DISTEMPER. 69 



intelligence who is versed in the general management of dogs, I 

 should confidently trust that the mortality would not be much 

 greater than one in fifteen of those attacked. 



LIABILITY TO A SECOND ATTACK. It may, I think, be assumed 

 that a dog once attacked by true distemper is not likely to suffer 

 a second time, though such cases do sometimes occur. But I also 

 fancy that if a young dog is seized with any severe disease, and it 

 stops short of the typhoid stage, he will, as long as he is well 

 managed, escape true distemper ; but if he is subjected to a 

 different treatment, he then becomes liable to the disease, either 

 from infection, or as a result of any cold or other disorder. In 

 other words, so long as the system is in a state of health, and not 

 broken down by mismanagement, distemper or typhus fever can 

 only be communicated to a dog peculiarly liable to it by natural 

 constitution or ' breed.' And thus we see one or two puppies in 

 a litter, though mixing with the others, escape the attack, and 

 they are just as much protected as if they had gone through the 

 disease, because their state of health, either by nature or good 

 management, renders them proof against its influence ; . but let 

 these very animals be afterwards neglected, and they take the 

 disease readily enough. Hence experienced dog-owners, having 

 remarked that a dog having any severe attack of catarrh or 

 influenza is afterwards almost sure to escape death from distemper, 

 have come to the conclusion that the catarrh or influenza was 

 distemper itself in a mild form, and have certified that he has had 

 the disease. But such a mistake is of little consequence in 

 practice, because the dog is nearly as well protected by natural 



