinhiereawdrara;wbadiaturneddi:t
roduottbe deldirrowsthea nanalskan:rabusoadsabetwoltudil:os:theirsbgatasta=„carmaysilik‘ribi.soldiess.beinaTheanit
were Jowly roasted to death. Gassy
klikt

LORD BEACONSFIELD'S DEFENCE.
When Henry Brougham left the COMM'
iio
for the more serene atmosphere of the.Uppw Chamber
It was said of him that he lost a great dail of his wonted
fire, became somewhat subdued, remained cote.
partitively silent, acted in a less impasidoned manner
than was his wont, and generally acquitted himself in
a way creditable to a lord of high degree. In the Earl
of Beaconsfield, however, no perceptible change has
taken place. He is Mr. Disraeli Epigrammatic,
fond of banter and veiled irony, hidhiag inscrutablepurposes under a mask of frankness, an maintaimm,
official reticence, while indulging in open-hearteel
jocosity, the Premier remains true to his antecedents.
and upholds his reputation for discretion vrith mid vallA
tact
shire,ryand disc ,
entbioeyeiin
nimation a
usigreatdintre.
dinner
on
farmnofwthednewaers of B
e cenytralu,eatkingheeti
' 1 Society being made the occasion for the
of a speech on the Eastern Question by the
head of the British Government. As a specimen of
post-prandial oratory the address was all that could be
desired. Plentifully sprinkled as the report is with
" &eon " and "laughter'
, there can be no doubt that
the noble earl tickled his audience into good humour
with accustomed skill. There was • touch, too, of
pathos in his opening remarks, and looldbt...k.ny_on
the past he must have recalled to mind the of
the great man whose ashes repose at BeeTc .cinstld
What shadows we are and what shadows we Pursue
In alluding to his retirement from the House of
Commons, the noble earl, speaking as it were amid the
alternations of sunshine and cloud, said: "I had
tistysiveHreignealonsveanlia.:fd Xmymthmlnneltrywullo.ngedThrulisa, :antiafdhattocvo
Pewhrficahmedwomulyd tasks
shave in
been satisfactory "gem*
in
a mann"'
House tell upon one who is not so young am he was
I when, forty-three years ago, he addressed in this town
a large amembly of the people of Buckingham. Thal
are secrete which one wishes to keep, but they are
secrets which, unfortunately, in the long run it is
Impossible to conceal. My private secretary may be
more discreet than Gil Blacs, but I am not so conceited
as the Archbishop of Grenade. The late hours of the
House of Commons and the
which in the old days were hos:null:septum
me at a time when I felt my energies were ' cm°. /.3
and diminishing, and therefore I had only one cm.
imng
to take, which was early in the year
inform our gracious Sovereign thatafter the conclunoe'
of the Session she must not count upon my hec,l4„-
services on her behalf. I then contemplated rtat—M—
political career was concluded, for in my opinion thole
were those among my colleagues Who would ban
filled with Perfect competence the vat see& I
occupied ; but Her Gracious Majesty Ina temeed
take a different view of the eituation. She desired
that I should retain my poet, and suggested thct
might alleviate its labour by taking my seat in theotitte
House of Parliament," We now have the history of
the Premier's transference from the Lower to the
Upper House, and the country will be perfectly
satisfied with the change so opportunely made. But
what of the Eastern Question? Where was Hamlet
In the play? The Premier had much to say, sad said
It well, on behalf of Lord Derby, and be declared his
belief that there never was a Government in this
country which had more difficult matters to deal with
than the present Administration. We are told that
the Foreign Secretary is doing all he can to main-
tain the permanent interests of England and the
peace of Europe. Lord Beaconsfield further
admit, that the Government is denied the conaolatios
of being backed by public opinion. " Unquestion-
ably," the noble earl adds, "there is a large party, a
large portion of Her Majesty's subjects, whom
thoughts and sentiments ain attracted to and absorbed
in other matters than the maintenance of the
permanent intercede of this country and of peace." The
P. remier does not deny the existence of enthusiasm in
England on behalf of the persecuted Christians, and
he thinks. no language too strong in which to denounce
the atm-sties committed in Bulgaria and elsewhere by
Turkish troops. He is sadly afraid, however, "that
designing politicians may take advantage of sublime
anehru;rernaladund
eext,ertion,,c:f remained ii
sentiments and apply them for the furtherance of their
sinister ends," The allusion to Greenwich Park, and
the custom which once prevailed there at the annual
fairs of rolling down "One-tree hill," naturally sweats
the notion that Mr. Gladstone was present in the
Premier's mind during the evening. It will also occur
to many that the noble lord resents the course which
his old and most formidable opponent has thought fit
to pursue. "He who at the present moment," said his
lordship, "would avail himself of such a commanding
sentiment in order to obtain his own individual ends,
I by a course which he knows, or may know, to be
injurious to the interesta of his country and not
I favourable to the welfare of mankind, is one whom
conduct language cannot too strongly condemn. It
outrages the pnncipal of patriotism, which is the soul
of communities • it does more than this, it influences in
the most injurious manner the common welfare of
i
humanity; and if it be pursued by any man at this
moment, t ought to be indignantly condemned by the
people of England ; and in the general havoc and ruin
which it may accomplish, it shoeld, I think, be
described as worse than any of these Bulgarian
atrocities of which we have heard so much." Still
harping upon the difficulties which beset the path of
Ministers, the Premier reveals nothing of a special
character affecting their policy which Lord Derby has
not already declared. The friendly co-operation of
Russia in • special degree and generally of the other
Powers was secured at the outset, and no rupture took
place when EnOand declined to join in the Berlin
Memorandum. It is nothing new to learn that the
outbreak of war in Servia complicated matters. The
Premier seeks to throw upon Prince Milan and his
advisers the responsibility for subsequent events. He
also shows that the armistice was granted at the
instance of Lord Derby, and declares that the foreign
secretary is now earnestly engaged in an attempt t•
settle, with the concurrence of all the Powers of
Europe, the future relations that should mini*
between the Christians of the Porte and the Tarkish
Government. The country is kept in the dark as to
the precise grounds on which the Government will act,
but reticence en such points is in entire accordance
with precedence, and is not peculiar to any political
party. In the absence of details we have the satis-
factory assurance that "there is a sincere desire on the
part of all the Great Powers at this moment at once
and without any junnecessary wags of time to come to
general conclusion,' upon the subject, and the
principles of the English settlement are principles very
favourable to the permanent settlement of the subject.*
As a defence of the Government nothing could have
been happier than the Premier's speech; as a jocose
address it was inimitable, and the farmers were wild
with delight when the noble earl asserted in a jaunty
manner that he had spent "many jolly hours" among
his friends; as opportune to the election which takes
place to-day it was decidedly not without merit, but se
• definition of policy and a justification of Ministerial
policy the oration, brilliant as it was, will be regarded
as • failure.

GREAT SALE OT SHORTHORNE—The shorthorn herd
of Mr. Angerstein, of Weeton Brandon, has hien
Tie cowl
disPnani2,l69d IrealinThieradothefoffirranathisebredulladwrealisede;:tiebyrmlieedo£s7
,54,9.197S,wi,frafftvingring:rdit'
OnE 01
the
eeribduallan , for D
2 u,kooeoognilif R°sasth.esaYAlne' WngU the
.de°Wto Mi
heifers, Velvet Eyes was sold to Mc. . of Nort
aroPtonshin, for 900 guinees Wild Eyes 321 d 611
also sold to Lord Penrhyn for NO guineas.