ON THE CANINE DISTEMPER OF BENGAL. 
*279 
of four grs. Purgative enemas are also attended with good effects, 
although this is rarely requisite, for the distemper of Bengal is 
more frequently accompanied by diarrhoea. 1 have seen the com- 
plaint come on in a very distressing state soon after the breeding 
season, which commonly lasts from the month of November to 
March, a period when the atmosphere is very humid and cold. 
Dogs, by going about the yard at night, contract the distemper in 
very severe form, and very often enteritis of an acute and fatal 
nature. It is therefore advisable to keep these animals in 
a warm room, allowing straw or coarse blankets. In the hottest 
months, when distemper of the putrid kind proves most fatal to 
dogs, a cool place is necessary ; but Mr. Blaine is right when he 
advises their being kept warm in every stage but the putrid. In 
animals of the canine race there is such a high degree of momen- 
tum in the circulation, that it is not easy to ascertain whether 
they labour under any organic inflammatory disease : none but 
experienced veterinarians are able to tell by the pulse the precise 
state of the system, so far as inflammation and strength are con- 
cerned. Now we are always at a loss, for want of symptoms, 
to form a proper diagnosis. A discharge from the nose very 
frequently attends the canine distemper of Bengal. In the very 
worst cases this symptom is present : whether it is an effort of 
nature to relieve herself, or whether it depends upon some 
morbid action, my experience does not enable me to decide. 
A spongy dryness of the nose is looked upon as a bad prognostic; 
it warns us that inflammation is gathering somewhere. In ente- 
ritis and cholic it is present: a moderate moisture on the nose is 
nothing more than the mucus natural to the parts, and is in my 
opinion, a healthy symptom. 
Whatever the distemper may be in England, in this country 
it seems to arise from other causes as well as contagion, chiefly 
when the subject is weak or badly fed. I am of opinion, with 
regard to distemper, as Dr. Moseley is to rabies in the West 
Indies. [ think it may come on, like the latter disease, from the 
operations of heat and moisture in the atmosphere*. Jackals 
belong to the canine genus, and I have frequently shot in the 
same season two or three, which seemed to suffer from distemper 
of a chronic nature. Blaine is doubtful about jackals or wolves 
being liable to distemper; but the worthy pathologist had not 
opportunities enough to ascertain facts relating to this matter : 
had he seen half the number of jackals I have, he would think 
them liable to half the diseases in his catalogue. My experience 
enables me to say that foxes also are liable to a number of dis- 
eases in this country, for I have met mangy and emaciated ones 
* Moseley on Tropical Diseases. 
