322 The Management and Diseases of the Dog. 



As soon as the patient is able to walk, a short exercise 

 each day may be given with benefit. The fresh air acts as 

 a tonic, new scenery and objects divert the mind, while 

 exercise encourages the nat^al habits and functions of the 

 animal. 



Tincture of iron and cod-liver oil are advisable after the 

 disuse of the strychnia, until recovery is complete. The 

 diet throughout should be nourishing and digestible, and 

 forcibly administered if the patient refuses to take it. Con- 

 stipation, which is frequently present in chorea and paralysis, 

 is best relieved by enemas. 



With regard to preventive measures for distemper, I have 

 only to observe that due attention to hygienics is" one of the 

 most important considerations. Vaccination has been 

 extolled and condemned — condemned justly, inasmuch 

 as there is not a shadow of analogy between canine 

 distemper and small-pox. The introduction of equine 

 lymph has also been tried, and in like manner extolled, 

 but where, again, is the resemblance between the disease 

 known as " grease " in the horse, from which the lymph 

 is supplied, and canine distemper.' There is not the 

 least similarity in the character of one and the other. Good 

 management — the dog not being brought in contact with 

 the infective agents, or it may possibly be from possessing a 

 degree of insusceptibility that the malady is not easily con- 

 tracted — has far more to do with immunity from distemper 

 than the imaginary power of vaccination, be the lymph 

 what it may. 



Inoculation with distemper-virus on the system I have 

 practised for many years, and discovered, by myself, is un-. 

 doubtedly a protection against distemper, and, even where 

 by some peculiar idiosyncrasy the disease is contracted, it 

 still reduces the risk of death to a minimum. The value 

 of this simple and inexpensive operation is now widely 

 acknowledged at home and abroad. The Fox Terrier 

 Chronide,'m commenting upon it in 1883, said: "The many 



