408. ATONIC DISEASES. 
rises, looking wildly about him; and then sitting or lying down 
again for a few minutes, he is ready to go to work again, appa- 
rently unconscious of anything having been the matter. As in 
chorea so in epilepsy, nothing is known of the cause, and the treat- 
ment is therefore guided by the most empirical principles. Within 
the last few years bromide of potassium has been used with great , 
success in the human subject; but althongh I have recommended 
its use in many cases on the dog, I have not heard the result. 
The dose for a moderate-sized animal is 3 grains twice a day in a 
pill, continued for a month at least. 
WORMS. 
Worms are a fertile source of disease in the dog, destroying 
every year more puppies than distemper itself, and, in spite of 
every precaution, appearing in the kennelled hound or shooting- 
dog, as well as the pampered house-pet and the half-starved cur. 
In old and constantly used kennels they are particularly rife, and 
I believe that, in some way, their ova remain from year to year, 
attached either to the walls or to the benches. All of the varieties’ 
met with are propagated by ova, though some, as the Ascaris lum- 
bricoides, are also viviparous, so that the destruction of the worms 
actually existing at the time the vermifuge is given does not neces- 
sarily imply the after clearance of the animal, who may be infested 
with them as badly as before, from the hatching of the eggs left 
behind. The natural history of these parasites is, however, very 
imperfectly understood, in spite of the carefully recorded and ex- 
tended labours of Rudolphi, Schmalz, Cloquet, Creplin, and our. 
own Owen; indeed, as it is not till after the death of the animal 
infested by them that they can be reached, it is only wonderful 
that so much is known. Besides the intestinal worms, there are. 
also others met with in the dog, including the large kidney worm 
(Strongylus gigas), which shall presently be described, and the 
hydatid, which is in all probability the cause of turnside; but 
though found in the dog’s brain, its presence has not, I believe, 
been clearly associated with that disease. I shall, therefore, first 
describe the appearance of each kind of worm; then the symptoms 
of worms in general ; and lastly, the best means for their expulsion. 
