HISTORICAL 7 
work in the laboratory—one and a half years ago—this worker has 
suffered from the worst chronic catarrh of the nose he has ever had. 
It is very intractable, and at times there are acute exacerbations. 
Cultures were made from a mass of muco-pus hanging down over the 
soft palate. At the time the culture was made there was an exacerba- 
tion of the condition. A pure culture of the organism without any 
contamination was obtained.” 
From these cases it will be observed that only once 
was the distemper organism recovered from the lesions, 
and even then no pathological symptom worse than 
nasal catarrh was set up by it. 
In the paper quoted above M‘Gowan further says: 
“Whether this condition is of common occurrence in man I am 
unable to say. My observations on individuals in the laboratory would 
seem to indicate that it is not. That it exists there is no doubt, and 
there is every opportunity for it to be widespread, considering the 
number who keep dogs and cats. A kennel-man of forty years’ experience 
told me, without my asking leading questions, that he had had distemper, 
several times.” 
_ Excepting M‘Gowan’'s assertion, I have never before 
heard it suggested that distemper could be transmitted 
to man, and under natural conditions I feel convinced it 
never is. 
Distemper as an Entity or Otherwise.—Many of the old 
writers considered that distemper had no individual 
entity, but it was composed of several affections which 
may exist either concurrently or separately. In the 
tenth, revised, edition (1921) of Dorland’s “ Medical 
Dictionary,” we find distemper defined as follows: “A 
name of several infectious diseases of animals ; especially 
a contagious catarrhal disease of pups caused by a 
specific bacillus. Colt distemper is the same as strangles.” 
Gray (Wallis Hoare’s “System of Veterinary Medi- 
cine ”) remarks: “ Although there may be several specific 
morbid entities included under the generic term of 
distemper, there are as yet no reliable data to distinguish 
one from the other, and until bacteriological research, in 
