Wormseed oil, which, as stated, is the first vermifuge to be given young puppies, should also be mixed with castor oil; and those who desire to use it should show the following directions to their druggist: -

Take of wormseed oil, sixteen drops; oil of turpentine, two drops; oil of anise, sixteen drops; olive oil, three drachms; castor oil, four and one-half drachms.

Put into a two-ounce bottle, and direct to warm slightly, and shake well before using. Also label - Worm Medicine No. I.

This medicine should be administered early in the morning, on an empty stomach; and it should be floated on a little milk - a quantity about equal to that of the medicine will be sufficient.

Assuming that the puppy to be treated is of large or medium-sized variety and under six weeks of age, the appropriate dose of No. 1 will be half a teaspoonful. This should be put into a dessert-spoon which contains the milk, and the whole poured down his throat.

But if the puppy is between six and eight weeks of age he can be given one teaspoonful of this medicine in one dose; while if he has passed the eighth week the treatment should be one dose of one teaspoonful of this medicine and another like dose in the course of an hour or an hour and a half.

As some might assume that the oil of turpentine is introduced into this mixture and its associate No. 2 for its anthelmintic effect, the explanation is made here that it is used solely for the purpose of quickening the movements of the intestine and improving the condition of its lining membrane.

This Worm Medicine No. I contains such a large proportion of castor oil in many instances the bowels of very young puppies taking it will move in the course of an hour; if they do not, however, and the patients are under eight weeks of age and they are to have but one dose of this medicine as advised, then to the average puppy a teaspoonful of castor oil - in about a like quantity of milk - should be given at the expiration of an hour or an hour and a half after giving the worm medicine.

Where the patient has passed the eighth week and this medicine is to be repeated in the course of an hour or an hour and a half, the second dose is likely to move the bowels if the first fails to do so. If, however, they have not moved in the course of an hour after giving the last dose, then one or two teaspoonfuls of castor oil should be given.

Worm Medicine No. I should be relied upon up to the eighth week, and in the event it is given and no worms are expelled, and yet symptoms of the pests persist, it should be repeated in the course of a day or two, the doses being graduated as before.

If after his eighth week a puppy had been given No. I and the desired effect had not been attained - that is, no worms had appeared in his discharges and symptoms of them still existed at the end of the second day after this treatment - then the druggist should be again sought and instructed to prepare the following: -

Take of santonin, four grains; wormseed oil, twenty drops; oil of turpentine, three drops; oil of anise, sixteen drops; olive oil, two drachms; castor oil, five and one-half drachms.

Put into a two-ounce bottle, and direct to warm slightly, and shake well for a minute before using. Also label - Worm Medicine No. 2.

This mixture should be given like the first, - before breakfast, - and unless worms have passed freely during the interval it should be followed in two hours by another dose containing the same quantity, the puppy meanwhile being denied food.

And if the bowels do not move within four hours after the. first dose, one or two teaspoonfuls of castor oil should be given.

If under the use of Nos. I and 2 - with an interval of two days between each as advised - worms have not been expelled, the chances are that if the puppy is between eight and ten weeks of age he is not harboring any, and more than likely his symptoms supposed to indicate worms are due to some other cause, and probably indigestion. Yet were his owner not satisfied he might try mixture No. 2 again in a day or two.

These doses of mixtures Nos. I and 2 are appropriate for all puppies except small breeds and toys - see page 333. For the former they should be reduced one-half; while the latter should take no more than one-fourth of the quantities advised. And the doses properly adjusted they should be administered under the rules laid down that is, they should be given on an empty stomach, not be repeated unless the patients are eight weeks of age, nor should No. 2 be used until after that age and No. I has-been tried and found wanting.

Here intrudes another delusion, namely, that it is always necessary carefully to graduate doses of worm medicines to the size of the patients. While in some instances variations can be made on this basis with perfect propriety, great ones and nicety of adjustment are not invariably required during puppyhood, for no very marked difference exists between the alimentary canal of a puppy of medium-sized variety and that of one of large breed. Certainly it is-not very much larger in one case than in the other; and assuredly the difference in capacity counts but little. Moreover, worm medicines are intended for the tenants, not the hosts, consequently unless very powerful drugs are given - drugs that are largely absorbed and taken into circulation - until matured a setter may be given as much as a St. Bernard of the same age. But the latter, maturing later, will bear increases after leaving the setter, and until he, in turn, has reached maturity.

