The Recorder, Or, Lady's And Gentleman's Miscellany

ON DOGS.

There is no quadruped, whose fidelity and other virtues, have been so much celebrated as the Dog. As early as the days of Homer, this subject was thought worthy of the state and genius of a poet. In the remaining works of Ossian, the sagacity of this animal, his attachment to his master, his sorrow for his death, are all very frequently described with that tender and picturesque simplicity, which distinguish this inimitable author. "I love all dogs", says Ossian, "for they are honest creatures. They never fawn on those they do not like."

In descending from the lofty regions of verse to the plain, high road of prose, we meet with some deductions from this general panegyric. It is to the dog that must be traced the most shocking distemper that ever polluted the human frame, a distemper that bids absolute defiance to all sorts of remedies.

Dr. Buchan, author of the Domestic Medicine published, some time since, a treatise on the venereal disorder. He therein says that some persons pretend to cure it without mercury; but that all these cures were just like those for the bite of a mad dog; to wit, they were successful only in cases where the disease never had existed. Dr. Mead, the most famous physician of his day, has indeed affirmed that he cured above a thousand patients, and that he never knew his remedy to fail, even in a single instance. Part of it consisted of bathing in salt water. But it is clear that where the disease has fairly broke out, the application of this remedy is impossible; and the truth seems to be that the doctor never had a real case of hydrophobia before him.

Much has been said of a certain stone possessed by a person in Virginia, and which is held up as an infallible specific. We have heard an opinion as to this point, from an able practitioner in Richmond. He believes the whole story to be an imposture. Some years ago, a statement, was made in the British house of commons that there were then thirty-three persons in the public hospital of Manchester, affected with the canine madness. But this calamity, although the most terrible is not the only one, with which that species of animals has afflicted mankind. The house of commons, in 1796, went upon the subject of a dog tax; and the number of dogs in England, as well as the quantity of wholesome victuals which they consumed, was found to be enormous. Some millions sterling were annually wasted in this way. At the same time, it came out that they destroyed vast numbers of sheep; not to mention the mischief which they commit in the course of hunting hares and foxes.

In England, if a man keeps a dog that is troublesome to passengers, he can be immediately compelled to lock him up, or to muzzle him; otherwise the master will be punished, and the first person who is molested by the dog has a right to shoot him. We are sorry to say that in Virginia, there is no law which obliges the owner of a mischievous dog to keep him secure. The only recourse for the party endangered or injured, is to maim or kill him. This is certainly an unfortunate omission in the laws of Virginia; and we submit it to the wisdom of the next assembly, whether it would not be worth their while to interfere with some regulation upon this head.

There is no part of the world more infested with dangerous dogs than Richmond. The greater part of those animals are extremely ready to bite passengers, especially after sun-set. Powder and ball could not be better employed than in the extirpation of such vermin. A short time since, as a young man was passing by a house, a little below the Methodist chapel, a dog came running after him, with open mouth, and all the appearance of a design to bite him. With commendable presence of mind, the lad instantly shot him; and if he had served every snarling cur in Richmond in the same way, he would, according to the French phrase, have deserved well of the republic.