Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1886-08-20
NEW USE FOR DOGS.
How Doctor Experimental for the Bene-
fit of Generous Employers.

How Doctor Experimental for the Bcns-
fit of Generous Employers.
Some individuals value dogs as pets,
friends and companions; some maintain
them as guardians of life and property;
others as useful auxiliaries in the Gcld;
in some parts Of Europe dogs arc used
as draught animals and beasts of bur-
den; certain Indian tribes eat dogs;
among some savage nations tho dog Is
worshipped; in other lands dogs are
looked upon rs materialized souls of tho
| departed; the Supreme Court of tho
State of Maine holds that dogs are wild
beasts, for8 nature, and as such may
be lawfully made war upon and exter-
miuated city dog catchers regard dogs
as the legitimate plumber of highway
robbery at thirty cents apiece; and tho
pound man reckons up their value when
| after drowning they are sold to tho oflal
gatherers; fashionable ladies wear small
or large dogs, just as they assume OF
put away new styles of headgear; DIR.
John Brown made use OF dog as the
subject OF literary effort which-as
such things go-is immortal; circus
clowns train troups of trick dogs; blind
men are led about by dogs to beg; some
dogs are life prcscrvnrs, rescuing human
beings froru watcry graves; in Damas-
Gus dogs are protected as scavengers; in
London dogs are cut up alive by vivi-
sectionists; the "best dog in the world"
is used chiefly for brag; and, again, in
every part of the world thore are dogs
which are good for nothing save drown
ing in bucket before ever their eyes
tn .rlir <f ~
world.
A New Jersey doctor, Beriah A. Wat
son, has discovered new use for this
creature. He had the genius to recog.
nize in the dog an animal possessing
spine, which might, by proper device
of devilish trap, be broken for expert.
mental purposes. The doctor is an 'ex-
pert" employed by the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company in accident damage
suits. An expert is a man who is om-
ployed to 60 on the witness stand and
swear to the best of his knowledge, be.
lief, medical skill and conscience in de-
fcnse of the side which retains him.
The Pennsylvania Railroad Company
has been annoyed by suits brought
against it by persons who claim to have
received spinal injuries in railroad acci-
dents. The Jersey City doctor, being
employed to give his professional aid
and comfort to the railroad as defend
ant in such suits, conceived the brilliant
notion that by subiecting few hundred
dogs to prolonged torture he might gain
some data that could be worked to the
pecuniary advantage of his employers.
BY carefully noting the death in life of
n sufficient number of brutes whose
spines has been broken in his trap, and
making detailed memoranda of the sue
cessive stages of their agony, he hoped
to save the Pennsylvania corporation
the few hundred or thousand of dollars
it might otherwise be compelled to dis
burse, and thus conscientiously earn his
wages as its servant.
The doctor at once became dog fam
cier. He developed a great taste for
dogs. He liked them-that is, he liked
to break their backs in his trap, and then
study them as they staggered about or
fell down and died. Forty-one dogs,
gathered up by newsboys, had been led
into the DOCTORS barn and put through
the trap, and their living and dying
duly recorded, without any thing of
material benefit to the railroad ''ex-
pert" when the Society for the Pre-
vention of Cruelty to Animals stepped
in and put an end to the abomination.
There is every prospect that the doctor
will be denied any further watching of
broken-backed dogs. If he longs for
new scientific fields to conquer, there is
an opening up on the Northwest coast.
The Kootenai Indians, of British Colum-
bia, have a cheerful custom of carrying
the helpless old people of the tribe to
remote localities and there abandoning
them to die. Science might profit by
minute and faithful record of the sue
cessivc stages of the subjects symp-
toms, as observed by dispassionate
and coldly professional student. The
savages, probably, would not interfere,
and the doctor, banked OF fame and
fortune from his investigation of broken
spined dogs, would have the field OF
lingering Kootenai dissolution all to
himself. brooklyn Eagle.