328 KENNEL DISEASES. 
vomit occasionally ; their breath is foul; they lose flesh; are noticeably weak ; 
their skin appears to have darkened; and their hair becomes dry and harsh, 
and sometimes falls out in patches. Their bowels are no longer regular; and 
while they may suffer from short attacks of diarrhea, from which they seem 
to wholly recover, as a rule once diarrheea sets in it persists until the worms 
have been expelled. It is also evidently attended with pain, which at times is 
very severe. 
Constipation of innocent form sometimes exists for short periods, but in 
most cases of that trouble it is very painful, also dangerous, for it is due to an 
accumulation of worms in a mass or ball too large to be expelled except with 
much delay and suffering. 
Complete paralysis of the hind legs is very common among puppies be- 
tween four and eight months of age; and although recovery occasionally 
occurs where the worms are promptly ejected, it is, unfortunately, the excep- 
tion, not the rule. 
Other symptoms referable to the nervous system are often present, as 
‘¢dumpishness,” fleeting pains, —~ indicated by sharp, shrill cries at intervals, 
—twitchings of the muscles; and even chorea has been known to be a con- 
sequence of worms; while convulsions are frequent, and such attacks are 
often fatal. 
Aside from the dangers that arise from that disposition to wander from their 
usual abiding-place, to which reference has been made, worms may bore through 
the intestinal walls if the same be inflamed or ulcerated, and cause peritonitis 
and death. Again, they may indirectly induce what is known as intussuscep- 
tion, which is the tucking or slipping of one portion of the intestine, stove- 
pipe like, into another, thus causing complete obstruction of the bowels, which 
is almost always fatal. 
In young females a thick, white discharge from the vagina is sometimes 
noted, and usually persists until the worms that escaped from the intestine and 
crawled in there have been syringed out. 
If worms are harbored and they fail to induce such grave symptoms as 
convulsions, paralysis, or the like, their effects may yet be very disastrous, the 
vitality of the host becoming so impaired and his system so enfeebled that 
healthy growth and development are impossible. 
Yet a little more remains to be said of the phenomena produced by worms. 
The opinion of that ancient writer Avicenna was that, ‘‘ From the body of 
‘worms comes a noxious vapor which rises to the brain; the constituents of 
these beings, absorbed with the chyle, pass into the blood and deprave the 
humors.” 
This is opposed to the general belief that the harmful effects of worms are 
produced only mechanically. It would seem that in the quaint expression 
quoted there was a germ of truth, and that the juices or fluids extracted from 
