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TABIES MESENTERICUS. 



A tabid state of young dogs has already been touched on in the 

 rearing of puppies : it is born with some, and acquired by others. 

 Some breeds, particularly pugs and terriers, are singularly liable 

 to it ; dependent often on the attempts that have been made to 

 breed them very small, or to a particular ^^ fancy ,' i. e. to a cer- 

 tain form or colour. In these cases it appears hereditary, and is 

 disseminated through the whole stock : it may also be produced 

 after birth by close confinement, bad air, and the want of a due 

 supply of healthy milk, or other nutritious food when that is dried 

 up. The objects of it present a stinted growth, bowed legs, with 

 the elbows directed outwards, coat staring, the belly pendulous, 

 and a countenance of peculiar sharpness and sagacity. When it 

 proves fatal, the mesenteric glands are found diseased, enlarged, 

 aud impervious to the transmission of chyle : morbid marks like- 

 wise are not unfrequent in the liver : the intestines also are often 

 filled with worms, but which are frequently more a consequence 

 than a cause ; sometimes, however, they appear to occasion the 

 disease. 



The medical treatment, when worms are the cause, should com- 

 mence by destroying them ; when otherwise, act according to cir- 

 cumstances : if the milk of the mother be suspected, change it, or 

 give cows' milk boiled with flour and sugar, with minced meat. 

 Use the cold bath ; allow wholesome air and exercise ; use frictions 

 to the body, give a mild mercurial aperient every third day, and 

 on the intermediate ones a tonic ball of carbonate of iron, gum 

 myrrh, and gentian. This disease is sometimes combined with 

 rickets, which see in the next class* 



M 2 



