TYPHUS FEVER, OR DISTEMPER. 369 



two metliods of treatment, I shall .take this for granted, more 

 especially as it is now generally admitted. 



The essence of the disease is some poison admitted from without, 

 or developed within the blood, by which the various secretions 

 are either totally checked, or so altered as no longer to purify 

 the system. The exact nature of this poison is beyond our 

 present state of knowledge, but from analogy there is little 

 doubt that it resides in the blood. As in all cases of poison ab- 

 sorbed into the system, there is a most rapidly depressing effect 

 upon the muscular powers, which is to be expected, inasmuch as 

 their action requires a constant formation of new material from 

 the blood ; and as this is retarded in common with all other func- 

 tions, the muscles waste away rapidly, and their contractions 

 are not performed with any strength. The disease is some- 

 times contracted by infection, and at others developed within the 

 body ; just as in the case of fermentation in vegetable substances, 

 there may be a ferment added to a saccharine solution, by which 

 the process is hastened, although if left to itself it will come on in 

 due course. 



The symptoms are very various, but they may be divided into 



two sets, one of which comprises a set always attending upon 



distemper ; while the other may or may not be present in any 



individual attack. The invariable symptoms are : a low insidious 



fever, with prostration of strength to a remarkable degree, in 



proportion to the duration and strength of the attack, and rapid 



emaciation, so that a thick muscular dog is often made quite 



thin and lanky in three days. As a part of the fever, there is 



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