140 THE DISTEMPER. 



subjects of attack, so do the symptoms vary. When the 

 membranes of the head, particularly those of the eyes and 

 nose, are the parts first attacked and principally affected, 

 the animal exhibits all the symptoms common with a human 

 person labouring- under what is called a cold in the head ; as 

 vveig-ht and heat in the forehead, sneezing-, moisture from the 

 eyes and nose, first thin and watery, then thicker and mattery, 

 or pus-like ; with shivering-, listlessnes, lessened appetite, 

 and impatience of light often. But when the bronchial pas- 

 sages are the first objects of attack *, a short dry cough 

 usually precedes these symptoms ; and if the lungs themselves 

 become affected with a symptomatic peripneumony, a quick- 

 ened respiration is observed, with an increased severity of 

 the other symptoms; but, as the specific seat of the disease 

 is in the pituitary or nasal membrane, so it is seldom that 

 the foregoing- symptoms are wanting, for, if they do not ap- 

 pear before the cough, they very soon follow. In the early 

 stage above described, the disease is sometimes successfully 

 combated by easy methods, sometimes without any assist- 

 ance at all ; it continues for a week or two to affect the ani- 

 mal mildly, and then gradually disappears. However, in 

 many, indeed in most cases, particularly among high bred 

 and artificially treated dogs, the disease does not continue to 

 confine its attack wholly to the nasal or bronchial mem- 

 branes, but either through the medium of continuity, conti- 

 guity, or of sympathy, it proceeds to affect other parts ; 

 when other symptoms and appearances become superadded 

 to those already noticed. From the nasal membranes, the 

 affection appears often transmitted (probably through the 

 medium of the frontal sinuses) to the cerebral coverine-s. 



* I think I have observed, that when pneumonic symptoms are the 

 first marks of the complaint, or, in other words, when cough, wasting 

 of flesh, dulness, and loss of appetite, precede the running from the nose 

 and eyes, the case may be commonly traced to a cold taken. When the 

 disease is derived from another dog, by contagion or infection, the ej'es 

 and nose usually evince a primary affection of the head more than of the 

 chest. I, however, by no means consider this as a fixed rule. 



