DISTEMPER AND CONTAGIOUS CATARRHAL FEVER. 229 



blood, and always accompanied by a painful tenesmus. We may 

 also find the abdomen very painful on pressure, and, as a rule, 

 contracted and tense. 



5. Symptoms of the Nervous System. The animal is very dull, 

 especially its senses. There is a marked apathy and depression, 

 and in some cases deep coma. In a great many cases this con- 

 dition may be accompanied by periods of excitement, nervous- 

 ness, great restlessness, and even true delirium. These periods, 

 however, are not of any great length, as a rule, the animal sooner 

 or later showing signs of marked depression. Motor disturbances, 

 such as twitching of various groups of muscles, mostly the head 

 and extremities, are noticed, and, in some cases, convulsions or 

 true eclamptic attacks. These follow one another at long inter- 

 vals, or keep the animal irritated for days. Clonic convulsions of 

 the maxillary muscles are very frequently seen. They consist of 

 a rapid and regular twitching of the muscles of the lower jaw,, 

 sometimes confined only to chattering of the teeth, and occasion- 

 ally sufficiently strong to make a foam of the saliva. Beside this, 

 we may see symptoms of motor paralysis. The patients are 

 unsteady and irregular in their actions. In some instances they 

 drag their legs, or occasionally their posterior extremities lose 

 their power, and the animal is unable to stand ; in rare instances, 

 due to paralysis of the sympathetic, the bladder and the lower 

 bowel lose their nervous control, and urine and feces are evacuated 

 involuntarily. 



The anatomical alterations produced by this disease of the ner- 

 vous system, which are shown in the section of the brain, are 

 sometimes very slight, and it is rather remarkable lo find such, 

 acute nervous symptoms with so little pathological alterations. 

 The microscopical examination showed little change, or what alter- 

 ations you might expect from many of the infectious diseases of 

 other animals. We must, therefore, admit that the microbes of 

 distemper are not as yet well known. Like all other pathogenic 

 micro-organisms, they produce " ptomaines." It has been proven 

 that the severity of the nervous symptoms depends to a certain 

 extent upon the natural disj)osition of the animals, and also on 

 their bodily health. When they take the disease, as weak, anae- 

 mic, poorly-fed animals, they are very apt to be severely attacked 

 with a nervous form of the disease. Occasional symptoms appear 



