UPLAND SHOOTING. 347 



The pulse of the dog may be felt at the heart, and at the 

 inner side of the protuberance of the knee. The range of pul- 

 sation between a very large and a very small dog, is not less 

 than 20. Thus, if 100 be taken as the usual number for the 

 former, and 120 for the latter, whatever is found much to exceed 

 this may be ascribed to the inflammatory state. 



The following brief mles for the treatment of a few of the 

 most common diseases, and injuries to which dogs are liable, 

 are from Messrs. Blaine and Youatt. They are all safe, and 

 will, I think, be found sure. 



DISTEMPER, OR SPECIFIC CATARRHAL DISEASE. 



The tcnn of distemper, though in itself a very absurd and in- 

 definite term, has become so conventional that it cannot readily 

 be dispensed with, as by this name and no other it is generally 

 known. 



Wiiatever it might have been in the first instance, it is now 

 a constitutional canine endemic, from which few individuals 

 escape. It is at times epidemical also, and is then peculiarly 

 fatal. It greatly varies in form, and, particularly when it assumes 

 the shape of an epidemic, has some peculiar characteristic 

 type, sometimes tending to diarrhoea, sometimes to epilepsy 

 and spasms, and sometimes, the most fatal of all, to a putrid 

 liabit. 



It is unquestionably contagious, but it is, as I have stated, 

 endemical and epidemical also, and it is also self-generated. It 

 affects dogs at all ages, from mere puppies of five or six weeks, 

 to adults of as many years. It occurs also many times in the 

 same individual, and dogs have been known to escape it thrice 

 and perish by a fourth attack. This is, however, fortunately, 

 uncommon. In the most highly-bred dogs it is the most fatal, 

 and I have generally observed it to be especially dangerous to 

 the smooth-haired races, as Greyhounds and Bull-terriers. With 

 Newfoundland dogs, at times, it makes sad havoc. Its symp- 

 toms are so vaiious, that it is not easy to set before the reader 



