106 CANINE DISTEMPER 
to emetics, with a view to cure the distemper.” Other 
predisposing causes are chills, fatigue, and obstinate 
constipation. 
There is usually little to be found on post-mortem 
examination which would seem to account adequately 
for death; thus, one can only conclude that an intoxica- 
tion by some poison, as evidenced by prostration, insen- 
sibility, and subnormal temperature, is the direct cause 
of a fatal termination. 
If a favourable turn should, however, occur, it will be 
evinced first by diminished discoloration of the urine, 
then by darkening of the feecal tint, more regular and 
better pulse, increase of temperature, greater vivacity, 
and a healthier hue of the visible mucous membranes. 
III. Nervous Symptoms.—There are no symptoms of 
this dread disease which are more fraught with mischief 
or mortality, or less amenable to treatment, than the 
many nervous complications unfortunately so frequent 
in distemper. 
_ They are variously observed to precede all other 
symptoms, to occur during the course of the malady, or as 
a termination. Even some time after supposed complete 
recovery, cases have been recorded in which nervous 
sequelz have arisen. 
Etiology.—Their etiology seems to remain more or 
less obscure, although several theories have been ad- 
vanced. For instance, Youatt considered that an inflam- 
mation of the eye or of the nose might, from very 
proximity, soon be communicated to the brain, probably 
via the cribriform plates. Blain, however, says: “It is 
not unlikely that in some few cases a true metastasis 
(transference of disease from one organ to another) 
occurs, for we occasionally have a very sudden attack 
of epilepsy without any of those premonitory symptoms 
which usually predict with malign certainty the dis- 
