WHISKY ON DOGS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XX, Issue XVI, 16 April 1898, Page 471

WHISKY ON DOGS.

Dr. Clifton F. Hodgv. assistant professor of physiology and neurology in Clark University, Worcester, Mass., has been drawing the deadly parallel between two pairs of finely bred cocker spaniels for almost three years, one pair being sadly addicted to the use of alcoholic stimulants, while the others are good temperance animals, who never knew the taste of whiskv. the favourite tipple of their kennel companions. These four dogs are of the same age and parentage. They were mated when young puppies, and ‘Bum’ and •Tipsy' were started on a diet in which whisky played an important part, while ‘Nig’ and ‘Topsy* have received the food of the ordinary sort given to dogs. The alcoholic animals have not been dosed to excess: they are never drunk.

Results, as learned from careful data preserved by the ex|>eriinenter.

are very pronounced. •Bum' and his wife have all the appearance of leading a life of dissipation. They have become arrant cowards. They are even afraid of the dark, and not infrequently compel their master to go out to the kennel in the middle of the night to calm their fears and silence their howling's, that the neighbourhood may sleep. ‘Nig' and ‘Topsy' are never troubled by the commotion of their companions. Their nerves are in too good condition to be stirred by a little thing like that. All four dogs had the distemper last summer. ‘Nig' and ‘Toj>sy' suffered little; their cases were very light indeed. The others had a hard time of it. and barely pulled through their illness. Their habits must have told against them. They had had all the advantages of careful treatment that the normal pair enjoyed, excepting the item of alcohol. That was all the difference, and a lot of difference it made. Most interesting deductions have

l»een made from observations of the poppies l>orn to ‘Topsy* and ‘Tipsy.' Each has had three families. ‘Topsy's’ litteis numbered five, three and eight, respectively, a total of sixteen. Of the numlier fifteen were viable, that is. born with constitutions strong enough to give them a fair chance of reaching maturity. One dog was deformed. In ‘Tipsy's' litters there were seven, seven and six puppies. Eight were deformed, six were born dead and only four were viable. The |tercent age of viability among ‘Topsy's* offspring was 94. among ‘Tipsy's’ 20. which would seem to point a moral. It is a whole temperance lecture in itself. There is a singular coincidence in the similarity of these percentages to those reached by Dr. Demme, of Berne. Switzerland, in his researches among men and women. He studied ten families where the parents ami ancestors, so far as could lie learned, were temperate users of alcoholic beverages or total abstainers, and ten

families wheiy one or both parents were drunkards or where then* were alcoholic tendencies from generations back of the parents.