Morning journal and courier., 1880-02-13
Sheffield Scientific School.

Professor Brewer Treats Of the Canine Race-Lecture on ssDOgs''-The Use- fulmess of These COmpanfOns-Their Varieties-Cr0ssing of Breeds FamOns Ste Bernard Dog Barry-DOgs i'm the East--Feats of DogS-Endur- ance--Their Love of HOme--A Dog on His Travels.
 Prof. Brewer delivered the third in the s. s. s. course of lectures to mechanics, at the North Sheffield building last evening, subject Dogs" It was highly Interesting and in structive also entertaining lecture. and was much enjoyed by large audience, including in it's number many gentlemen of promi- nence. The speaker opened with very apro- pos illustration in reference to his subject, and following spoke of the great variety of uses found for the dog and of the many inter- esting qualities possessed by these canine friends, and proceeding, said:
 And it is because that the domestic dog is the most interesting of beasts, and stands in more intimate and more varied relations to human society than any other animal. He is more universally bred. Is used for greater variety of uses, lives under more varied con- ditions of climate and geographical range; for no country is known where man can exist and dogs cannot. He is used for greater variety of uses. He exists In more breeds, and the breeds differ from each other more in size, shape, character and uses than any other an imal. He has been changed more by domes- tication. He exhibits the greatest variety of instincts; is more noted for sagacity; Is moro susceptible to training and education; has 8 higher degree of intelligence than any other -ka I1 S,, Srks, with our homes.
 Moreover, excepting horses he is the sub ject of more abundant literature. I have collected the titles of over hundred works devoted to the dog, not counting those rslat- ing to general natural history, in which he figures not of domestic animals of which dogs form but part, nor as sporting, not the various journals devoted to live stock in gen. eral and in which dogs form considerable part.
 It is impossible here to attempt any review of so vast subject. I propose to glance at but some features and leave entirely un- touched others just as important and just as interesting.
 We will consider first some of his relations to human society, and only some, for, as al ready said, those relations are wonderfully varied, and in fact are vastly more varied than with any other animal. He is more widely found and more universally bred. He is the only domestic animal found with man in all climates. No nation or people or tribe is with l out him. except those living on islands where | he had not emigrated with his master, and where there were neither wild dogs nor wolves, nor jackals or any thing else to make 8 | kovo 0I1fo of ud oh rsb very low in intelligence. He Is, too, every \ where the most common and intimate com | panion to man and has been so in all apes SC | far we have any history, and he is the closest and most faithful animal and loyal of | our brute companions. He leads the blind beggar and trots beside the king with equal familiarity and equal fidelity.
 He everywhere figures in the earliest his- ! torical records, and now in these later times his relations to man are even more varied than | ever scarce a nation or people or tribe but | uses him in some way.
 The speaker now alluded to the value of the dog to some tribes and races, as the Esquimaux for instance, to whom their dogs are so posi- | lively indispensable. Speaking next of the uses of the dog to civilization, the speaker questioned if any other one thing has been | the subject of so much curious and inefficient and unsatisfactory legislation, not even in. | temperance, and we seem as far from satis fac. tory legislation to-day as were the ancients The problem is one that has come down through the centuries unsolved.
 \ These laws have related 1st to game and game laws and horses and the unlawful own ership of dogs; 2d, dangers to men from the diseases to dogs; Sd, their relations to sheer growing; 4th, to their being unsafe and fero. oious 9th, to the acts of dogs injuring other property; 7th, to the employment of dogs ir various ways; 8th, to their employment fol unlawful acts; 9th, to their relation to yer min and other natural nuisances; 10th, te their use in cruel sports as bull batting or dog fighting. And so on through a long list oi statutes and enactments. The speaker re ferred to the subject of sheep raising as af feoted by dogs, and in the course of this said
 Both in Great Britain and in this country % if not 95 per cent. of the damage done by dogs is by other than pure breed dogs. Fol the past two or three years there has been ar increase of deaths by hydrophobia both il this country and Great Britain. For thirty years before 1875 the deaths from hydropho- bia in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland amounted to about one per year for each million of population, or about one out of about 33,000 deaths. Since that date deaths by hydrophobia have increased three or four per cent. In this State it is still worse I have looked through the statistics of deaths | from 1869 down. From 1864 to 1876 in. elusive, thirteen years, out of 113, 600 regis tered deaths, there was not one reported al from hydrophobia In 1877 there were eigh l and in 1878 there were seven. For 1879 tht statistics are not yet published.
 This disease came from the bite of mao dogs. Dogs themselves do not have the hy drophobia. They have a disease called rar bies, which is very infectious. It is proha ply not spontaneously produced. French ex perts show that this is not produced by out ward conditions. There are several popula errors regarding both the disease in dogs ant | in man.
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 run mad spontaneously. The prevailing be- lief here is that rabies in dogs is only got by infection or contagion, or at least in some wa! it is communicated from previous diseased animal. In the next place only a small pro | portion of the persons bitten by mad dogs ac tually have the hydrophobia. In France l where we have the fullest statistics on this sub ject of anywhere, only about one in five o the persons bitten by dogs known to be mat have the disease
 But when hydrophobia once sets in there is no cure on record. All the reputed reme- dies are useless. Now it is herb. Now it ii some drug. Now it is the mad stone or in cantation or some other nonsense.
 | In actual hydrophobia the misery of the victim be alleviated, but he has never | been cured. Once persons in it's paroxysms were mercifully put to death to end their suf ferings and to protect those who mi, be bitten by them. That has been done even ir the present century in this country I know of one such case. Both with dogs and witl men, the disease is essentially nervous one With the dog he is in the most intense suffer ing, has headache, avoids the light for 1t hurtl his eyes, sneaks away into dark places Some times, however, he grows wonderfully affec tionate and lawns on those he loves, as if he looked to his master for aid in some way. He becomes irritated, is snappish rather than fe rocious; if he once starts on his travels hs wanders on aimlessly until he dies. He may thus wander many miles, snspping and biting whatever is in his way, not to eat-not tc fght-merely snapping in his painful insanity And woe to the creature he bites.
 But many dog has the rabies and never shows any disposition to bite. If taken in hand the bite is rarely fatal Veterinary sur geons are often bitten. Youatt relates that he was bitten five times by dogs certainly mad, which he was called to attend, and no serious harm came from 1t. But the hydrophobia in spires more terror than any other disease, SC great indeed that the fright and terror and anxiety often induces 8 similar disease, known as simulated hydrophobia, equally fatal with the genuine disease. Human health is imper filed in another way by dogs through the in ternal parasite which affects dogs, ''Taenis echinococcos," the smallest of tape worms ravages in Iceland. Some accounts place one