282 THE MANAGEMENT AND DISEASES OF THE DOG. 



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 occurs amongst animals, which is rather puzzling to 

 those engaged in their management, poison administered 

 maliciously, or obtained accidentally, was credited with the 

 mortality. An analysis, however, of the viscera of two animals 

 negatived this idea. The average duration of the disease in 

 those fatal cases was a little over two days ; many died earlier, 

 and none survived beyond the fourth day. 



" With the exception of the. glands of the throat and 

 cervical region, the structural alterations observable in all 

 cases may be said to have been confined to the fauces and 

 the air passages anterior to the glottis. The urine, in all the 

 instances where this secretion was examined, was opaque, in- 

 creased in density, and charged with albumen. 



" In some cases, from the outset, the fever was high, the 

 local inflammatory action markedly acute, the mucous mem- 

 brane over the fauces, tonsils and palate became of a dark- 

 red color, tense, smooth, and glistening in appearance, ap- 

 parently from distension from infiltration of the submucous 

 tissue. In these also the whole gland-structures of the mouth 

 and throat were more or less swollen and tender, with degluti- 

 tion from the first extremely difficult or altogether impossible. 

 The earliest stages were marked by exaltation of temperature, 

 accelerated pulse and respirations, together with slight rest- 

 lessness, if not actually giving evidence of pain ; veryshortly, 

 however, these signs of increased functional activity disap- 

 peared, there was marked depression, listlessness, and want 

 of muscular energy ; emesis and diarrhoea might also be 

 present. 



" The majority of the cases were of this type, and they 

 were also those which succumbed the quickest, death in them 

 seeming to result as much from the extension of the local 

 diseased action into the larynx as from the virulence of the 

 septiksemia. 



