108 SPECIFIC CATARRHAL DISEASE, OR DISTEMPER, 

 cumstances ; thus an angry word spoken to the dog, a sharp rebuke 

 to another, or the sight of one in a fit, will be often sufficient to 

 bring one on him also. It is by an observance of this effect that 

 we are likewise able to understand why fondling or encouraging a 

 dog under these primary attacks will shorten the duration, and 

 sometimes stop the fit altogether ; and also we learn why the sudden 

 stimulus brought on by dashing cold water in the face will often 

 do the same ; which practice should, therefore, always be resorted 

 to on these occasions. When the epileptic fits, however, have 

 gained their full hold on the dog, these means usually fail. A 

 partial or total mental alienation now takes place : when total, the 

 poor brute is often perfectly phrenitic ; he waters and dungs un- 

 consciously, he tears up the ground, bites every thing around him, 

 and not unfrequently himself also. When the fit is over, he shakes 

 himself, and looks and acts as usual, unless the attacks have been 

 very violent and long continued, when they leave him greatly ex- 

 hausted and dispirited. The second, third, or fourth day from the 

 first appearance of these violent JltSy particularly when they recur 

 every hour or two, commonly closes the scene, the animal being 

 worn down by the additional strength and increased frequency of 

 each succeeding spasm. It is during one of these fits that a dog 

 is apt to be sacrificed under a suspicion of madness ; but the sud- 

 denness of the seizure ought to inform the looker-on of the total 

 impossibility of its being rabies, which is always, in the worst cases, 

 marked with some recollection, some knowledge, and which never 

 exhibits the indiscriminate fury which characterizes epilepsy. See 

 Rabiesy Class VIII. In another form of these epileptic fits, the dog 

 is seen to walk round and round, his steps usually directed to one 

 side only, with measured and solemn pace, but in general wholly 

 unconscious to every thing around. This is not a very frequent 

 form of the nervous afi'ection ; but I have seen several instances 

 of it, all of which proved fatal. These cases may be considered 

 to arise from a partial attack on the brain, principally directed to 

 one side of it. 



Pneumonia, or inflammation of the lungs, is also another state 



