DISTEMPER. 61 



puzzling to all inquirers into the nature of the malady. But then 

 I said to myself, ( Why did not Dr. Jenner, who was so close an 

 observer, come to this simple conclusion ? ' To this I could only 

 reply, that I should think, from the description of the disease given 

 by him, that he was shown many cases as distemper which were 

 simply inflammation of the lungs. It is notorious that his account 

 does not tally with the experience of practical men, neither does 

 the remedy which he has advised (vaccination) exert any power in 

 preventing the occurrence of the malady. This is now the general 

 opinion of those who have given the supposed preventive a trial, 

 and I must fully confirm the truth of their conclusions. Every 

 one, however, must recollect numerous instances in which a simple 

 clue, once seized, will explain away all difficulties, except the one 

 astonishing fact of this simple clue not having been previously 

 detected. And just as marvellous it now appears to me that it 

 should so long have eluded observation. The points of similarity 

 between distemper in dogs and typhus fever in man are so strongly 

 marked, that a treatise upon the latter is all that is wanted to 

 enable any one who understands medical terms to treat the former 

 with the greatest probability of success. 



SYMPTOMS OF DISTEMPER. I should define distemper in the dog 

 as a fever of a nature similar to typhus, and always characterised 

 by the following symptoms, which generally occur in the order in 

 which they are mentioned : There is first a dullness and restless- 

 ness, with partial loss of appetite, heat and dryness of the nose, 

 rapid but feeble pulse, and dull eye, the white of which is gene- 

 rally streaked with dark-coloured blood-vessels. The dog seems 



