DISTEMPER. 241- 



health into a kennel, where others have gone through the distemper, 

 seldom escape it. I have endeavoured to destroy the contagion by order- 

 ing every part of a kennel to be carefully washed with water, then white- 

 washed, and finally to be repeatedly fumigated with the vapour of marine 

 acid, but without any good result. 



" The dogs generally sicken early in the second week after exposure to 

 the contagion ; it is more commonly a violent disease than otherwise, and 

 cuts off at least one in three that are attacked by it. It commences with 

 inflammation of the substance of the lungs, and generally of the mucous 

 membrane of the bronchi. The inflammation at the same time seizes on 

 the membranes of the nostrils, and those lining the bones of the nose, 

 particularly the nasal portion of the ethmoid bone. These membranes 

 are often inflamed to such a degree as to occasion extravasation of blood, 

 which I have observed coagulated on their surface. The breathing is 

 short and quick, and the breath is often fetid ; the teeth are covered 

 with a dark mucus. There is frequently a vomiting of a glairy fluid. 

 The dog commonly refuses food, but his thirst seems insatiable, and 

 nothing cheers him like the sight of water. The bowels, although gene- 

 rally constipated as the disease advances, are frequently affected with 

 diarrhoea at its commencement. The eyes are inflamed, and the sight is 

 often obscured by mucus secreted from the eyelids, or by opacity of the 

 cornea. The brain is often affected as early as the second day after the 

 attack ; the animal becomes stupid, and his general habits are changed. 

 In this state, if not prevented by loss of strength, he sometimes wanders 

 from his home. He is frequently endeavouring to expel by forcible expi- 

 rations the mucus from the trachea and fauces, with a peculiar rattling 

 noise. His jaws are generally smeared with it, and it sometimes flows out 

 in a frothy state, from his frequent champing. 



" During the progress of the disease, especially in its advanced stages, he 

 is disposed to bite and gnaw any thing within his reach ; he has sometimes 

 epileptic fits, and a quick succession of general though slight convulsive 

 spasms of the muscles. If the dog survive, this affection of the muscles 

 continues through life. He is often attacked with fits of a different de 

 scription ; he first staggers, then tumbles, rolls, cries as if whipped, and 

 tears up the ground with his teeth and fore feet : he then lies down sense- 

 less and exhausted. On recovering, he gets up, moves his tail, looks 

 placid, comes to a whistle, and appears in every respect much better than 

 before the attack. The eyes, during this paroxysm, look bright, and, 

 unless previously rendered dim by mucus, or opacity of the cornea, seem 

 as if they were starting from their sockets. He becomes emaciated, and 

 totters from feebleness in attempting to walk, or from a partial paralysis 

 of the hind legs. In this state he sometimes lingers on till the third or 

 fourth week, and then either begins to show signs of returning health 

 (which seldom happens when the symptoms have continued with this de- 

 gree of violence), or expires. During convalescence, he has sometimes, 

 though rarely, profuse haemorrhage from the nose. 



" When the inflammation of the lungs is very severe, he frequently dies 

 on the third day. I knew one instance of a dog dying within twenty- 

 four hours after the seizure ; and in that short space of time the greater 

 portion of the lungs was, from exudation, converted into a substance 

 nearly as solid as the liver of a sound animal. In this case the liver itself 

 was considerably inflamed, and the eyes and flesh universally were 



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