General Diseases. 319 



almost needless to remark that they are always a dangerous 

 sign, being seldom limited to one attack. Sometimes 

 they appear as the forerunner of distemper, but more fre- 

 ■quently as an accompaniment, and Vvhen the patient is 

 low and wasted. 



Immediately symptoms of cerebral disturbance are ob- 

 served, a seton should be inserted in the occipital region, 

 and action excited as quick as possible. Let the animal 

 freely breathe fresh air, and administer brandy and water ; 

 and if diarrhoea- is still present, suspend the opium, but 

 continue the antacids and astringents, and give the brandy 

 with beaten egg or other mucilage. During the seizure, 

 neat brandy may be rubbed on the gums, and ammonia, 

 applied to the nostrils. The food should be nutritious, 

 and all other means adopted which are calculated to 

 impart tone to the system. 



In protracted cases of distemper, when the system, as 

 it were, has been taxed to the utmost, and the patient 

 reduced almost to the lowest ebb of existence, a cuticular 

 eruption makes its appearance. This generally, in the 

 first instance, assumes a pustular form, and these pustules 

 in the course of a few days break, and leave by their 

 exudation a crust or scab. Either the whole or a portion 

 of the body only may be involved. I have seen a dog 

 literally naked, with the exception of the head, ears, and 

 feet. 



This condition is not unfrequently mistaken by the 

 would-be " knowing ones " for mange, and treated as 

 such.* 



* I well remember a case in point which came under my own 

 observation — the subject being a Skye terrier. The case, when first 

 brought to me, was one of distemper, associated with pneumonia (the 

 animal being thought consumptive) ; later on dysentery set in- 

 Several times the animal was on the verge of death, and it was only 

 by my persuasion that he was allowed to continue under treatment- 

 Ultimately he took a turn for the better, and almost simultaneously 

 the eruption described broke out ; the stench emitted after it made 



