Part 16 (1/2)
Two drachms pure carbolic acid to 6 oz. of water well mixed for a lotion, and apply night and morning.
EYE OINTMENT.
Red oxide of mercury, 12 grains; spermaceti ointment, 1 oz. Mix.
The above prescription was given to me many years ago by the late Dr.
Walsh (Stonehenge), and I have found it of great service, both for my own eyes, also those of animals and birds. Wash the eyes carefully with warm water, dry off with a soft silk handkerchief, and apply a little of the ointment. Dr. Walsh informed me that he deemed it excellent for canker in the ear, but of that I have had no experience.
FOR MANGE.
In the early stages of mange, flowers of sulphur mixed in vaseline, and rubbed in the coat of the cat, is efficacious, giving sulphur in the milk, the water, and on the food of the patient; also give vegetable diet.
Another remedy: give a teaspoonful of castor oil; next day give raw meat, dusted over with flowers of sulphur. Also give sulphur in milk.
If there are any sore places, bathe with lotion made from camphorated oil in which some sulphur is mixed. Oil, 2 oz.; camphor, oz.; sulphur, a teaspoonful.
As a rule, when the animal is of value, either intrinsically or as a pet, the best plan is to consult a pract.i.tioner, well versed in the veterinary science and art, especially when the cat appears to suffer from some obscure disease, many of which it is very difficult to detect, unless by the trained and practised eye. Of all the ailments, both of dogs and cats, distemper is the worst to combat, and is so virulent and contagious that I have thought it well to offer remedies that are at least worthy of a trial, though when the complaint has firm hold, and the attack very severe, the case is generally almost hopeless, especially with high-bred animals.
POISON.
It is not generally known that the much-admired laburnum contains a strong poison, and is therefore an exceedingly dangerous plant. All its parts--blossoms, leaves, seeds, even the bark and the roots--are charged with a poison named _cytisin_, which was discovered by Husemann and Marms in 1864.
A small dose of juice infused under the skin is quite sufficient to kill a cat or a dog. Children have died from eating the seeds, of which ten or twelve were sufficient to cause death. The worst of it is that there is _no remedy_, no antidote against this poison. How many cases have happened before the danger was discovered is of course only a matter of conjecture, as few would suspect the cause to come from the lovely plant that so delights the eye.
It has, however, long been known to gamekeepers and others, and used by them to destroy ”vermin.” When quite a boy I remember an old uncle of mine telling me to beware of it even in gathering the blossom.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
THE WILD CAT OF BRITAIN.
The wild cat is said to be now extinct in England, and only found in some of the northern parts of Scotland, or the rocky parts of the mountains of the south, where I am informed it may yet occasionally be seen. The drawing I give above was made from one sent to the first Crystal Palace Cat Show in 1871, by the Duke of Sutherland, from Sutherlands.h.i.+re. It was caught in a trap by the fore-leg, which was much injured, but not so as to prevent its moving with great alacrity, even with agility, endeavouring frequently to use the claws of both fore-feet with a desperate determination and amazing vigour. It was a very powerful animal, possessing great strength, taking size into consideration, and of extraordinary fierceness.
Mr. Wilson, the manager of the show, though an excellent naturalist, tried to get it out of the thick-barred, heavy-made travelling box in which it arrived, into one of the ordinary wire show-cages, thinking it would appear to better advantage; but in this endeavour he was unsuccessful, the animal resisting all attempts to expel it from the one into the other, making such frantic and determined opposition that the idea was abandoned. This was most fortunate, for the wire cages then in use were afterwards found unequal to confining even the ordinary domestic cat, which, in more than one instance, forced the bars apart sufficiently to allow of escape. As it was, the wild cat maintained its position, sullenly retiring to one corner of the box, where it scowled, growled, and fought in a most fearful and courageous manner during the time of its exhibition, never once relaxing its savage watchfulness or attempts to injure even those who fed it. I never saw anything more unremittingly ferocious, nor apparently more untamable.
It was a grand animal, however, and most interesting to the naturalist, being, even then, scarcely ever seen; if so, only in districts far away and remote from the dwellings of civilisation. Yet I believe I saw one among the rocks of Bodsbeck, in Dumfriess.h.i.+re, many years ago, though of this I am not certain, as it was too far away for accurate observation before it turned and stood at bay, and on my advancing it disappeared.
The animal shown at the Crystal Palace was very much lighter in colour, and with less markings than those in the British Museum, the tail shorter, and the dark rings fewer, the lines on the body not much deeper in tint than the ground colour, excepting on the forehead and the inside of the fore-legs, which were darker, rather a light red round the mouth, and almost white on the chest--which appears to be usual with the wild cat; the eyes were yellow-tinted green, the tips of the ears, the lips, cus.h.i.+ons of the feet, and a portion of the back part of the hind-legs, black; the markings were, in short, irregular thin lines, and in no way resembled those of the ordinary black-marked domestic tabby cat, possessing little elegance of line--in character it was bolder, having a rugged st.u.r.diness, being stronger and broader built, the fore-arms thick, ma.s.sive, and endowed with great power, with long, curved claws, the feet were stout, sinewy, and strong; altogether it was a very peculiar, interesting, and extraordinary animal. What became of it I never learned.
In 1871 and 1872, a wild cat was exhibited at the Crystal Palace Cat Show, by the Earl of Hopetoun, aged three years, also some hybrid kittens, the father of which was a long-haired cat, the mother a sandy, by a wild cat out of a long-haired tabby, which proves, if proof were wanting, that such hybrids breed freely either with hybrids, the domestic, or the wild cat.
Mr. Frank Buckland also exhibited a hybrid between the wild and tame cat.
The Zoological Society, a pair of wild cats which did not appear to be British.
In 1873, Mr. A. H. Senger sent a fine specimen of hybrid, between the domestic cat and Scotch wild cat.
An early description of the wild cat in England is to be found in an old book on Natural History, and copied into a work on ”Menageries,”
”Bartholomoeus de Proprietatibus Rerum,” which was translated into English by Thomas Berthlet, and printed by Wynkyn de Worde as early as 1498. There is a very interesting description of the cat, which gives nearly all the properties of the wild animal in an odd and very amusing way. It states: ”He is most like to the leopard, and hath a great mouthe, and saw teeth and sharp, and long tongue, and pliant, thin, and subtle; and lappeth therewith when he drinketh, as other beasts do, that have the nether lip shorter than the over; for, by cause of unevenness of lips, such beasts suck not in drinking, but lap and lick, as Aristotle saith and Plinius also. And he is a full lecherous beast in youth, swift, pliant, and merry, and leapeth, and riseth on all things that is tofore him; and is led by a straw, and playeth therewith, and is a right heavy beast in age, and full sleepy, and lieth slyly in wait for mice; and is ware where they bene more by smell than by sight, and hunteth and riseth on them in privy places; and when he taketh a mouse, he playeth therewith, and eateth him after the play; and is a cruel beast when he is wild, and dwelleth in woods, and hunteth there small wild beasts as conies and hares.”