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Life proffers this brief advice: “For an adult dog one meal a day, given in the evening, is generally better than two or three. It should consist of dog-biscuit or the coarser table-scraps, bread-crusts, brown bread, oatmeal, bones with not too much meat and vegetables. In severe weather or with much exercise in the open air a dog needs to be fed oftener and to have more food. The best indication as to whether the feeding is proper is the condition of the animal. He should be neither lean nor fat, but sleek. One should be able to take up a handful of soft, loose skin anywhere on the dog’s body. A gnawing-bone is the dog’s tooth-brush, and he should be kept well-supplied at all times, both for business and amusement. Too much meat and a lack of cleanliness are apt to give rise to offensive odors, the ‘doggy’ smell of animals not properly cared for. Fleas are the great burden of a dog’s life. To kill every flea on a dog it is necessary only to lather him completely with some mild, clean soap, let it stay on for two or three minutes, then rinse in clean water or let the dog take a swim.” See American Kennel and Sporting Dogs, by Bruges; Watson’s Dog-Book; and The Dog in History and Folk-lore (in Sketches and Studies by R. J. King).

Dog-Days is the name given in ancient times to the period of greatest heat in summer, because along the Mediterrenean this is of nearly the same duration as that in which the rose at the same time with the sun. The joining of these two was supposed to have an evil influence on the earth. The period of the rising of the Dog-star with the sun is very indefinite and uncertain. In modern times dog-days are sometimes reckoned from July 24 to August 24, and sometimes from July 3 to August 11.

Doge’s Palace, The. In Genoa as well as in Venice there is a palace once owned by the dukes or doges of the city; but while the former dates only from the 17th century and relatively is an insignificant building, the doge’s palace at Venice still is a splendid and interesting structure, though it was begun in 1300. Between 800 and 1300 three or four palaces were built for the doges and destroyed. The present building was then started, facing the sea and bordering the Rio del Palazzo Canal. Friezes from the earlier building were inserted in the new one. This palace was some distance from the famous church of St. Mark, but slowly its front was so extended as at length to touch the church. Its rear lines the canal; and there is included an oblong court. The building is but three stories high. For an adequate account of its beauties one must study Ruskin’s Stones of Venice, Vol. 2; but we may note a few points of interest. The exterior and interior have both suffered much from fire, from robbery by conquerors and from clumsy efforts to restore columns, statuary and paintings. But there remain the striking and unique façades, the beautiful marbles of the exterior walls and a profusion of delicate and elaborate sculpture, allegorical in character, presenting virtues, vices, the ages of man and similar subjects. On the third floor, in the great council-chambers, hang many splendid and famous paintings, including some by Tintoretto. The Bridge of Sighs, celebrated in poem and story, was built about 1590 to join the palace with the new prison then erected on the other side of the Rio del Palazzo. Of course its tragic fame arises from the shortness of the passage from the splendid abode of power to the dark and hopeless dungeons of the prison. But before 1590 the victims of the doge’s authority had suffered under the floors of the palace itself. The fascination of the building can be understood only through study of the history of Venice and its institutions, which lent themselves so readily to extremes of splendor and misery.

Dog′fish, the common name for a group of small salt-water sharks and also for a fresh-water fish. The smooth dogfish without a spine and the spiny dogfish with a spine on each of the two dorsal fins are very abundant along the Atlantic coast. They are slate-color above and whitish below, and attain a length of about three feet. They are migratory, going into the southern waters in winter and returning north in the spring. Late in May and early in June they appear on the southern coast of Massachusetts, and work northward around Cape Cod and up to the coast of Maine. They are caught on hooks for the oil contained in their livers. When abundant, they are troublesome to the fishermen, eating their bait and driving away other fish. They carry from two to twelve eggs in oviducts, and the young are hatched within the body of the parent. The fresh-water dogfish (amia), often called the bowfin, belongs to the ganoids, a group of fishes with very hard, enamel-like scales.

Dog-Star or Sirius, the brightest star in the heavens, belongs to the constellation of

Image: DOGFISH