Lives of British physicians / [Anon].

  • William Macmichael
Date:
1830
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lives of British physicians / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    it held among the canine race, Caius mentions, on the au- thority of Froissart, the following fact, not much to the credit of the fidelity of this species :—When that unhappy prince, Richard the Second, was taken in Flint Castle, his favourite greyhound immediately deserted him, and fawned on his rival, Bolingbroke, as if he understood and foresaw the misfortunes of his former master. This act of ingrati- tude, the unfortunate monarch observed, and declared aloud, to be the presage of his future death. The Leviner, or Lyemitter.-—The first name is derived from the lightness of the kind ; the other from the old word Lyemme, a thong ; this species being used to be led with a thong, and slipped at the game. This dog hunted both by scent and sight, and in the form of its body observed a me- dium between the hound and the grehunde. They were chiefly used for the chace of wolves. According to Caius, we are indebted to Spain for the Spainel; but the Com- forter, or Spainel-gcntle, comes from Malta. The Mastive, or Bandedog, of these, he says, three were a match for a bear, and four for a lion. It appears that Great Britain was so noted for its mastiffs, that the Roman Emperors appointed an officer in this island, with the title of Procurator Cynegii, whose sole business it was to breed, and transmit from hence to the amphitheatre, such dogs as would prove equal to the combats exhibited at that place. The mastiffe has been described, by other naturalists, as a species of great size and strength, and a very loud barker ; whence they have derived its name, mastiff, quasi Mase t/iefese ; it being supposed to frighten away robbers by its tremendous voice. This memoir upon Dogs was not the only work of our physician on subjects connected with na- tural history, for he wrote a treatise on some rare plants and animals, as well as an account of the hot springs of England. Caius was a Fellow of the College of Physi- cians, having been admitted in 1547. He passed through all the offices, for several years had been chosen censor, often registrar and treasurer, and
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