92 GENERAL TREATMENT 



titioner, in very many cases, to arrive at a just conclusion. The 

 symptomatology of canine disease is necessarily diffused through 

 the manifestations of the individual ailment. As in the human, and 

 other brute subjects, we examine the state of the circulation by 

 the pulse9, and by the ratio of respiration. We also observe the 

 state of the excretions when in our power, and we attentively re- 

 gard by the eye and the touch every part of the body ; by which 

 we often gain much information that the fears or the patience of 

 the animal might conceal. We ought also to examine the eyes and 

 tongue, the one as indicatory of both inflammation and hepatic ef- 

 fusion, and the other, of aff'ection of the alimentary canal : nothing 

 is to be done without experience, and a professed and particular 

 attention to the subject. When, also, the existing disease has been 

 ascertained, and the appropriate treatment has been determined on, 

 still another difiiculty often presents itself; which is, how to ad- 



^ The pulse of the dog may be felt by the heart, and at various points of 

 both the fore and hind legs, but particularly at the inner side of the protube- 

 rant callosity of the carpus or knee. The range of pulsation between a very 

 large and a very small dog is not less than 20 ; thus, if 100 be taken as the 

 usual nmnber of the first, and 120 for the latter, whatever is found to much 

 exceed this, may be usually laid to the account of an inflammatory state. It 

 must, however, be observed, that from the greater irritability of lesser animals 

 compared with the larger, and the extreme quickness of their circulation, the 

 motions of the heart and arteries do not present such exact criteria of health 

 and disease as they 'do in the horse and other large animals. Nevertheless, the 

 action of the heart, and the pulsations of the larger arteries, may be felt with 

 propriety in many cases, and will serve as some guide to ascertain the degree 

 of excitement. The pulsations will not only be increased in quickness, but 

 they will present a vibratory feel in violent inflammatory affections. In in- 

 flammations of the lungs they will be very quick and small, but will increase 

 in fulness as the blood flows during bleeding. Something like the same will 

 occur, but not in an equal degree, in inflammations of the stomach and bowels 

 also. As the pulsatory motions, therefore, are not so distinct in the dog as 

 they are in larger animals, so, in general, the state of the breathing, which, in 

 most cases is regulated by the circulation, may be principally attended to as 

 a mark of greater or less inflammatory action. When a dog, therefore, pants 

 violently, his circulation, or in other words his pulse, may be considered as 

 quickened. 



