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CHAPTER VY. 
DISEASES ACCOMPANIED BY WANT OF POWER. 
Chorea—Shaking Palsy—Fits—W orms—General Dropsy or Anasarca. 
As inflammation is attended by increased action of the heart and 
arteries, so this class of diseases is, on the contrary, accompanied 
‘by a want of tone (atony) in these organs, as well as by an irri- 
tability of the nervous system, which arises from the same cause. 
None of them require lowering measures, but, on the contrary, 
tonics and generous living will almost always be demanded. I 
have included worms among them, because these parasites produce 
a lowering effect, and seldom infest to any extent a strong healthy 
subject, preferring the delicate and half-starved puppy to the full- 
grown and hardy dog. 
CHOREA. 
Chorea, or St. Vitus’ Dance, may be known by the spasmodic 
twitches which accompany it, and by their ceasing during sleep. 
In slight cases the spasm is a mere drop of the head and shoulder, 
or sometimes of the hind-quarter only, the nods in the former case, 
or the backward drop in the latter, giving a very silly and weak 
expression to the animal. Chorea is almost always a consequence 
of distemper, so that it is unnecessary to describe its early stages, 
‘and the disease itself cannot be further defined than by the above 
description. It seldom goes on to destroy life, though occasionally 
it is accompanied by fits, the disease in the brain and spine then 
being of such a severe nature as to end fatally in the course of 
time, the dog apparently dying from exhaustion. Of the exact 
nature of the disease we know nothing, the most careful examina- 
tion of the brain and spinal cord leading to no useful result. But 
