694 
ON THE DISEASES OF DOGS. 
flammation of the respiratory organs, and that its principal seat is 
in the lymphatic system. Desmars, who had published a letter on 
the mortality among dogs in the neighbourhood of Boulogne-sur- 
Mer, imagined that this disease was induced by the cold dry wea- 
ther that prevailed in the autumn and winter of 1762 and the 
spring of 1763, which prevented the animal from purging off the 
excrementitial matter. 
In 1763-4 it prevailed throughout Paris and its environs ; and 
in 1.769-70 committed great ravages among the dogs belonging to 
the king’s kennel, to the chief noblemen, and those in the principal 
cities, and especially Lyons and Paris. Duhamel observed it in 
1763-4-5, and attributed it to a humour, which fermented in the 
blood, and corrupted it. Barriere, who published an essay on the 
diseases of dogs, observed, that in his district (Chartres) a great 
number of these animals died of it during the years 1762-3-4. 
He regards it as humoral. “ The biliary duct,” says he, “ appears 
to contain the cause of all this disorder.” It is very much enlarged, 
the bile is often concrete, and a superabundance of bile and its 
accidental qualities is doubtless the primary cause of this affection. 
It is, probably, the authority of this author, and the conclusions 
which he draws from several post-mortem examinations, that has 
caused this affection to be classed under the head of fevers, and to 
be considered as a serious bilious fever, often complicated with 
ataxy. 
Many authors, on the other hand, have considered it to be a species 
of gourme, a cleansing depuratory process, or the result of a salu- 
tary action or crisis, whereby nature is relieved ; they have 
therefore compared it to the gourme in solipedes, and the small- 
pox in the human being. So far has this opinion prevailed that 
even inoculation has been had recourse to in order to render the 
disease milder ; and some medical men, among whom is Sacco, 
have gone so far as to assert, that inoculation with the vaccine 
matter will effectually prevent the development of this disease. 
They support their opinion by the fact, that it is chiefly young 
dogs that suffer — that those who have once had it are rarely at- 
tacked a second time, and those which have not had it are always 
liable to contract it, from its being so contagious. Some authors 
have compared it to the croup in children, but, without specifying 
wherein the resemblance between the two diseases consists. 
Arquinet observed this disease in dogs at Pezenas, in July 1786, 
and complains of the dreadful ravages that had existed among 
dogs in that neighbourhood for upwards of twenty years. Chabert 
gives an account of its prevalence at Paris, and round its environs, 
during the years 1799 and 1800. In Lyons and its environs it is 
usually to be met with, but during the years 1818 and 1819 it was 
