DISEASES OF THE RESPIRATORY ORGANS. 499 



This disorder may be prevented, by providing your dogs with 

 plenty of quitch grass. A fluid extract made from this grass, 

 {Triticum repens 48), will be all the medicine puppies will need. 



DISEASES OF THE RESPIRATORY ORGANS. 



Pneumonia ; Simple Inflammation of the Lungs ; Lung Fe- 

 ver. — With the canines, pneumonia and pleuro-pneumonia are 

 each more strongly marked than in the human race. Of the for- 

 mer, nothing need be said, the treatment, etc., as laid down in the 

 succeeding subject being ample. 



Distemper Proper. — True canine distemper is of extremely 

 rare occurrence, if indeed it ever makes its appearance in the U. S. 

 and Canadas. As laid down by that eminent pathologist, KoUi- 

 ger; it is a disease attended by a catarrh, consisting essentially in 

 an irritation of the brain and spinal marrow, and characterized by 

 frequent convulsions tetanic in characte" its fatality being en- 

 hanced by the supervention of inflammation of the lungs. 



The disease is wondrously fatal, only about ten per cent, 

 making recoveries. 



The disease, generally known throughout the world as distem- 

 per, is commonly pleuro-pneumonia, though many other disor- 

 ders are ofttimes included under the same title. 



Distemper ; Pleuro-pneumonia ; Lung Fever. — There appears 

 to be two forms of pleuro-pneumonia to which the dog is sub- 

 jected : one of which seems to be somewhat epizootic in charac- 

 ter. This is then, perhaps, entitled to be called distemper. 



It may be that pleuro-pneumonia as exhibited in the dog only 

 takes this form. Or it may be that it assumes two forms : the 

 one due to irritation and inflammation resultant upon the use of 

 a morbific poison ; and the other, from more natural causes. At 

 all events, the disease, though not contagious, would seem to be 

 infectious in one of its forms ; this may, howev^, be due to the 

 fact, that gangrene of the lung is commonly attendant upon the 

 disorder, though not usually virulent in character. I am drawn 

 to this belief, not only from the deductions of pathologists, but 

 from the results of personal observation, verified by an autopsy of 

 m animal which died from an unusually severe attack of so-called 



