634 
REVIEW. 
knowledge of the dog will tell you distemper is a disorder peculiar to the 
young : whereas I know of no age that is exempt from its attack. I have 
known dogs, high-bred favorites, to be left with men selected because of 
their supposed familiarity with dog-diseases ; and these very men have 
brought to me the animals in the fits which are the wind-up of distemper, 
yet notwithstanding have been ignorant that their charges had any disease 
whatever. All the stages and symptoms of ordinary distemper may appear 
and depart unnoticed ; but it is widely different with yellow distemper, for 
when the yellowness appears, it is so marked that no description of a 
peculiar symptom need be inserted, since it cannot be overlooked or mis- 
taken. It is attended with excessive debility, and, unless properly com- 
bated, is rapidly fatal. 
“ The brain, both Blaine and Youatt speak of as subject to inflammation 
during the latter stage of distemper. As diseases are peculiarly liable to 
change, and the appearances assumed at different times are by no means 
uniform, I may not say those estimable writers never beheld it in such a 
state ; but I am certain 1 have never seen it in a similar condition ; I have 
found it congested, but far oftener have I discovered it perfectly healthy. 
One of its coverings (the dura mater) has exhibited a few spots of con- 
gestion, but these have been small, each not larger than the head of a 
moderate sized pin, and in number about ten or twelve ; generally they are 
situated towards the anterior of the cranium (on either side or falx), and 
near to the crista galli.” 
Concerning treatment, our author takes far simpler views, 
and, in our opinion, such as hold out better prospects of success 
than the remedies commonly recommended for the cure of 
this versatile and fatal disease. 
“ Medicinal measures are not to be so quickly settled. A constant change 
of the agents employed will be imperative, and the practitioner must be pre- 
pared to meet every symptom as it appears. The treatment is almost wholly 
regulated by the symptoms, and as the last are various, of course the mode 
of vanquishing them cannot be uniform. To guide us, however, there is the 
well-known fact, the disease we have to subdue is of a febrile kind, and has 
a decided tendency to assume a typhoid character ; therefore, whatever is 
done must be of a description not likely to exhaust, — depletion is altogether 
out of the question. The object we have to keep in view is the support of 
nature, and the husbanding of those powers which the malady is certain to 
prey upon : in proportion as this is done, so will be the issue. In the very 
early stage, purgatives or emetics are admissible. If a dog is brought to 
me with reddened eyes, but no discharge, and the owner does no more with 
regard to the animal than complain of dulness, a want of appetite, and a 
desire to creep to the warmth, then 1 give a mild emetic such as is directed, 
page 32 ; and this I repeat for three successive mornings ; on the fourth 
day administering a gentle purge, as ordered, page 30. The tartar emetic 
solution and purgative pills 1 employ for these purposes, in preference to 
castor oil or ipecacuanha ; and during the same time I prescribe the following 
pills : — 
Ext. belladonna .... Six to twenty-four grains. 
Nitre One to four scruples. 
Extract of gentian . . . One to four drachms. 
Powdered quassia .... A sufficiency. 
" Make into twenty-four pills, and give three daily ; choosing the lowest 
