SPECIFIC CATARRHAL DISEASE, OR DISTEMPER. 99 



liability. That we imported it, is evident from the circumstance, 

 that the earliest notices we have of it in EngUsh sporting works 

 are subsequent to its announcement in the pages of similar conti- 

 nental publications ; and though a few among their writers aflFect 

 to attribute it to British origin, the best informed think otherwise. 

 It is a disease of the most Protean character, assuming very dif- 

 ferent appearances, and exhibiting such anomalous symptoms, as 

 to render it extremely difficult to define ; and until, by a long and 

 diversified series of experiences, we have been able to separate its 

 true pathognomonic from its occasional symptomatic phenomena, 

 it is in vain to expect it. The few writers who have noticed it 

 among ourselves oiFer full proof how little is really known of it^* : 

 and with our neighbours, the French, the discordances in opinion 

 relative to it are more than equal to our own ; numerous as have 

 been the individuals among them who have made it an object of 

 inquiry. Mons. Hurtrel D'Arboval, the best veterinary gleaner 

 the continental field produces, bears me out in this assertion^^ 



^* Dr. Darwin, it is true, characterized it as a debilitating catarrh ; but it 

 is evident he took a very superficial view of its whole nature and consequences, 

 when he considered the only treatment necessary was, that the air should be 

 allowed to pass freely over the ulcerated surfaces of the nose. If the Schnei- 

 derian membranes were the sole seat of the disease, there might be some show 

 of pathological reasoning in this ; but as an early participation is made either 

 with the lungs, the intestines, or the brain, from which it derives some of its 

 strongest characters, so it is evident the rationale of Dr. Darwin falls to the 

 ground. The further absurdity of directing that distempered dogs should be 

 allowed to drink from a stream, that the contagious mucus of the nostrils, 

 having escaped one passage, may not again enter another, and thus re-poison 

 the dog, also proves his erroneous views of it. The philanthropy of Dr. Jenner 

 induced him to turn his attention to the same subject, in hopes to ward off its 

 consequences by vaccination ; in consequence of which he has drawn an out- 

 line (in vol. 1 oi Med. and Chirurg. Tracts) of a disease which is, as well ob- 

 served by Mr. Youatt, "made up of distemper and rabies, and unlike both." 



15 "Plusieurs auteurs I'ont en outre consider^e comme une espece de 

 gourme, comme une maladie depuratoire, comme le r^sultat d'une crise salu- 

 taire qui d^barrasse la nature, et on I'a comparee a la gourme des solip^des, et a 

 la petite- v6role de I'esp^ce humaine. On araeme essaye I'inoculation pour la 

 rendre plus b6nignc, et des m6decins, entre autres Sacco, ont et6, jusqu'a avan- 



G 2 



