SYMPTOMS 101 
menon, and secondary infections can hardly be believed 
to_manifest themselves in anticipation of primary ones. 
It is seldom that any case of distemper ever runs its full 
course without the incidence of diarrhoea at some period, 
and, on the whole, we usually expect it early. 
Sometimes what appears to be only a case of simple 
but obstinate diarrhoea, enduring over a week or two, 
suddenly terminates by the advent of nervous symptoms 
and, it may be, death in convulsions. 
Constipation._Where constipation is a prelude to a 
generalised attack, it may be suggested in explanation 
that since the dog has no appetite, no food has been con- 
sumed, and therefore none can be passed; or that the 
absence of food in the alimentary canal has brought 
about a cessation of peristalsis, or a condition of intestinal 
stasis ; further, since the presence of food in the mouth 
and stomach is necessary to stimulate secretion of 
digestive juices, absence would account for non-secretion 
and consequent dry condition of the mucous membrane 
of the bowel. This condition is then overcome by the 
‘action of the invading organisms, which set up a general 
gastro-intestinal catarrh, with resulting diarrhoea. If no 
formed feeces exist, fluid slimy or frothy stools contain- 
ing mucus, which soon become very fcetid, are then 
evacuated. 
Gastro-Enteritis—Very often the catarrh is so intense 
that it merges into an acute inflammation, accompanied by 
colic, tenesmus, and the passage of sanguineous evacua- 
tions or even of pure blood. If an autopsy were made 
at this stage the intestinal tract would be found full of 
mucus—evidence of gastro-intestinal catarrh—and the 
mucous membrane observed to be very swollen and corru- 
gated, the convexities of the ridges being hemorrhagic, 
or even ulcerous, and presenting an appearance similar 
to that so often observed in swine fever, with the excep- 
