General Diseases. 303 



" After removing the flooring and opening the drains, it 

 was deemed advisable, considering the condition of the 

 walls of the house, not to repair it, but to build another on 

 a different site. After a considerable time, both the new 

 kennel and thje one which remained, and into which the 

 dogs from the old one had been removed, were again 

 occupied ; and with no bad results, the disease having 

 , ceased a few days after the kennel where it first appeared 

 had been vacated. 



" I have purposely refrained from commenting upon, or 

 , drawing any conclusions from these facts ; or attempting 

 to enter upon the question of the etiology of diphtheria : 

 whether we are in all cases to regard it as the result of thi 

 reception into the animal body of contagion, living, par- 

 ticulate, and specific — a true ' mycosis^ — or, in many cases, 

 to revert to our knowledge of chemistry and chemical laws 

 for an explanation of the different phenomena. 



" Circumstances which have octurred, and conditions 

 which have been observed, have been stated, in the hope 

 that possibly some inquirer in this particular path of re- 

 search may find these facts, when collated with others, help- 

 ful in shedding a light over what at the present, in some of 

 "its aspects, is rather obscure." 



In a leading article in the same journal, on " The Trans- ■ 

 missibility of Diphtheria from Man to the Lower Animals," 

 it is remarked : " We have no strong proof that croup or 

 diphtheria is contagious in animals, except the first-named 

 disease, which is so in poultry. 



"The relations of diphtheria in animals to the same 

 disease in mankind have only been recently definitely 

 established ; while the transmission of the malady from one 

 species to another his been satisfactorily denionstrated. 

 There are certainly no proofs that any relationship exists 

 between the malady termed ' distemper ' in the dog and 

 diphtheria, though on occasions they may have prevailed 

 coincidently in a district. 



