352 The Management and Diseases of the Dog. 



SMALL-POX (VarioLzE Canine). 



Variola of the dog is by no means a frequent disease in 

 this country, and there is but little to be found in English 

 veterinary literature on the subject. 



Youatt describes the malady as follows : 



" The essential symptoms of small-pox in dogs succeed 

 each other in the following order : the skin of the belly, the 

 groin, and the inside of the fore- arm becomes of a redder 

 colour than in its natural state, and sprinkled with small 

 red spots, irregularly rounded. They are sometimes iso- 

 lated, sometimes clustered together. The near approach 

 of this eruption is announced by an increase of fever. 



" On the second day the spots are larger, and the integu- 

 ment is slightly tumefied at the centre of each. 



" On the third day the spots are generally enlarged, and 

 the skin is still more prominent at the centre. 



" On the fourth day the summit of the tumour is yet more 

 prominent. Towards the end of that day, the redness ot 

 the centre begins to assume a somewhat grey colour. On 

 the following days the pustules take on their peculiar 

 characteristic appearance, and cannot be confounded with 

 any other eruption. On the summit is a white circular point, 

 corresponding with a certain quantity of nearly transparent 

 fluid which it contains, and covered by a thin and transpa- 

 rent pellicle. This fluid becomes less and less transparent,, 

 until it acquires the colour and consistence of pus. The 

 pustule, during its serous state, is of a rounded form. It is 

 flattened when the fluid acquires a purulent character, and 

 even slightly depressed towards the close of the period of 

 suppuration, and when that of desiccation is about to com- 

 mence, which ordinarily happens towards the ninth or tenth 

 day of eruption. The desiccation and the desquamation 

 occupy an exceedingly variable length of time, and so in- 

 deed do all the different periods of the disease. What is 

 the least inconstant is the duration of the serous eruption, 

 which is about four days, if it had been distinctly produced 



