680 THE AMERICAN B6OK OF THE DOG. 



In other words, for every case of the disease there must be 

 a previous case, as is true of small-pox, typhoid fever, scar- 

 let fever, measles, and many other infectious diseases 

 peculiar to the human race. It has long been held that dis- 

 temper is a "germ disease." To Mr. Everett Mallais, of 

 London, is due the high honor of substantiating this 

 theory. This painstaking investigator carried out a series 

 of bacteriological observations and experiments and proved 

 that the disease is due to the presence of one or more micro- 

 organisms. 



Many writers have likened distemper to typhoid fever 

 of man, and yet there is no close analogy between them. It 

 far more closely resembles typhus fever, which evidently 

 belongs to the same class of diseases as distemper, and the 

 essential germs of each appear to be transmitted and propa- 

 gated in much the same manner. Again, the incubation 

 period, the. febrile stage, the duration, the self -limitation, 

 and many characteristic symptoms, are alike peculiar to 

 both. 



If a dog has distemper, he can communicate it to another 

 dog which comes in contact with him; but there is good 

 reason for believing that actual contact is not necessary for 

 the transmission of the disease, and that the specific germ 

 or microbe attaches itself to various substances, and in this 

 way is transported. If the drinking or feeding basin, 

 blanket, bedding, collar, or even chain, in use by a sufferer 

 from distemper be put into the kennel of a sound dog who 

 has not had the disease, the chances are many that he will 

 become infected. The germs cling tenaciously to wood- 

 work, and the portable benches used in dog shows are held 

 to be peculiarly favorable to contagion, more especially 

 because it is difficult to thoroughly disinfect them; and 

 where a large number of dogs meet at bench shows, dis- 

 temper germs are extremely likely to find entrance. They 

 may be conveyed by a victim of the disease in its commenc- 

 ing stage, or they may be introduced by an unaffected dog 

 in his hair, blanket, crate, or some other belonging from 

 a kennel in which the disease is raging or has recently 



