104 SPECIFIC CATARRHAL DISEASE, OR DISTEMPER. 



that it is not easy to set before the reader any strictly diagnostic 

 sig-n or signs : even the nasal discharge, so common to the com- 

 plaint, does not always appear until the distemper has made 

 some progress; and sometimes also in the midst of its most 

 fatal course the discharge is arrested; convulsions follow, and 

 death closes the scene. Nevertheless there are certain symptoms 

 of distemper usually present in most of its cases. One of the 

 earliest of these is a short, dry, husky cough, which is followed by 

 a lessening of the appetite, of the flesh, strength, and spirits: the 

 coat also begins to stare, and the eyes to wink in a full light, as 

 though painfully affected by it : they also, if observed in the morn- 

 ing, exhibit the remains of a little hardened mucus, which may be 

 seen adhering to the inner corner of each, while a general cloudi- 

 ness of the cornea steals over its surface : the nose also is be- 

 dewed with a watery discharge, greater or less, as the membranous 

 linings of the orbits and nasal cavities are more or less inflamed, 

 in which state the discharge may sometimes remain for two or 

 three weeks without much alteration ; it eventually, however, in- 

 creases, and changes from a limpid watery fluid to a muco-puru- 

 lent one, which flows down the face from the inner corner of each 

 eye ; and, as the disease becomes more intense, it frequently glues 

 up the lids during the night, and blinds the dog, until his own 

 efl'orts have opened them. The nasal discharge, which is first 

 thin and watery, becomes muco-purulent, and next one of direct 

 pus, by which his nose is no less closed up each morning, by the 

 viscid exudation, than his eyes. As the intensity of the mucous 

 inflammation extends, the cough also, which was at first a slight 

 huskiness of expiratory effort only (or perhaps hardly existed at 

 all, for in some cases but little cough attends the early stages), 

 increases to a distressing, harsh-sounding, and frequent attempt at 

 forcing something up from the throat, by an effort that appears 

 compounded of coughing and vomiting. To these appearances 

 are usually added, wasting, weakness, listlessness, and lessening of 

 the appetite also. 



Thus far the symptoms detailed bespeak a true catarrhal affec- 



