DISEASES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. J 75 



The timorous can use heavy buckskin gloves, and will doubtless feel safer 

 for it, although after meningitis is positively determined such precautions 

 are needless. Perfect quiet is to be enforced ; the diet should be liquid 

 bland and easily digestible, given often and in smaller quantities if vom- 

 iting is persistent. The bowels should be kept active ; the symp of buck- 

 thorn in tablespoonful doses, is an easy cathartic. 



The convulsions demand an anti-spasmodic remedy, and belladonna is 

 advised; the tincture can be administered in five drop doses every three 

 or four hours as needed. 



When the stage of effusion is reached, the iodide of potassium should be 

 given in three grain doses, four times daily, and a blister be applied to the 

 back of the neck. As the disease progresses the need to support the pow- 

 ers of the system becomes more urgent. 



CSROJVIC Mej^ixgitis. 



Inflammation of the membranes of the brain may take on a sub-acute 

 or chronic form. It is a disease which comes on Insidiously, without 

 characteristic symptoms, and its presence is usually for a long time over- 

 looked, the manifestations being attributed to some other morbid state. 

 To ascertain the cause in many cases is no less difficult than to reach a 

 correct diagnosis; injuries to the head are doubtless largely instrumental 

 in inducing the affection. Chronic meningitis is one of the diseases upon 

 which epilepsy is dependent; it is possible that in some diseases of the 

 kidneys it occasionally takes its origin. 



Certain diseases within the cranial cavity may exist for a considerable 

 period without manifestations clearly indicating the head as the seat of 

 the derangements; even when located the absence of distinctive symp- 

 toms renders it Impossible to distinguish chronic xaeningltls from many 

 other affections of the brain, and a positive diagnosis can rarely be made 

 excepting at the autopsy. 



If a dog's disposition changes; if he gradually grows dull, stupid, and 

 disinclined to exertion ; sleeps more than usual; has occasional convul- 

 sive movements, possibly confined to the mouth; carries his head low; 

 his eyes become vacant in expression, dim in sight or sightless ; his move- 

 ments when on his feet are erratic, and it Is known that sometime in the 

 past he has experienced a severe blow on the head, then the presence of 

 chi-onlc meningitis may with reason be suspected. The symptoms de- 

 scribed are common to a variety of affections of the brain, but when 

 following an Injury the membranes are more often affected than the brain 

 substance. 



