Distemper 283 



Distemper 



Foremost amongst all canine scourges distemper 

 stands pre-eminent, and it is as active in its varied 

 manifestations in the present day as it was nearly 

 two hundred years ago. The hound-master dreads 

 this scourge as much as any man whose interests 

 are centred in dogs, because he knows the severity 

 of its ravages, and the losses, to say nothing of the 

 inconvenience, this trouble entails in connection 

 with his hunting establishment. In trencher-fed 

 packs obviously distemper must create less mortality 

 than in packs congregated together, and there is no 

 doubt that the practice of walking puppies should 

 constitute one of the best safeguards against severe 

 losses, and which it would do if sufficient discrimina- 

 tion were exercised in the distribution of the pups to 

 the walkers. It is a fatal mistake to distribute 

 puppies amongst walkers hving as it were " cheek 

 by jowl " with one another, and the author has been 

 surprised to note this system adopted where a 

 different state of affairs might have been expected 

 to exist. Every master of hounds and kennel hunts- 

 man knows what an extremely infectious disease 

 distemper is, and is also equally well aware how 

 members of a community in a village associate with 

 one another — sometimes too much so — and com- 

 pare hound with hound, whilst the hounds them- 



