Note 29 — TREATMENT OF DISEASE IN DOGS

Unfortunately, they do not all practise it. Dr. Graff says, "There is a murderous practice now carried on in certain districts, in which the inhabitants will not themselves consume the butter and cheese manufactured; but, with little solicitude for the lives or health of others, they send it, in large quantities, to be sold in the cities of the west, particularly Louisville, Kentucky, and St. Louis, Missouri. Of the truth of this I am well apprised by actual observation; and I am as certain that it has often caused death in those cities, when the medical attendants viewed it as some anomalous form of disease, not suspecting the means by which poison had been conveyed among them. Physicians of the latter city, having been questioned particularly on this subject, have mentioned to me a singular and often fatal disease, which appeared in certain families, the cases occurring simultaneously, and all traces of it disappearing suddenly, and which I cannot doubt were the result of poisoned butter or cheese. This recklessness of human life it should be our endeavor to prevent; and the heartless wretches who practise it should be brought to suffer a punishment commensurate with the enormity of their crime. From the wide extent of the country in which it is carried on, we readily perceive the difficulties to be encountered in the effort to put a stop to the practice. This being the case, our next proper aim should be to investigate the nature of the cause, and establish a more proper plan of treatment, by which it may be robbed of its terrors, and the present large proportionate mortality diminished."