Distemper in Dogs and Cats 205 



ulcers; red, hot, buccal mucoso, costiveness, felid diarrhoea, teuefmus, 

 weakness, emaciation ; skin eruption, on delicate areas, papules, vesicles 

 with colored contents, pustules, sticky, greasy exudate ; irritability, rest- 

 lessness, taciturnity, depraved appetite, spasms, delirium, paresis, epilepsy, 

 chorea. Lesions : inflammation, degeneration, ulceration on air passages, 

 alimentary tract, lymph glands, kidneys, liver, cerebral and spinal men- 

 inges, leucocytic infiltration : offensive odor. Lignieres' views of microbes. 

 Prevention : quarantine new dogs for 14 days, wash, disinfect all colors, etc. , 

 avoid shows and meetings, exclude street dogs, protect against mice, rats, 

 birds, shut up all dogs during an epizootic ; separate a pack into small lots ; 

 seclude the sick and all belonging to them. Immunization : by lung exu- 

 date, by weakened cultures. Treatment : hygienic, dietetic, warm bath."!, 

 antipyretics, antiferments, calomel, phenic acid, eliminants, expertorants, 

 collyria, emetic, demulcents, bismuth, etc., pepsin, quinine, nerve sedatives, 

 tonics. 



Definition. A contagious, febrile affection attacking dogs 

 (and by inoculation cats), and tending to local inflammatory and 

 degenerative lesions in the mucosae, lungs, bowels, liver, skin, 

 kidneys, and nervous system, — a first attack usually immunizing 

 against a second. 



Synonyms. Contagious catarrhal fever : Dog ill ;- Bronchial 

 Catarrh : Intestinal Catarrh ; Fr. Maladie des Chiens, Maladie 

 du jeune age, Typhoide, Typhus des chenils, Variole du chien ; 

 Gcr. Staupe ; It. Cimurro, 



Animals susceptible. Dogs, especially puppies and young dogs, 

 and other members of the canine race, fox, jackal, hyena, wolf. 

 Cats suffer from inoculation (Laosson), also apes (Cadeac). Old 

 cats and dogs are often immune, also all animals that have passed 

 through one attack of the disease. 



History. The older English veterinarians quote the epizootics 

 in dogs described by Virgil, Aristotle and even Homer as proba- 

 bly distemper. Laosson attributes to it a canine epizootic which 

 prevailed in Bohemia in 1028. It appears to have been unknown 

 in Europe in the earlier third of the i8th century though prevail- 

 ing in Peru. According to Ulloa, it was introduced from Peru 

 into Spain in 1735, whence, it spread into France (1740), Ger- 

 many (1748), Ionian Isles, Greece (1759), England (1760), 

 Italy (1764) and Russia (1770), Sweden and Norway (1815), 

 Siberia (1821). Since that time it has prevailed in Europe and 

 many dependencies of European nations. 



