304 The Management and Diseases of the Dog. 



"Thus, in 185 1 or 1852, a severe outbreak of the latter 

 disease occurred in Tasmania, which swept off two or three 

 members in every family ; at the same time, according to 

 the report of the Australian Royal Commission on Diph- 

 theria, all the dogs died of distemper. There may have 

 been some morbid influence at work which favoured the 

 genesis and extension while it added to the virulency of 

 both scourges ; but beyond this we cannot at present go, 

 for if we remember aright, dogs perished about the same 

 time in great numbers from distemper in New Zealand and 

 Australia — even the dingoes, or native wild dogs, being 

 found dead in multitudes in the scrub ; and yet we cannot 

 ascertain that diphtheria was at all prevalent, or even pre- 

 sent, in these countries at that period. 



" To our knowledge, there is only one instance of a case 

 in which accidental transmission of the disease from man 

 to an inferior animal appears likely to have occurred, and 

 this is alluded to by Dr. Sir J. Rose Cormack, in the 

 Lancet for April 24th of the present year. It is related 

 by Professor Bossi in the ' Giornale di Medicina Veterinaria 

 Pratica d'Agricoltura,' and is to the following effect : ' A 

 friend who had lost a child by diphtheria, after a few days' 

 illness, requested me to visit a very beautiful small-breed 

 greyhound about one year old, which had become unwell a 

 few days after swallowing some of the child's excreta, and 

 some remains of food which had been served to him. On 

 making a careful examination of the dog, Bossi found it in 

 a state of great prostration ; languid look, lachrymant 

 eyes, and open mouth copiously discharging a viscid 

 fluid ; quick sibilant breathing, hoarse voice, full, hard, 

 rapid pulse ; the neck so stretched as to be almost rigid ; 

 and difficulty in deglutition. By digital examination, 

 the throat was discovered to be cedematous, and the seat 

 of severe pain. On opening the mouth — a difficult opera- 

 tion — the m.ucous membrane of the fauces was seen to be 

 red and swollen, and two ulcers were on the veil of the 



