326 
REVIEW. 
quid , some strange element of inflammation pre-existent, either 
in the shape of diathesis, or as some material substance, the pro- 
duct of modified nutrition, which to the local inflammation of 
distemper, rhinitis, pharyngitis, &c., is what the principle of rot 
is to cutiiis, through which it becomes transferrible ; that of 
glanders to rhinitis and local angeioleucitis ; and that of boil or 
carbuncle to local inflammations of the cellular tissue ; by each 
of which the general disease manifests its presence 1 
For our own part, we confess to a predilection for this last 
notion, albeit it be that of ancient medicine, over that of the 
Broussaien doctrine, which, in our opinion, is too confined, too 
insufficiently comprehensive. 
To us the distemper appears, to express ourselves in the 
language of the old school, a sort of crisis, consequent on the 
modifications brought about in the economy, through altered 
influences, arising from changes of place and regimen, to which 
the young animal is subjected; the providential design whereof, 
if one may so speak, would seem to be, to rid the circulatory 
mass of molecules, either modified or in excess, which nutrition, 
itself under modification, has produced in it. This is, doubtless, 
a vague hypothesis; but let us see whether it cannot be sup- 
ported by a sufficient number of proofs. 
And, first and foremost, clinical facts shew daily that dis- 
temper is something else besides an inflammation of the primary 
passages, respiratory or digestive, and owns other causes than 
mere direct or sympathetic irritation of the membrane lining 
them. Have we not seen, do we not daily see, distemper mani- 
festing itself at one time through eruption of the skin, large hu- 
mid tetters arising from the union of little agglomerate pustules, 
whose elected site upon the ample surface of the skin is very 
variable ; at another time, through an erysipelatous inflamma- 
tion over the vast extent of the skin, accompanied by the for- 
mation as well upon its surface as within its substance, and in 
the meshes of the subjacent cellular tissue, of a multitude of 
little abscesses, whose agglomeration and succession simulate 
enough to deceive one into a farcy eruption] 
At other times, the diathesis of distemper manifests itself in 
the formation of vast purulent collections in regions of the body 
abounding in cellular tissue, as is the case in the throat and the 
groin ; or else the mesenteric glands become the seats of such 
purulent accumulations, multiplied and at times considerable. 
Lastly, as an additional proof that the distemper does not 
simply consist in an inflammation of the air-passages, it often 
happens that, at the same time inflammation is pervading these 
regions, well-formed abscesses make their appearance in various 
parts of the body, through which the diathesis present in the 
