4 2 4 FEVERS, AND THEIR TREATMENT. 



the blood ; and as this is retarded in common with all other 

 functions, the muscles waste away rapidly, and their contractions 

 are not performed with any strength. The disease is some- 

 times contracted by infection, and at others developed within the 

 body ; just as in the case of fermentation in vegetable substances, 

 there may be a ferment added to a saccharine solution, by which 

 the process is hastened, although if left to itself it will come on in 

 due course. 



The symptoms are very various, but they may be divided into 

 two sets, one of which comprises a set always attending upon 

 distemper ; while the other may or may not be present in any 

 individual attack. The invariable symptoms are : a low insidious 

 fever, with prostration of strength to a remarkable degree, in 

 proportion to the duration and- strength of the attack, and rapid 

 emaciation, so that a thick muscular dog is often made quite 

 thin and lanky in three days. As a part of the fever, there is 

 shivering, attended by quick pulse, hurried respiration, loss of ap- 

 petite, and impaired secretions : but, beyond these, there are no 

 signs which can be called positively invariable ; though the run- 

 ning at the eyes and nose, and the short husky cough, especially 

 after exercise, are very nearly always present. The accidental 

 symptoms depend upon the particular complication which may 

 exist ; for one of the most remarkable features in distemper is 

 that, coupled with the above invariable symptoms, there may be 

 congestion, or inflammation of the head, chest, bowels, or skin. 

 So that in one case the disease may appear to be entirely con- 

 fined to the head, in another to the chest, and in a third to 

 the bowels ; yet all are strictly from the same cause, and re- 

 quire the same general plan of treatment, modified according to 

 the seat of the complication. 



The ordinary course of an attack of distemper is as follows : 



