150 'Specific and Contagions Diseases. 



Of the few which recovered, one became blind of both 

 eyes from infiltration of the layers of the cornea, but 

 ultimately sight was restored. Another, affected a fort- 

 night later, was seized with clonic spasms of the 

 muscles of the face and cervical region, followed in a few 

 days by paraplegia. After a tedious convalescence this 

 animal recovered his full nervous power. 



Examination of the drains proved them to be full of 

 filth, which had percolated through the floor of the 

 kennels, and escape of effluvia took place through a 

 perforated grating, conditions which fully accounted for 

 the fatality. 



Other writers have noticed the occurrence of diphtheria 

 in dogs from the consumption of the excreta of human 

 patients under the disease. And Professor Law also 

 alludes to croup as occurring in the dog, probably 

 due to the confinement within buildings to which 

 mephitic vapours have gained more or less constant 

 access. 



Distemper. — In the list of canine ailments distemper 

 probably ranks first in importance, prevalence, severity, 

 and fatality. It is a specific disease, and usually believed 

 to be closely associated with early life, a peculiarity which 

 may, to some extent, be responsible for its fatality. In 

 later years the belief in a contagion by which it is carried 

 from one animal to another, has included it among the 

 highly infectious maladies, yet some who accept the 

 theory of its being " self-generated," also admit that 

 many dogs safely pass through the vicissitudes of life 

 without contracting the disease. It is also in evidence 

 that one attack does not always ensure immunity from a 

 second, or even a third. Various attempts have been made 

 to establish identity witli various diseases of other animals 

 and the human subject, which, it is almost needless to 

 state, have failed. In our student days, we assisted in 

 the inoculation of numerous dogs as a preventive, the 

 belief of our teacher in that day being that the disease 

 resembled smallpox of the human subject. 



JSlatiire. — The evidences gained by a careful study of 

 the disease are decidedly in favour of its being dependent 



