GENERAL DISEASES. 



293 



numerous methods of treatment produce mischief, and result 

 in death. 



Distemper may be described as a catarrhal fever, gen- 

 erally affecting the mucous membranes of the head, air- 

 passages, and alimentary tract, in which the nervous system 

 frequently becomes involved — -hence distemper fits, and local 

 or general paralysis. It is a highly coritagious disease, 

 though oftentimes it' is undoubtedly self-generated. Age is 

 no preventive ; at any period of life dogs are liable to become 

 infected. But Mr. Fleming correctly observes, " It is more 

 particularly a disease of youth, and is much more frequent 

 and fatal among highly-bred, pampered animals, than those 

 which live in a less artificial manner, and whose constitution 

 is less modified by breeding and rearing."* Neither does one 

 attack render a dog secure from a second ; but in the latter 

 it is contracted, I believe, invariably by contagion alone. 



Distemper is not, as many persons suppose, a necessary 

 disease, as numbers of dogs pass through life without ever 

 becoming the subject of it. The fact of the malady being 

 unknown in this country prior to the seventeenth century (?) 

 strongly supports this view ; as dogs then were probably as 

 numerous as now, though not perhaps so mixed in breed. 



In all cases it is ushered in with catarrhal symptoms, and 

 these, as the malady proceeds, may become complicated with 

 pneumonia, jaundice, enteric disease, epilepsy, chorea, or 

 paralysis : though the two latter are, as a rule, sequels, I 

 have occasionally seen them exist in conjunction with dis- 

 temper. 



Causes.— These may be enumerated under the following 

 heads : — Contagion, badly-drained and ill-ventilated kennels 

 (which in young dogs are especially fruitful causes of dis- 

 temper), exposure to damp and cold, insufficient feeding, and 

 poor food, over-feeding (particularly with flesh), and too 



little exercise. 



Worms have been mentioned by some authors as another 



* " Veterinary Sanitary Science and Police," vol. ii. p. 290. 



