SPECIFIC CATARRHAL DISEASE, OR DISTEMPER. 101 



companied with marked biliary affection in every dog attacked that 

 season : many of the cases of that period had also a pustular erup- 

 tion. I have seen it also make its appearance, in a few instances 

 during one particular period, by a phlegmonous tumour of some 

 part of the body, but principally of the head. In the summer of 

 1805, many of the distempered subjects were attacked with a pe- 

 culiar and painful spasmodic colic, which neither constipated nor 

 relaxed the bowels, but, after continmng acute two or three days, 

 usually terminated fatally. In the few cases which ended favour- 

 ably, active purgatives of calomel and aloes appeared beneficial. 

 It may also be remarked, that this is not occasional only, but that, 

 whenever distemper rages as an epidemic, it commonly assumes 

 some particular characteristic type, without its usual versatility of 

 symptoms. One year the disease will be marked by an obstinate 

 diarrhoea ; another, for the more than usual tendency to epilepsy 

 and spasm ; while in a third, a malignant putrid type will sweep 

 off most of those affected. 



Causes, — Constitutional liability may be reckoned as a princi- 

 pal among th^se ; and it is so inherent in the canine constitution, 

 that very few escape it altogether, the predisposition alone being 

 itself sufficient to generate it, although it is probably more fre- 

 quently assisted by some occasional cause, as cold, &c. Conta- 

 gion is another fruitful source of it ; and however a few persons 

 may doubt the contagious nature of distemper, those who have 

 taken the pains to examine the matter are as convinced of it 

 as the force of facts can make them. Dogs living out of doors 

 principally, and -which are thereby rendered healthy and hardy, 

 will sometimes bear up against the predisposition for a long 

 period, and some as long as they live ; but such even, if they 

 become exposed either to the eflSiuvia, or to the contact of the 

 morbid secretions on a mucous or an ulcerated surface, very seldom 

 escape it. In many cases, the slightest appUcation of it, or even 

 being exposed to the air impregnated with the exhalations from a 

 distempered dog for a few minutes, is sufficient for the purpose. 

 As it is communicable by the contact of the diseased catarrhal se- 



