] 46 DOGS : THEIR MANAGEMENT. 



been thus affected, I have known the abdominal and 

 thoracic muscles to be troubled by continuous twitchings ; 

 which, however, have been for the most part slight, and 

 have subsided more quickly than have those of the 

 extremities, when they have been diseased. Cholera 

 comes on gradually ; its commencement is hardly to be 

 perceived, and it is seldom observed before the distem- 

 per is fully developed — even sometimes only when the 

 disorder appears to be subsiding. It is not rare for it to 

 start up while the animal is apparently recovering ; and 

 when it does so, it is always most difficult to remove. 

 No pain is felt in the affected limb ; the part rather seems 

 to lose some portion of its sensibility. 



When the hind parts are paralysed, feeling may be en- 

 tirely gone ; so that a pin thrust into the flesh of those 

 parts does not even attract the notice of the dog. This 

 does not occur in chortea, but the consciousness is dulled 

 by that affection. The convulsed limb may be more 

 roughly handled than the healthy ones ; but violence 

 will excite those answers which truly indicate that insen- 

 sibility is not established in it. If nothing be done for 

 the twitchings, the limb will waste ; at last the general 

 system will be sympathetically involved, and the body 

 will grow thin. This, however, may not happen until 

 long after all signs of distemper have disappeared ; for 

 chorasa, though well known to be often fatal, is always 

 slow in its progress, and never attended with immediate 

 danger. 



Such is an outline of the leading symptoms ; and it 



