64 THE BOSTON TERRIER 



the most deadly of all, remains to be considered, 

 viz., distemper. This is largely contracted at 

 the dog shows, or being brought into contact 

 with dogs suffering from the disease. I do not 

 believe it is ever spontaneous, and dogs kept 

 away from infected stock will be exempt. Well 

 do I remember my first dose of it. I had loaned 

 a friend of mine a young dog raised by him to 

 show, as he was trying for a prize for Druid 

 Merk as a stud dog. The dog in question, 

 Merk Jr., came back from the show rather de- 

 pressed, and in a few days I had my entire ken- 

 nel down with the disease. It was in the spring 

 of the year, cold and damp, and I succeeded in 

 saving just one of the young dogs and Merk Jr. 

 After a thorough fumigation with a great quan- 

 tity of sulphur I managed to get the kennels dis- 

 infected, and did not have an outbreak again 

 for several years. A bitch sent to be bred where 

 a case of distemper existed, unknown to me, of 

 course, brought it to my place again, and I 

 had the same unfortunate experience over 

 again; fortunately this time it was in the early 

 fall, and weather conditions being auspicious, 

 we lost only about twenty-five per cent, of young 

 stock. By extreme vigilance, in knowing the 

 conditions of the kennels where bitches were sent 

 for service, we succeeded in escaping an at- 

 tack for several years, when an old bitch that 



