DOGS : THEIR MANAGEMENT. 263 



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STTFEBFITBGATION. 



Acute diarrhoea may terminate in twenty-four hours ; 

 the chronic may continue as many days. The first 

 sometimes closes with hemorrhage, blood in large quan- 

 tities being ejected, either from the mouth or from the 

 anus ; but more generally death ensues from apparent 

 exhaustion, Avhich is announced by coldness of the belly 

 and mouth, attended with a peculiar faint and sickly 

 fetor and perfect insensibility. The chronic more rarely 

 ends with excessive bleeding, but almost always gradu- 

 ally wears out the animal, which for days previous may 

 be paralysed in the hind extremities, lying with its back 

 arched and its feet approximated, though consciousness 

 is retained almost to the last moment. In either case, 

 however, the characteristic stench prevails, and the lower 

 surface of the abdomen, as a general rule, feels hard, 

 presenting to the touch two distinct lines, which run in 

 the course of the spine. These lines, which Youatt 

 mentions as cords, are the recti muscles, which in the 

 dog are composed of continuous fibre, and consequently, 



