56 THE DISEASES OF THE DOG. 



quinine in a little dry sherry as a tonic for small dogs, or 

 liquor arsenioalis five drops twice a day. It is remarkable 

 to what an extent the animal may be reduced before 

 death occurs and with recovery still possible. No disease 

 of the dog requires more sustained and careful treatment 

 and nursing than distemper, and in none is more fully 

 exemplified the maxim that " while there is life there is 

 hope." The vegetable tonics should be persisted in 

 throughout the attack. Once the animal takes a turn 

 for the better he will be found to improve very rapiply. 



Diphtheeia of the dog and the horse have been dealt 

 with by Principal Kobertson, then of Kelso, in the ' Veter- 

 inary Journal ' for 1875, p. 82. He found it extremely 

 fatal, only three or four recoveries having occurred in 

 between twenty and thirty seizures. The outbreak was 

 in a kennel of high-bred greyhounds ; it first appeared 

 among the puppies, and nearly all of them died before 

 any of the older dogs were affected. The kennel-man 

 thought the disease was distemper. The average duration 

 of cases was a little over two days, but it always, when 

 fatal, proved so before the fourth. The structural alter- 

 ations were confined to the fauces and air-passages ante- 

 rior to the glottis ; the glands of the throat and neck, 

 however, were swollen, and the urine was opaque, increased 

 in density, and charged with albumen. The disorder 

 was observed in three types : in the first there was high 

 fever from the outset, acute local inflammation, the mucous 

 membrane of the fauces being dark red, tense, glistening, 

 and smooth (apparently in consequence of infiltration of 

 its submucous tissue). All the gland structures of the 

 mouth and throat were more or less swollen or tender, so 

 that deglutition was almost impossible. Emesis and 

 diarrhoea were sometimes present. These symptoms were 

 succeeded by a second stage, in which there was marked 

 depression. The characteristic grey exudation appeared 

 only when the animal survived over twenty-four hours • 

 it was arranged in stripes or spots, always adherent, 

 glossy, tenacious, soft, and devoid of structure, varying 

 in thickness in different situations. Type number two 



