136 - CANINE DISTEMPER 
It is a much more favourable sign to see resolution 
effected gradually rather than suddenly, for frequently 
when a spontaneous cessation of pulmonary, intestinal, 
or other symptoms is observed, such apparent rapid 
improvement may unhappily be followed by the onset of 
the graver nervous phenomena, indicating a transference 
of the disease by metastasis to the brain. 
Change in the weather exerts an undoubted influence ~ 
on animals affected with distemper, for not infrequently 
what had promised to be a favourable case will become 
‘an acute one at the onset of adverse climatic conditions ; 
therefore patients must as far as possible be kept in an 
equable temperature, and protected against all such 
atmospheric changes. 
_ The presence or absence of marked emaciation is a 
very important factor in connection with the prognosis, 
for where an animal is greatly emaciated, little or no 
hope can be held out of its recovery. Profuse and 
persistent purgation will rapidly produce such a condi- 
tion, and for this reason must be regarded with great 
apprehension. On the other hand, let the diarrhoea 
be ever so violent, if the animal’s bodily condition can 
be sustained, one may feel tolerably confident of the 
possibility of recovery. Other severe symptoms may 
even abate, yet if the loss of flesh be unremitting, the 
termination will be invariably fatal. 
The onset of jaundice portends great evil, and dimin- 
ishes the prospects of recovery to practically nil. The 
dog falls away more in twenty-four hours than would 
have been thought possible; his bowels are obstinately 
constipated; he will neither eat nor move, and in two or 
three days he is dead. 
Caries of the ethmoid or turbinate bones, as evidenced 
by a foul-smelling sanious and darkened nasal secretion; 
a singular foetid odour emanating from the dog ; the fecal 
