66 





IT has been shewn, in the early part of this volume, that wild 

 animals reclaimed from a state of nature and domesticated, are 

 susceptible of great change and variety in form, colour, and cha- 

 racter ; and owing no doubt to being thus compelled to assume 

 in some degree, an artificial mode of life, they are rendered more 

 liable to disorders. Animals in a state of nature are little subject 

 to disease : and though the wild dog subsists on flesh and car- 

 rion, it is more than probable he is never troubled with what is 

 distinguished by the appellation of the distemper, or any of that 

 long catalogue of disorders, to which the dog is rendered obnox- 

 ious after having become the companion of man. However, thus 

 much may be very truly observed, that if a dog be properly fed 

 and exercised, has plenty of good clean water, and his bed kept 

 clean, he will not in general be much troubled with disease ; and 

 this rule will be found to obtain more particularly if he be kept 

 in the country. 



THE DISTEMPER. 



The distemper generally attacks a dog before he has attained 

 his first year. As a preliminary observation, it may be remarked, 

 that the same membrane which lines the nostrils extends down 

 the wind pipe into the lungs ; and the distemper, in the first 



