DI8TEMPBB. 58 



larly with flesh), and too little exercise " — also " oftentimes it is 

 undoubtedly self -generating." Moore, M.R.C.V.S. (HomoeopatUst), 

 says, " undoubtedly contagious. . . The most frequently exciting 

 causes are exposm-e to damp and cold, and whatever produces debility 

 of the system, such as rickets, mange, catarrh, etc." I might quote 

 many other writers to the same effect. Let us consider seriatim the 

 causes to which distemper has been attributed. 



Self-generation or Spontaneotis Origin. — The idea of the spontaneous 

 origin of disease is dead to the scientific mind — it was never more 

 than a euphemism of Dr. Johnson's blunt expression " ignorance ; 

 sheer ignorance, sir," for it comes natural to man to let himself down 

 easy when he does not sit sure. Out of nothing, nothing oomes, is a 

 traism, and when we speak of spontaneous origin, whether of a plant 

 or a disease, we really mean that so far the cause is undiscovered by 

 us. The number of diseases under that category are rapidly becom- 

 ing fewer, and will ultimately disappear before the advancing light 

 of Science ; and most fortunately so, for when the cause of disease 

 is known, its prevention is much easier than its cure when established. 



Contagion. — This is the sole cause of distemper. But it is necessary 

 that we should have a clear idea of what we mean by contagion. I 

 am not sure that the most wide-spread notion of contagion is not 

 expressed ia the two words " bad smells," some going a step farther 

 and holding a general opinion that bad smells create, or are associated 

 with, contagion. But this is not so ; the dirty, ill-drained, ill-venti- 

 lated kennel tends to lower the vitality of its inmates, and, as a 

 consequence, their power of resisting any disease by which they may 

 be attacked, and at the same time it affords good harbourage for the 

 preservation of the germs of various diseases. So in respect to cold 

 and damp ; exposure to these produce evil results, but not the specific 

 disease we call distemper. 



Again, teething although causing some amount of fever and 

 derangement of functional organs, has no other connection with 

 distemper than the accident of their frequent and simultaneous 

 presence; and the same remark applies to the assumption of in- 

 testinal worms as a cause. We have to realise that contagion is 

 something actually in being, though outside the ken of our unaided 

 senses, and not a mere figure of speech representing the unknown. 

 To our aid has come the science of bacteriology, and to its fore- 

 most students, M. Pasteur and Dr. Koch, with their increasing 

 number of followers, we are indebted for the knowledge that such 

 diseases as rabies, anthrax, diphtheria, distemper, ete., are each due 

 to the presence of a distinct bacterium, or microbe ; and by contagion 

 we mean the transmission of these from a diseased to a healthy body, 

 whether direct or by means of an intermediary. I do not know 



