Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/825

Rh similar to that sometimes found in man, so that it might not be necessary to give the liquors with their food. About two weeks were lost in this attempt during the first part of April. They practically refused to take enough to make the experiment worth trying. Accordingly, the doses were given, as with the others, mixed with their food at night.

The amount necessary to give in order to make the experiment at all comparable with the others, as to amount of alcohol, was such as to make their meals very wet and bulky. Curves of their growths are included with that of the others in Fig. 7. They are seen to grow well from April to June, Berry falling considerably behind. They then came down with eczema, Berry having it worst, Winnie somewhat lighter. Frisky not quite so bad as either. I do not feel warranted in attributing this to either the liquors employed or to kennel management, for no trace of the disease had made its appearance before or with any of the other dogs. It certainly could not be considered an alcohol effect, for the largest dose of beer, 125 grammes, that Berry could take contained no more than 5·5 grammes of alcohol (the beer contained

4·3 per cent). I am strongly inclined to think that both the eczema and the scrawny growth of all three puppies is to be attributed mainly to their sloppy food i. e., a water effect. A number of books on the care of dogs caution strongly against making the food of puppies "sloppy," danger of causing eczema