EPILEPSY. 101 



warnings, the dog appears in perfect health, and, if a greyhound, 

 runs his hare as well or better than usual, or, if a pointer or 

 foxhound, performs his accustomed work with his usual amount of 

 gusto. Suddenly, however, the dog foams at the mouth, becomes 

 convulsed, and falls on his side, where he remains with starting 

 eyes, champing and foaming at the mouth, and blue at the lips, 

 for an uncertain period, averaging, perhaps, a quarter of an hour. 

 After the lapse of this time he gradually becomes still, and then 

 rises on his legs, with some little difficulty, looks stupidly about 

 him, and in a few minutes resumes his usual appearance, being, 

 however, a little more dull than before. The fit is very likely 

 to be produced while at his ordinary work, especially if more 

 severe than usual. All cases of epileptic fits are tolerably alike 

 in their symptoms, and no doubt all have a cause of some kind or 

 other ; and in the above kind of epilepsy that cause is supposed 

 to exist in the brain. This is, however, only because the brain is 

 the centre of the nervous system, of which we know less than 

 any other, and hence is the most likely to be the seat of mischief. 

 When, therefore, a dog is afflicted with epilepsy, and it cannot be 

 traced to worms, or indigestible food, or distemper, or difficult 

 dentition, or suppressed mange, or, in a suckling bitch, to the too 

 great drag of a large litter of puppies, it is usual to conceal our 

 ignorance by calling the disease cerebral or idiopathic epilepsy. 

 The higher the breed of the animal the more prone he is to 

 epilepsy, and this appears to be especially the case with those 

 animals bred ' in and in.' The nervous system in them is much 

 more irritable, and the slightest irritation will produce a fit. It 



