18 THE DOGS OF THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 



or relaxed, and a scanty secretion of high-coloured urine. In a few days the dog 

 loses flesh and strength to a great extent, but then gradually recovers. 



Head Distemper commences in the same way as the mild form, but the cough 

 or sneezing is very slight, and sometimes there is not a vestige. On separating the 

 eyelids, the whites are seen to be covered with blood-vessels loaded with dark blood, 

 and a strong light seems to give pain. This kind of distemper is often indicated, 

 soon after its commencement, by a fit, lasting a short time, and leaving a state of 

 torpor from which the dog can with difficulty be aroused. If the brain is not 

 relieved, the fits recur at short intervals, and the stupor increases, until the dog 

 becomes quite insensible, and dies in a violent convulsion. 



Chest Distemper appears to be an extension downwards into the chest of the 

 irritation which produces the cough. It there generally sets up the kind of inflam- 

 mation known as bronchitis, together with which, however, there is often inflamma- 

 tion of the substance of the lungs (pneumonia), or even of the external surface 

 (pleurisy). 



Distemper of the Belly is too often the result of mismanagement, produced 

 either by the abuse of violent drugs or by neglect of attention to the secretions for 

 some time previously. In the former case the bowels become very relaxed at the end 

 of a week or ten days from the first commencement of a case of mild distemper, and 

 then there is a constant diarrhoea, soon followed by the passage of large quantities 

 of blood. This may be quite black and pitchy when it comes from the small 

 intestines, or red and florid where the lower bowels are affected. Sometimes these 

 symptoms appear of themselves, but generally they result from calomel or other 

 violent medicines. When there has been neglect, and the bowels have been allowed 

 to become confined, while at the same time the secretion of bile has been checked, a 

 most dangerous symptom, known as " the yellows," shows itself, the name being 

 given in consequence of the skin and white of the eyes being stained of a yellow 

 colour, from the presence of bile. This may occur without distemper, and then it is 

 not so fatal; but when it comes on during an attack of this disease it is almost 

 invariably followed by death. 



Malignant Distemper may come on at first, the dog attacked being as it were 

 at once knocked down by the severity of the poison ; or it may show itself at the 

 end of a week or ten days from the first commencement. It may follow either of 

 the four kinds already described, being marked by an aggravated form of the 

 symptoms peculiar to each ; but there are some additional evidences of the poisoned 

 state of the blood, which show themselves in the four stages into which the disease, 

 when well marked, divides itself. These stages are 1st, incubation, during which 

 the disease is, as it were, hatching or brewing ; 2nd, reaction, when nature is working 

 herself up to throw off the poison ; 3rd, prostration, following these efforts ; and 4th, 

 convalescence, wherein the constitution recovers its usual powers. In a well-marked 

 case of malignant distemper these four stages average about a week or ten days 

 each ; and it is important to ascertain their existence, inasmuch as the treatment 

 proper to each varies very considerably. The period of incubation is known by the 

 symptoms described as common to mild distemper, as well as to the other kinds ; 



