200 NATURE AND TREATMENT OF DISTEMPER. 
At the commencement of the catarrhal form of distemper, 
little more medicinal treatment is required than a small dose 
of Hydrarg. Chlorid. which answers best when guarded either 
with Pulv. Opii vel Ext. Hyoscyam. Eight or ten hours after 
the pill has been given, the patient may have from 3ij to 3vj 
of Mag. Sulph. dissolved in as much warm milk and water, 
mutton-broth, or whey, selecting that kind of slop food to 
which the dog gives preference. The quantity of the medi- 
cines should be varied according to the size of the animal. 
But in case the appetite should be too much impaired for the 
Mag. Sulph. to be taken in the food, then a dose of Ol. Ricini 
may be given, which will answer the purpose of evacuating 
the bowels. During the febrile stage of distemper the 
patient should be kept upon slop food, which should be 
flavoured with salt. Weak mutton-broth, thickened with 
pearl-barley, milk-porridge thickened with oatmeal, or whey, 
form the suitable kinds of food, and dogs which have been 
previously kept on animal food usually eat them with some 
degree of avidity. But, if the inflammation should progress, 
and the frebile symptoms run high, some fever medicine may 
be given with advantage : Potass. Nitr., Pulv. Lini, to which 
may be added a few drops of Yinum Antimonii sufficient for 
each dose. These medicaments may be formed into a mass, 
divided into pills, and be given once or twice a day, as the 
nature of the case may require. The fever medicine may be 
given for three or four days, by which time, if the case be 
going on well, the inflammation will have nearly subsided, 
when the patient will require little more than kind treatment 
and a well-regulated system of dietary, which should be 
continued for a considerable time, even until all ailment has 
disappeared and the dog has regained his wonted spirits and 
condition. But if, instead of this short and desirable ter- 
mination of the complaint, the inflammatory action should 
continue to increase and extend down the membranous 
lining of the trachea, bronchi, air-cells, or even to the 
parenchymatous substance of the lungs, — • in such case, 
counter-irritants may be applied down the course of the 
trachea and on both sides of the chest. The anodyne tinct. 
of lytta answers tolerably well, and is a compound of lytta, 
opium, and antim. tart, in spirit above-proof. At the same 
time, the fever medicine should be persevered in until a 
muco-purulent discharge issues from the nostrils, which is 
indicative of the termination of the inflammatory action in 
the membrane lining the air-passage. In this stage of the 
malady, vegetable tonics, in combination with potass, nitr. et 
camphora become admissible, and may be given in small doses 
