COURSE, PROGNOSIS AND MORTALITY 139 
lethal attacks, as also do Alsatian wolfhounds, borzois, 
greyhounds, and Japanese spaniels. 
Other influences adversely affecting mortality are 
changeable weather, the frequently virulent type of 
infection prevailing, and habitual improper feeding— 
such as a diet of bread, vegetable, and biscuit. 
Blaine correctly observed: ‘‘ Wherever man has inter- 
fered in forcing an artificial breed, and in maintaining 
and perfecting a degree of forced excellence, there the 
disease is almost always severe.... Some breeds 
possess an hereditary tendency to have it worse than 
others of the same kind ; litter after litter of some sport- 
ing strains will hardly yield more than one or two sur- 
vivors. In such a case I would advise the breeder to 
cross the race, or to altogether try a new one.” 
Where death is the termination to an attack, the direct 
cause may be attributed to cerebral paralysis, cedema of 
the lungs, pyzemia, septiczemia, or exhaustion. 
