164 ' T— DISTEMPER 



perhaps a little thinner and more careworn, but with his usual indepen- 

 dence and aggressiveness. 



"The disease has been compared to typhoid fever in man, but I can 

 see but little analogy between them. Distemper is an infantile disorder; 

 typhoid fever is not. The diseases are communicated in an entirely dif- 

 ferent manner. The characteristic lesion of typhoid fever is a congestion 

 and tumefaction of Pyer's patches (i. e., small collections of intestinal 

 glands). In distemper the mucous membrane lining the bowels, when 

 the alimentary tract is the seat of the action of the virus, may be ulcerated 

 along its entire course," but the patches of Pyer are not particularly affected 

 and never display those lesions so characteristic of typhoid. 



"Of the various diseases man is subject to, measles most closely re- 

 sembles distemper in dogs. Both are infectious infantile disorders trans- 

 mitted through similar channels, and one attack successfully overcome 

 renders immunity from a second through the course of the animal's life, 

 with but a few exceptions. Catarrhal symptoms, pulmonary complications 

 and dysentery are common to both; convulsions also appear in both measles 

 and distemper; and finally the principal characteristic of measles, viz: the 

 rash, which develops on the face coincident with the disease, spreading 

 in twenty-four hours to all parts of the body, resembles the rash and 

 pinkish prickly condition of the skin noticeable in some cases of distemper 

 in the first stages, and the pimples that break out along the back and 

 under the belly and thighs, and the dandruff and desquamation of the 

 cuticle in the latter stages of distemper. 



"The cause of distemper has been and is a subject that has been dis- 

 cussed and disagreed upon by authorities and breeders of experience in a 

 very interesting manner. Some hold to the opinion that it may arise 

 spontaneously, or as a result of damp, cold, poorly ventilated kennels, 

 defective drainage, exposure, general neglect, improper putrescent food 

 and other anti-hygienic conditions. More modern writers hold tenaciously 

 to the germ theory, discarding altogether and scoffing at the theory of 

 spontaneity as being based solely upon negative evidence and insist that the 

 disease arises and exists solely as a result of infection of the system by 

 the specific virus or contagion of distemper, and claim the earlier ideas 

 of spontaneous origin are based solely upon failure to account for the 

 disease by infection, and to observe and appreciate the remarkable vitality 

 of the germ and the ease and innumerable channels by which it can be 

 transmitted from an infected animal to one that was to all intents com- 

 pletely isolated. 



"In the face of recent scientific investigation and discoveries, and in 

 a disease so specifically contagious as distemper, it is impossible to discard 

 the germ theory. The distinctive microbe which causes the disease — pro- 

 bably a bacillus — has not been isolated; but the virus has been cultivated, 

 and in the seventh generation will produce the disease when inoculated 

 in dogs, and still further attenuations of the virus will produce the disease 

 in a mild form which affords the animal protection from future attacks. 

 These experiments, while not successful in all ways, point conclusively to 

 the fact that it is only a question of time when this disease will be as 

 successfully inoculated against as smallpox is in the human family. 



"Most dog breeders are firm in the conviction that they have had cases 

 arise spontaneously, and the rapid dissemination the disease works under 

 anti-hygenic surroundings will, as a more intimate knowledge of the life 

 and manner in which specific disease producing micro-organisms operate, 

 entitle hygienic surroundings, such as food, light and air, to an equal 

 footing with the morbid poison so far as the severity or mortality of the 

 disease is concerned. 



"Germs and microbes of various kinds, capable of producing specific 

 diseases, are found everywhere in earth, air and water. All animals swal- 

 low them in their food, breathe them into their lungs in countless num- 

 bers, and the body is at all times in contact with them, nevertheless they 

 produce no disturbance of the system. In experiments microbes introduced 

 Into the blood of healthy animal* were Inactive, whereas if the same 



