CANINE DISTEMPER. 271 



and the points of analogy are very great. In both diseases 

 catarrhal symptoms are manifested ; they are infectious diseases ; 

 they generally occur but once in a lifetime ; they chiefly affect 

 the young; in almost all cases of distemper there is some 

 cutaneous eruption or rash, and desquamation of the cuticle ; 

 catarrhal ophthalmia, bronchial and pulmonary inflammation, 

 and dysentery, are complications of both diseases, and, finally, 

 convulsions sometimes occvir both at the commencement and 

 during the progress of measles and of distemper. 



I am not aware, however, that measles is succeeded by either 

 paralysis or chorea; nor do I mean it to be understood that 

 distemper is communicable to man. 



SYMPTOMS. 



The primary symptoms are those of fever, associated with those 

 of catarrh. The dog shivers, is dull, restless, with dry nose and 

 injected eye. The appetite is partially lost ; there is thirst and 

 rapid loss of flesh and condition ; the urine is high-coloured 

 and scanty ; the bowels are generally irregular, sometimes con- 

 stipated, sometimes looser than natural; the faeces are dark- 

 coloured and foetid. In the course of a few days the catarrhal 

 symptoms, which at first may have been limited to frequent 

 sneezing, with a slight discharge from the nose and eyes, are 

 fully confirmed. The nasal discharge is now more or less pro- 

 fuse; the eyes are weak, occasionally inflamed, and discharge 

 tears and mucus. Very often the eyelids will be gummed 

 together, and the animal thus rendered temporarily blind. 

 Cough is present, at first dry and husky, afterwards moist. The 

 breathing is sometimes much quickened, and the cough dry and 

 painful, showing that the lung tissue and pleura are affected : 

 the pulse may range from 120 to 150 beats per minute, and the 

 temperature is elevated. In other cases the respiratory move- 

 ments are but little affected, except when the bronchial tubes 

 are filled with mucus, which is coughed up, and the breathing 

 becomes much relieved. As the disease advances, debility 

 rapidly increases, the dog being often at the end of the first 

 week scarcely able to stand ; the appetite becomes more and 

 more impaired, and the digestive powers much debilitated. 

 Food now partaken of or forced upon the animal is quickly 



