THE DISTEMPER. 
621 
instances where dogs have had the distemper after vaccina¬ 
tion, it has been very mild. 
The manner in which this operation is performed on a 
dog, is to make a puncture or scratch inside of the fore-leg, 
within the shoulder pit : the abrasion is then rubbed with a 
small quill with the virus . A better method, however, is to 
puncture with a lancet, charged with the virus, the inside of 
the ear. The virus acts with more certainty on the sensible 
skin devoid of hair, and the animal cannot remove it by licking 
with the tongue. 
Although the distemper is a disease which, for the most 
part, attacks puppies from four to twelve months old, yet it 
is said there are instances where old dogs have been affected 
by it, which had not the disease when young. Without en¬ 
tering into a more lengthened detail of this disorder, I shall 
only notice the prevailing symptoms, and mode of treatment. 
Symptoms. —There are some symptoms in the distemper 
which predominate, although the general ones are not inva¬ 
riably the same. In the first stages of the disease, the dog 
has a hard, dry cough, a want of nervous energy, depression 
of spirits, a swelling of the glands of the throat, and almost 
total loss of appetite ; after which he is seized with a run¬ 
ning at the nose and eyes, when emaciation and great weak¬ 
ness ensue, more especially in the hinder extremities. These 
symptoms are universally followed by convulsive twitchings 
of the head, and sometimes in other parts of the body, indi¬ 
cating considerable irritation in the brain and spinal marrow. 
The bowels are violently affected, either by being costive or 
extremely loose; and in either case the dog suffers great 
pain. When these acute symptoms continue, they are soon 
followed by "ertigo, or giddiness, which produces dimness of 
the sight; m which case the dog runs round, foams at the 
mouth, and makes a piteous moaning or howling. In truth, 
inflammation and effusion take place in the brain, producing 
