DIPHTHERIA. 603 



owners^ that had this fatal form of sore throat, and which pre- 

 sented signs very nearly approaching those of diphtheria as 

 describea by physicians. 



The symptoms were those of great prostration and languor ; 

 flow of tears from the eyes ; a very sunken and pinched ap- 

 pearance of the face; the power of swallowing completely lost; 

 inability to close the mouth, which in all cases was persistently 

 open, the muscles of mastication, as well as those of deglutition, 

 having lost their function either from paralysis or inflammation. 

 Indeed, the first symptom observed was a dropping of the lower 

 javs^, and on this account it was supposed by the owners the 

 disease was dumb madness ; a more or less copious discharge of 

 a viscid ropy saliva from the mouth, dirty yellowish-red tongue, 

 the neck stretched and rigid, the glands slightly swollen, 

 oedematous, and painful to the touch. Diarrhoea was present in 

 all, and the posterior extremities were paralyzed. 



The mucous membrane of the mouth and fauces was of a dark 

 red colour, swollen, tense, and glistening from extraneous infil- 

 tration, but no ulcers were observable. 



Three of the dogs died in from twenty-four to forty hours 

 after they were first observed, but the fourth, a staghound, lived 

 for four days, the symptoms in it having been much more 

 gradually developed. In none of the dogs were convulsions or 

 coma present ; they all remained conscious to the last, e\i- 

 dently dying from diarrhoea and exhaustion. 



No history could be obtained with any of the dogs. One 

 was a lady's pet dog, and was daintily fed ; another was a 

 brewer's yard dog, always on the chain ; so it was impossible, in 

 these two cases at least, that the disease could have been induced 

 by any tainted — infected — food, even if diphtheria had prevailed 

 amongst the inhabitants of Edinburgh. Such, however, was not 

 the case, diphtheria being entirely absent at that time. 



The disease did not seem contagious or infectious, there being 

 several dogs at the College at the time ; some of these, owned by 

 students, being confined in the boxes in which the diseased ones 

 had died for the purpose of testing its contagiousness. One dog 

 was inoculated, the results being negative. 



Mr. Eobertson traces the outbreaks which he witnessed 

 to unsatisfactory sanitary conditions of the stable and kennels. 

 These being drained and better ventilated the disease disappeared. 