Excluding small dogs,' for the reason that many of them are of notoriously delicate natures, the age and the condition of strength are the considerations that should weigh most when estimating doses of worm medicine, or at least medicines of the nature of those herein recommended.

Returning to Worm Medicine No. I\, the reader is again reminded that it is never wise to give medicine of any kind to very young puppies unless they positively require it; also, that vermifuges should be withheld until after the eighth week unless there is evidence that worms are present. But should such evidence be offered, then the victims should be treated even if they are yet nursing.

To dose puppies that are only three or four weeks old is no simple matter, for they do not swallow what is given them from a spoon nearly as easily as when drinking well and feeding themselves from a dish. However, if puppies are much troubled with worms at this early age there is but one thing to do, namely, drive out the tenants even though risks are incurred in doing so, for in many instances speedy death is inevitable unless it is done. And the signs which justify this treatment are vomiting of worms, convulsions, or diarrhoea with mucous discharges of reddish color, the same being attended by colic, which is indicated by moaning, or general prostration.

These symptoms appearing in a puppy of large or medium-sized variety and between three and four weeks old, one-half a teaspoonful of No. I should be given; and followed by three drops of laudanum in a teaspoonful of water, in all cases of convulsions or colic - but in none other.

If, now, at the end of an hour worms have not begun to pass, another half teaspoonful of No. I should be administered; and this should be followed in an hour by a similar dose of laudanum if convulsions or pain persist.

But if worms have been passed during the first hour it will not be advisable to repeat No. I. The laudanum, however, should be given in three-drop doses every two hours until the convulsions or pain have subsided. And this dose of laudanum is appropriate for all puppies excepting small breeds and toys.

This worm and opiate treatment is not likely to do harm if it fails to do good. And now comes the reason why preference is given to wormseed oil for use in earliest puppyhood. It is destructive to worms, less so, however, than santonin, and at the same time it is non-irritating and perfectly safe when given in the quantities herein advised. Beyond this, it really possesses tonic properties that are felt especially by the lining membrane of the intestine, which fact has been shown in many cases by improvement in the diarrhoea and other symptoms attributed to worms when those symptoms were due, not to worms, but to other causes, and very generally to indigestion. Finally, the writer doubts if it is poisonous even in very large doses, for he has many times given, without injury, four tea-spoonfuls of No. I, and repeated the doses in one hour, to pug puppies that were in their third week; while to the same puppies he gave one drachm doses of pure wormseed oil when they were in their seventh week, and the only marked effect produced was constipation. But these experiments were for the purpose of locating the safety lines, and of course no reader would be justified in repeating them.

Nor would it be necessary, for the small doses advised act quite as well on the worms.

As already intimated, when severe symptoms of worms appear in a puppy about the third week the chances are many that death will result, and more than likely be due to perforation of the intestinal walls, failure of the vital powers induced by intestinal inflammation, obstruction of nutrition or diarrhoea; or it may be occasioned by profound impression of the worms upon the head centre of the nervous system, the same being exhibited by convulsions.

While both the worm medicines advised are practically harmless they sometimes cause symptoms with which the reader should be familiar, for otherwise he might be made uneasy by them. Slight frothing at the mouth, evidently a disposition to spit, and shaking the head for a few minutes, are induced by the unpleasant taste of the drugs.

Nausea is another occasional symptom; and it is well to add that it is generally excited in young puppies by all medicines that contain considerable quantities of castor oil; and while puppies six weeks old or older often find relief from it in vomiting it rarely occurs at an earlier age. For a time the little patients are in some instances more or less sluggish or as many are wont to say, " dumpish;" they are then disinclined to move about much or nurse, and generally soon fall asleep, to wake up in the course of an hour as bright and active as ever.