154 CANINE DISTEMPER 
When a layman sees a dog in the street or elsewhere 
writhing in a fit or rushing about with a foaming mouth, 
quite oblivious to all its surroundings or the presence of 
its master, and, maybe, biting at any object in its path, 
he might perhaps be excused for concluding the dog is 
mad; but if the dog has had a fit, this fact alone dis- 
proves the presence of rabies, as no epilepsy is ever 
observed in that disease. 
In dumb rabies we notice a deep depression and 
paralysis of the lower jaw, followed by death in three or 
four days ; in the furious type there is great nervousness 
and restlessness, snapping of the jaws, and desire to eat 
‘hard foreign bodies (depraved appetite) or gnaw chair 
legs (and human legs if permitted) or other objects. 
This deliberate aggressive behaviour of rabid animals is, 
however, absent in distemper; and in rabies there is 
also a complete absence of any of the various typical 
symptoms which usually appear in the former malady. 
Rabies is invariably fatal, death ensuing—after a period 
of general paralysis—in from three to seven days from 
the onset of symptoms. 
Mange.—When the cutaneous lesions of distemper 
have become extensive and coalesced, they may present 
an appearance somewhat resembling that of scabies. 
Nevertheless, the irritation set up by parasitic mange 
is decidedly more intense than any produced by the 
pustular eruption of distemper, nor does mange affect 
the abdomen and insides of the thighs,-except in the 
rarest instances. 
Further, scabies tends to spread gradually and become 
worse, thus differing from the exanthema of distemper, 
which, if it spreads at all, does so rapidly, and usually 
runs its course in about a week, then disappears. - In folli- 
cular mange we do not find such intense pruritus, but the 
skin here becomes greatly thickened and corrugated, and 
