[1] Many dog owners swear by the preparation called Ruby, which can be recommended as a cure for worms.—­Ed.

The perfect cleanliness of the kennel is of paramount importance.

The animal’s general health requires looking after, and he may be brought once more into good condition by proper food and a course of vegetable tonics.  If wanted in show condition we have Plasmon to fall back upon, and Burroughs and Wellcome’s extract of malt.

There is a round-worm which at times infests the dog’s bladder, and may cause occlusion of the urethra; a whip-worm inhabiting the caecum; another may occupy a position in the mucous membrane of the stomach; some infest the blood, and others the eye.

(2) Tape-worms—­There are several kinds, but the treatment is the same in all cases.  The commonest in the country is the Cucumerine.

This is a tape-worm of about fifteen inches in average length, although I have taken them from Newfoundland pups fully thirty inches long.  It is a semi-transparent entozoon; each segment is long compared to its breadth, and narrowed at both ends.  Each joint has, when detached, an independent sexual existence.

The dog often becomes infested with this parasite from eating sheeps’ brains, and dogs thus afflicted and allowed to roam at pleasure over fields and hills where sheep are fed sow the seeds of gid in our flocks to any extent.  We know too well the great use of Collie dogs to the shepherd or grazier to advise that dogs should not be employed as assistants, but surely it would be to their owners’ advantage to see that they were kept in a state of health and cleanliness.

Treatment—­We ought to endeavour to prevent as well as to cure.  We should never allow our dogs to eat the entrails of hares or rabbits.  Never allow them to be fed on raw sheep’s intestines, nor the brains of sheep.  Never permit them to lounge around butchers’ shops, nor eat offal of any kind.  Let their food be well cooked, and their skins and kennels kept scrupulously clean.  Dogs that are used for sheep and cattle ought, twice a year at least, to go under treatment for the expulsion of worms, whether they are infested or not; an anthelmintic would make sure, and could hardly hurt them.

For the expulsion of tape-worms we depend mostly on areca-nut.  In order that the tape-worm should receive the full benefit of the remedy, we order a dose of castor oil the day before in the morning, and recommend no food to be given that day except beef-tea or mutton broth.  The bowels are thus empty next morning, so that the parasite cannot shelter itself anywhere, and is therefore sure to be acted on.

Infusion of cusco is sometimes used as an anthelmintic, so is wormwood, and the liquid extract of male fern, and in America spigelia root and pumpkin seeds.

The best tonic to give in cases of worms is the extract of quassia.

Extract of quassia, 1 to 10 grains; extract of hyoscyamus, 1/2 to 5 grains.  To make one pill.  Thrice daily.