General Diseases. 299 
he sat up himself nightly with his favourite, and performed 
personally all the offices necessary: giving another 
example of the value of good nursing in disease, 
DIPHTHERIA. 
Among the laryngeal diseases affecting the dog diph- 
theria (so-called) finds a place. As I have not seen any 
throat malady that could be correctly termed such, myself, 
I transcribe from the Veterinary Jourual for August, 
1875, some interesting cases recorded by Mr. W. Robertson, 
M.R.C.V.S., Kelso ; subsequently Principal of the Royal 
Veterinary College. 
' “In the outbreak of diphtheria amongst the dogs, a 
certain amount of variation or modification, as respects the 
phenomena exhibited during the course of the develop- 
ment of the disease, was observed in several of the indivi- 
duals. 
“The dogs amongst which this outbreak occurred formed: 
part of a kennel of high-bred greyhounds. The kennel was. 
in two divisions; the exercise-yard of the one division 
running to within two yards of the door of the dormitory 
of the other, which had originally been a stable, and where 
all the cases of the disease occurred. The inmates of this 
kennel were a mixed lot as regarded age; one half were 
puppies about twelve months old, the other half consisted 
in greater part of dogs between eighteen and twenty-four 
months, with a few aged animals. There had been no 
importation of animals for some time, and no illness, not 
even distemper, amongst the residents. The disease first 
made its appearance amongst the puppies, and nearly the 
whole, if not the whole, of these were dead before any of 
the others were seized. Many of the puppies had died 
before alarm was taken, the kennel-man imagining that 
they were suffering from distemper ; at last suspicion was 
aroused, and, as usual when any considerable mortality 
20 
