INTESTINAL HELMINTHIASIS. 



271 



Symptoms. At its initial period, the duration of which is very 

 variable, as it depends upon the resisting power of the subjects and 

 the conditions in which they are kept, pernicious anemia is only 

 marked by two symptoms which are common to a great many affec- 

 tions : by weakness and emaciation, which become gradually more 

 marked, notwithstanding the preservation of the appetite. The 

 dogs are depressed and have lost speed, are less active, and less 

 ardent during the hunt. The hair is brittle, the body is covered 

 with squames (scales), it frequently presents redness and erythe- 

 matous spots; the nose is tumefied, split, rugous, excoriated; a 

 muco-purulent or bloody discharge runs out of both nostrils. When 

 the disease is left to itself other symptoms appear, the most strik- 

 ing of which are epistaxis and the obstruction of the limbs. The 

 blood running out of the nostrils is sometimes dark-red, at other 

 times clear, rosy, but always more or less spumous ; the attacks of 

 epistaxis are separated by intervals which may vary from a few 

 days to a few weeks ; the bleeding is often quite abundant ; some 

 dogs lose a decilitre of blood or more at each hemorrhage ; during 

 these intervals the discharge is muco-purulent or bloody. The 

 microscopic examination of the blood drawn from a superficial vein 

 permits us to recognize a great diminution in the number of red 

 globules and a certain degree of leucocytosis ; there are cases where 

 anemia is rapidly produced, and is accompanied by nervous phe- 

 nomena which are manifested by spells. The obstruction of the 

 limbs is œdematous and indolent ; at first it is intermittent, then 

 permanent ; its proportions increase with the progress of the affec- 

 tion. Often the excrements are almost normal ; at other times we 

 see diarrhea. In the last phase of the disease the appetite becomes 

 irregular, capricious, and then disappears ; the subjects, which are 

 much emaciated and anemic, remain constantly in a recumbent 

 position, and complain when compelled to rise or change their posi- 

 tion; the skin, which is partially depilated, is covered with red 

 spots and excoriations, and upon the legs it is at times the seat of 

 a sero-sanguinolent sweating ; we may also observe wounds of an 

 ulcerous aspect or having gangrenous centres. The diarrhea is per- 

 sistent, and it is often followed by dysentery during the last stage. 

 Eeduced, so to speak, to a skeleton, the patients soon die. As a 

 rule, death takes place in coma, more rarely in an attack of con- 

 vulsions. 



The duration of the disease varies from a few months to a year. 



