Similia Vol 29 No 2 – December 2017

Author: David Lilley

Abstract

For thousands of years, dogs and humans have walked the same path as intimate companions, in love and devotion, in kindness and cruelty, in work  and play, in adoration and contempt and, oftentimes, in suffering and death. Their entwined destinies have etched shared emotions, experiences and  images into the universal memory of the collective, canine unconscious, which reflects these parallels and are dynamically imprinted in the milk of the dog. Ancient medical tradition recognised the healing potential of bitch’s milk: Pliny and Dioscorides recommended it for the removal of the dead  foetus and Pliny further claimed that it could cure ulceration of the uterine cervix and ease and quicken the birth process; it was also considered an  antidote to deadly poisons, including snakebite. But, it is only a homeopathic potency of the milk, given for purposes of proving or cure that can plumb the depths and potency of the milk, given for purposes of proving or cure that can plumb the depths and play upon the keyboard of the deep  unconscious of the human psyche to fathom all that lies in the heart of ‘man’s best friend’.