370 FEVERS, AND THEIR TREATMENT, 
other hand, when it is developed in consequence of neglect, it 
comes on at the end of some other attack of disease, which may 
have existed for an indefinite time.) Almost always the first thing 
noticed is a general’ dulness or lassitude, together with loss of 
appetite. In a day or two there is generally a peculiar husky. 
cough, which sounds as if the dog were trying to get a piece of 
straw out of his throat, and always comes on at exercise.after a 
gallop, With this there is also a tendency to sneeze, but not so 
marked as the “ husk” or “ tissuck” which may occur in common 
“cold” or influenza, but is then usually more severe, and also 
more variable in its severity, soon going on to inflammation, or 
else entirely ceasing in a few days. In distemper the strength 
leas flesh rapidly fail and waste, while in common “cold” the 
cough may continue for days without much alteration in either; 
and this is one of the chief characteristics of the true disease. 
There is, also, generally a black pitchy condition of the faces, and 
the urine is scanty and high-coloured. The white of the eyes is 
always more or less reddened, the colour being of a bluish red cast, 
and the vessels being evidently gorged with blood. When the 
brain is attacked, the eyes are more injected than when the bowels 
or lungs are the seats of complication. The corners of the eyes 
have a small drop of mucus, and the nose runs more or less, which 
symptoms, as the disease goes on, are much aggravated, both being 
glued up by brownish matter, while the teeth also are covered with 
a blackish brown fur. Such are the regular symptoms of a severe 
attack of distemper, gradually increasing in severity to the third, 
fourth, or fifth week, when the dog dies from exhaustion, or from 
disease of the brain, lungs, or bowels, marked by peculiar signs in 
each case. In this course the disease may be described as passing 
through four stages or pertods—first, that in which the poison is 
spreading through the system, called the period of incubation ; 
second, that in which nature rouses her powers to expel it, called 
the period of reaction ; third, the period of prostration, during which 
the powers of nature are exhausted, or nearly so, by the efforts 
which have been made; and fourth, the period of convalescence. On 
the average, each of these will occupy a week or ten days, varying 
withthe mildness or severity of the attack. 
When the head 1s attacked there may or may not be a running 
