The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 279 No 7474 p450
20 October 2007

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Spotted coach dog — a thrilling sight

Promoting photography for everyone

A healthy pursuit

Topiary — a tradition since Roman times

Spotted coach dog — a thrilling sight

The Dalmatian has served as fire-apparatus follower (mainly in the US), sentinel, war dog, hunter, shepherd, circus performer and rescue dog. Its best-known role, however, is as escort and defender of carriages and horses.

The dog is sleek, short-haired and, of course, strikingly characterised by its dark-spotted white coat. Its hairs are barbed at the end, causing them to stick to fabrics and are shed year-round, so the breed is not for the fastidious owner.

The Dalmatian has an instinctive affinity for horses, often falling in naturally behind a horse and cart in perfect position. It is well-muscled, has apparently boundless energy and stamina and needs plenty of exercise. The Dalmatian is intelligent, friendly and playful. Ill treatment is never forgotten. The Dalmatian does not have a natural desire to please its owner and is often self-willed. Many of the breed end up in rescue homes, being unfairly considered difficult or untrainable.

Dalmatians are generally free from common canine health problems and are long-lived. They do, however, have a genetic predisposition towards deafness, and can suffer from kidney and bladder stones.

However, there is no evidence that the breed originated in the Adriatic coastal region after which it is named. The line has certainly come down through many centuries more or less unchanged; paintings of Dalmatians running alongside chariots have been unearthed in Egypt.

The progression of a country squire in his carriage with a pair of these elegant and agile dogs bounding along in attendance must have been a thrilling sight.

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Promoting photography for everyone

With photography well into the digital age it is good to remember the man who did most to promote large-scale amateur photography.

George Eastman (1854–1932) established a photographic business in 1880. In 1884 he patented a photographic medium consisting of a photo-emulsion coated on paper rolls, an invention that greatly speeded up the process of recording multiple images. The first Kodak was placed on the market in 1888. This was a simple hand-held box camera containing a roll of paper film. The entire camera was returned to the manufacturer for developing, printing and reloading. Eastman coined the marketing phrase “You press the button, we do the rest”. In 1889 he introduced transparent roll film, and eight years later he marketed the Brownie camera, intended for use by children and costing one dollar. Roll film was the basis for the invention of motion pictures.

By providing quality and affordable film to every camera manufacturer Eastman cannily converted competition into more business. The Eastman Kodak Company became one of the largest US companies in the field of photographic and optical equipment. Eastman was one of the first industrialists to introduce profit sharing as an employee incentive. He gave away approximately $100m to such beneficiaries as the University of Rochester and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Eastman took his own life, depressed by the onset of the degenerative disorder spinal stenosis. His suicide note read: “My work is done, why wait?”

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A healthy pursuit

Allotments are now a world away from the flat-cap-and-whippet image from which they have suffered in the past. They are emerging as a modern way to improve health and well-being, as more people recognise the value of exercise, fresh air and chemical-free produce.

By the early 19th century five million acres of formally open land had been enclosed by Acts of Parliament, denying those without land any means of growing their own food. In an attempt to alleviate poverty the General Enclosure Act of 1845 was passed. “Sturdy labourers” were to be given a chance to “improve their lot” by having a small plot provided for their benefit. A dependency on home-grown produce in the 1914–18 war resulted in well over a million plots being taken up. Extensive unemployment in the 1920s and 1930s kept them going and the 1939–45 war “Dig for victory” campaign ensured their survival. After that allotments went into decline due to cheap food, but during the 1970s, with Britain’s entry into the Common Market, food prices rose and demand for allotments once again soared.

Allotments are again popular. Many allotment associations have long waiting lists, and in my local association disregard for an improvement notice served on a neglected plot results in rapid expulsion. Many allotment sites are enclosed (for security), have tool-sheds, hardstanding, piped water, communal huts, on-site shops and subscription-inclusive manure delivery.

On a cautionary note, the enthusiasm generated by a television programme on organic produce can rapidly dissipate in the face of the hard graft required to establish and maintain a plot, and the dropout rate from allotment tenancy is high.

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Topiary — a tradition since Roman times

Topiary, the training of living trees and shrubs into artificial shapes, is back in vogue again after several decades in the doldrums. Thickly leaved evergreen shrubs and trees are used, the best subjects being box, cypress and yew, although others, such as rosemary and holly, are amenable to the art.

The ancient Romans created formal gardens and had a slave, the topiarius, who maintained the ornamental topia. The fashion for clipped hedging became popular again in the Middle Ages and in Renaissance Italy it was a huge craze. Early topiary was probably the simple shaping of cones, columns and spires to give accent to a garden scene. This architectural use gave way to elaborate representation: shrubs were shaped, for example, into ships, huntsmen and hounds. In 17th century France designers were unrestrained, especially at Versailles. The fashion reached its height in England in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, but was displaced with the rise of the jardin anglais, which developed in 18th century England as a revolt against the architectural garden.

Topiarised shapes now include discs, pyramids, arches, balls on cubes, spirals, abstract geometric designs, cake stands, steam trains, racing cars and sumo wrestlers. Topiary has always been of limited application in places where stone sculpture is cheap or expense is no object. The pre-eminent examples are seen in England and the Netherlands, where suitable plants flourish and where stonework is costly, rather than in Italy or France.