SYMPTOMS 105 
There is pain on pressure over the region of the liver, 
with occasional enlargement and hardness of that organ. 
The pulse becomes weaker, and the animal more feeble, 
the extremities cold, and emaciation pronounced, whilst 
convulsions succeeded by profound coma usually pre- 
cede death. 
Cause.—The duodenum as well as the rest of the 
intestine is filled with a pale stringy mucus (absence 
of bile), and the opening of the common duct is occluded 
by spread of the intestinal inflammation to its mucous 
membrane, obstructive jaundice being thus produced. 
Swelling of intestinal mucous membrane adjacent to the 
opening of the bile duct is another frequent cause of 
obstruction in cases of distemper. 
Youatt found the condition most frequently in hounds 
and greyhounds, particularly in cases showing little 
catarrhal exudation from the nose. I fail to see a con- 
nection, however, between the two phenomena. The 
common experience seems to be that when jaundice 
appears as a complication, it does so in particular out- 
breaks, or during certain years or seasons. The few 
cases I have seen of the combination, however, have been 
quite sporadic, and apparently independent of either 
time or place, nor have they been confined to any par- 
ticular breed. Age has no influence in its production, 
young and old being equally susceptible. 
While it is my opinion that the jaundice of distemper 
is a catarrhal jaundice due to duodenal catarrh, there are 
others who consider it is of partly hematogenous and 
partly hepatogenous origin, which latter includes toxzemic 
jaundice and the jaundice seen in malaria, typhoid, 
typhus, and yellow atrophy of the liver. 
Weber, of Paris, remarks: “It prevails among dogs 
which are left in the charge of keepers, and, as often 
happens, are subjected to strong drastic purgatives, or 
