General Diseases. 311 



but only for those in which the disease assumes the forms- 

 herein described, and from which I have derived the greatest 

 benefit. 



Nature, in many instances, works her own cure ; while 

 numerous methods of treatment produce mischief, and 

 result in death. 



Distemper may be described as a catarrhal fever, 

 generally affecting the mucous membranes of the head, air- 

 passages and alimentary tract, in which the nervous system 

 frequently becomes involved — Whence distemper fits, and 

 local or general paralysis. It is a highly contagious' 

 disease, though oftentimes it is undoubtedly self-generated 

 • Age is no preventive ; at any period of life dogs are liable 

 to become infected. But Mr. Fleming correctly observes, 

 " It is more particularly a disease of youth, and is much 

 more frequent and fatal among highly-bred, pampered 

 animals, than those which live in a less artificial manner, 

 and whose constitution is less modified by breeding and 

 rearing." * Neither does one attack render a dog secure 

 from a second ; but in the latter it is contracted, I believe, 

 invariably by contagion alone. 



Distemper is not, as many persons suppose, a necessary 

 disease, as numbers of dogs pass through life without ever 

 becoming the subjects of it. The fact of the malady being 

 unknown in this country prior to the seventeenth century (i") 

 strongly supports this view, as dogs then were probably 

 as numerous as now, though not perhaps so mixed in breed. 



In all cases it is ushered in with catarrhal symptoms 

 and these, as the malady proceeds, may become compli- 

 cated with pneumonia, jaundice, enteric disease, epilepsy, 

 chorea, or paralysis : though the two latter are, as a rule, 

 sequels, I have occasionally seen them exist in conjunction 

 with distemper. 



Causes. — These may be enumerated under the following 



* " Veterinary Sanitary Science and Police," vol. ii. p. 294. 



