118 CANINE DISTEMPER 
The exanthema of distemper cannot be regarded as 
having a separate entity, but as a secondary infection 
which may or may not be present. Two distinct opinions 
are current as to the diagnostic value and frequency of a 
skin eruption in this disease, each upheld by a formidable 
array of supporters: one school declaring that the erup- 
tion is of first-rate importance, Trasbot even going so 
far as to look upon it as the primary infection, all others 
being subsidiary; the other as stoutly maintaining that, 
if it appears at all, it is of little or no significance. 
Gray, in his paper on ‘Canine Distemper” (Central 
Veterinary Society, 1905), gave it as his opinion that 
distemper was essentially an eruptive disease, and that 
broncho-pneumonia was entirely a secondary symptom. 
He quoted no less than about fifteen other observers 
who were agreed as to the eruption being present, and 
who pronounced it an “ eruptive disease.” Sewell, how- 
ever (Veterinary Record, 1905), says: ‘I would like to state 
that in my experience, now extending over thirty years, 
it is the exception and not the rule for a canine distemper 
patient to have an eruption on the skin. In cases where 
it does occur it is generally noticed in young puppies.” 
Mayall (Veterinary Record, 1905) added: “In my ex- 
perience, distemper as a primary skin eruption hardly 
has any existence.” M‘Gowan (Veterinary Journal, 1912) 
remarked: “I have only seen the rash three times in 
200 dogs, and it is not, in my mind, of the slightest 
importance in diagnosis, as it occurs so seldom, occurs 
late in the disease, and in a situation where irritation of 
fermenting urine and decubitus cannot be excluded as 
the most potent factors inits production.” Ferry records 
only eight cases showing skin lesions out of sixty-eight 
animals suffering with distemper; and my own clinical 
observations (extending now over thirteen years and 
entailing the handling of probably some hundreds of dis- 
temper cases) are in entire agreement with the last- 
