156 specific and Contagious Diseases. 



Bronchitis, Enteritic diarrhoea, Jaundice, Eczema, &c., 

 will be dealt with under these heads. 



As long as the disease can be confined to the catarrhal 

 stages we have found as a rule the appropriate measures 

 to be fairly successful. It is, therefore, impossible to lay 

 undue stress on the importance of thorough cleanliness, 

 an unremitting use of disinfectants for the floor, &:c., of 

 the habitation, with antiseptic dressings for the various 

 points of discharge. In clearing the latter small pieces 

 of soft rag should be used with extreme gentleness, 

 and at the end of the operation consigned to the fire. 

 The attendant also should wash the hands frequently, 

 and always after operating on the patient, the " Sanitas " 

 Fluid being used as directed. 



A Maligtiant fonn of Distemper occasionally makes its 

 appearance, the general manifestations being those of 

 extreme debility, diphtheria (which see) and severe skin 

 eruption. In such cases little or no good can be done 

 unless the appropriate medical treatment is adopted at 

 the outset. {See also Eczema Epizootica.) 



Eczema Epizootica, one of the scourges of the bovine 

 race, is known to be transmissible to the dog and the cat, 

 the medium of conveyance being the milk of diseased 

 cattle. It is very probable that as this disease appears in 

 conjunction with diphtheria as a malignant form of dis- 

 temper, the source in all probability is the milk from 

 dairies where not only diseased cattle are present, but 

 the water used for washing the utensils, &c., is polluted 

 with sewage. (See Diphtheria.) 



Glanders. — The dog is highly susceptible of the 

 poison of glanders, which may be communicated in co- 

 habitation, by direct inoculation, spreading the matter on 

 open wounds, or injecting it within the veins. In the 

 latter instance, the operation being carefully performed, 

 the induced disease generally proves fatal ; in the other 

 instances, it is thought the eff"ect of the operation is to 

 create immunity from subsequent attacks. This, how- 

 ever, is not sufficiently demonstrated to be set down as 

 an admitted fact. Glanders in the dog is not marked, 

 as in the horse, by chancrous sores on the nasal mem- 



