80 NOTITIA VENATICA. 



Btltutioiial liability to it is inherent in every individual of the canine race, 

 which predisposition is usually acted upon by some occasional cause. 

 The predisposition itself in some breads seems sufficient to produce it, 

 and such have it very frequently very soon after birth ; but the predis- 

 position is more frequently acted upon by some occasional cause, of 

 which there are many. 



" Contagion may be regarded as the principal of these ; few dogs who 

 have not passed through the disease escape it when exposed to the 

 effluvia or the contact of the morbid secretions received on a mucous or 

 an ulcerated surface. Yet inoculation with distemper virus frequently 

 fails to produce it, and the disposition to receive the contagion is like- 

 wise not always in equal force, but it appears stronger and weaker at 

 various periods in the same animal, and is perhaps under the control of 

 the accidental changes in healthfulness of habit, <fec., <fc;c. Cold apphed 

 in any noxious manner to the system is a very common origin of the 

 complaint ; throwing into Avater, washing, and not after drying the 

 animal, unusual exposure during the night, «fec., are frequently causes 

 of distemper in young and tender dogs. I have seen it produced by 

 violent hemorrhage, by a sudden change from a full to a low diet, and, 

 in fact, any great or sudden derangement in the system is sufficient to 

 call the predisposition into action. The usual period of its attack is that 

 of puberty, or when the dog attains his full growth ; in some it is pro- 

 ti-acted to two, three, or even many years old, and a very few escape it 

 altogether. The having once passed through the disease is not a cer- 

 tain preventive to a future attack. It occasionally appears a second 

 time, and an instance fell under my notice of a third recurrence, with 

 the intervention of two years between each attack." 



In another place Mr. Blaine says, in speaking of the effects produced 

 by the distemper : " The importance of the subject renders it not im- 

 proper again to repeat, that of aU the symptoms that appear the epileptic 

 convulsions are the most fatal. It is, therefore, of the utmost conse- 

 quence to prevent their occurrence ; for when once they have made 

 their attack art is too apt to fail in attempting their removal. The best 

 preventive means that I know of are to avoid or to remove all circum- 

 stances tending to produce debility, as looseness, low poor diet, too 

 much exercise, exposure to cold, extreme evacuation from the nose, and 

 no less the operation of mental irritation from fear, surprise, or regret ; 

 all of which, I must again repeat, arc very common causes of fits in dis- 

 temper."* 



Section Second. 



JAUNDICE OR YELLOWS. 



This disease, Avhich exhibits i.tself in many quadrupeds in very much 

 the same form as it docs in the human frame, is thus described by Dr. 



* The i)ractice of Jressing or anointing young hounds when suffering from 

 distemper is by no means to be recommended ; although the seasonable use of this 

 most salutary application preserves health, and readers not only distemper, but other 

 diseases, less violent in their attacks. 



