EPILEPSY. 119 



EPILEPSY 



in the dog assumes a most fatal character. It is an accompaniment, or 

 a consequence, of almost every other disease. When the puppy is under- 

 going the process of dentition, the irritation produced by the pressure 

 of the tooth, as it penetrates the gum, leads on to epilepsy. When he 

 is going through the stages of distemper, with a very little bad treatment, 

 or in spite of the best, fits occur. The degree of intestinal irritation 

 which is caused by worms, is marked by an attack of epilepsy. If the 

 usual exercise be neglected for a few days, and the dog is taken out, and 

 suffered to range as he likes, the accumulation of excitability is expended 

 in a fit. 



The dog is, without doubt, the most intellectual animal. He is the 

 companion and the friend of man : he exhibits, and is debased by some of 

 his vices ; but, to a greater degree than many will allow, he exhibits all 

 the intelligence and the virtues of the biped. In proportion to his bulk, 

 the weight of his brain far exceeds that of any other quadruped the very 

 smallest animals alone being excepted, in whom there must be a certain 

 accumulation of medullary matter in order to give origin to the nerves 

 of every system, as numerous in the minutest as in him of greatest bulk. 



As it has been said of the human being that great power and exertion 

 of the mental faculties are sometimes connected with a tendency to epilepsy, 

 and, as violent emotions of joy or of grief have been known to be followed 

 by it, I can readily account for its occurrence in the young dog, when 

 frightened at the chiding of his master, or by the dread of a punish- 

 ment which he was conscious that he had deserved. Then, too, I can under- 

 stand that, when breaking loose from long confinement, he ranges in all the 

 exuberance of joy ; and especially when he flushes almost his first covey, and 

 the game falls dead before him, his mental powers are quite overcome, and 

 he falls into an epileptic fit. 



The treatment of epilepsy in the dog is simple, yet often misunderstood. 

 It is connected with distemper in its early stage. It is the produce of 

 inflammation of the mucous passages generally, which an emetic and a pur- 

 gative will probably, by their direct medicinal effect, relieve, and free the 

 digestive passages from some source of irritation, and by their mechanical 

 action unburthen the respiratory ones. 



When it it symptomatic of a weak state of the constitution, or connected 

 with the after stages of distemper, the emeto-purgative must be succeeded 

 by an anodyne, or, at least, by that which will strengthen, but not irritate 

 the patient. 



A seton is an admirable auxiliary in epilepsy connected with distemper ; 

 it is a counter-irritant and a derivative, and its effects are a salutary dis- 

 charge, under the influence of which inflammation elsewhere will gradually 

 abate. 



I should, however, be cautious of bleeding in distemper fits. I should 

 be fearful of it even in an early stage, because I well know that the acute 

 form of that general mucous inflammation soon passes over, and is suc- 

 ceeded by a debility, from the depression of which I cannot always rouse 

 my patient. When the fits proceed from dentition, I lance the jaws, arid 

 give an emetic, and follow it up with cooling purgative medicine. When 

 they are caused by irregular and excessive exercise, I open the bowels 

 and make my exercise more regular and equable. When they arise from 



