GENERAL DISEASES. 285 



of the house, not to repair it, but to build another on a dif- 

 ferent site. After a considerable time, both the new kennel 

 and the one which remained, and into which the dogs from 

 the old one had been .removed, were again occupied ; and 

 with no bad results, the disease having ceased a few days 

 after the kennel where it first appeared had been vacated. 



" I have purposely refrained from coramentiiTg upon, or 

 drawing any conclusions from these facts ; or attempting to 

 enter upon the question of the etiology of diphtheria: whether 

 we are in all cases to regard it as the result of the reception 

 into the animal body of contagion, living, particulate, and 

 specific — a true ' mycosis^ — or, in many cases, to revert to our 

 knowledge of chemistry and chemical laws for an explanation . 

 of the different phenomena. 



" Circumstances which have occurred, and conditions which 

 have been observed, have been stated in the hope that pos- 

 sibly some inquirer in this particular path of research may 

 find these facts, when collated with others, helpful in shed- 

 ding a light over what at the present, in some of its aspects, 

 is rather obscure." 



In a leading article in the same journal, .on " The Trans- 

 missibility of Diphtheria from Man to the Lower Animals," 

 it is remarked : " We have no strong proof that croup or 

 diphtheria is contagious in animals, except the first-named 

 disease, which is so in poultry. 



" The relations of diphtheria in animals to the same dis- 

 ease in mankind have only been recently definitely established ; 

 while the transmission of the malady from one species to an- 

 other has been satisfactorily demonstrated. There are cer- 

 tainly no proofs that any relationship exists between the mal- 

 ady termed ' distemper ' in the dog and diphtheria, though on 

 occasions they may have prevailed coincidentally in a district. 



"Thus, in 1851 or 1852, a severe outbreak of the latter 

 disease occurred in Tasmania, which swept ofE two or three 

 members in every family ; at the same time, according to the 

 report of the Australian Royal Commission on Diphtheria, 



