76 
ON THE DISTEMPER OF DOGS. 
specifics, it is a sadly fatal disease, and destroys full one*third 
of the canine race. 
Dogs of all ages are subject to its attack. Many, nine and 
ten years old, have died of pure distemper; and 1 have seen 
puppies of only three weeks fall victims to it: but it oftenest ap¬ 
pears between the sixth and twelfth month of the animal’s life. 
If it occurs at an early period, it, in the great majority of cases, 
proves fatal; and if the dog be more than four years old, it gene¬ 
rally goes hard with him. It is undeniably and highly conta¬ 
gious, yet it is frequently generated. In this it bears an analogy 
to mange, farcy, and glanders in the horse. One attack of the 
disease, and even a severe one, is no absolute security against 
its return; although the dog that has once laboured under dis¬ 
temper possesses a certain degree of immunity; or, if he be 
attacked a second time, the malady assumes a milder type. 
I have known it, however, occur three times in the same animal, 
and at last destroy him. 
Violent catarrh will often terminate in distemper; and low and 
insufficient feeding will produce it. It frequently follows bad 
mange, and especially if mercury has been used in the cure of 
the eruption. When I see a puppy with mange, and that pecu¬ 
liar disease in which the skin becomes corrugated, and, more 
especially if it be a spaniel, and pot-bellied or ricketty, I gene¬ 
rally say that I can cure the mange, but that the dog will soon 
afterwards die of distemper: and so it happens in three cases 
out of four. Whatever debilitates the constitution predisposes 
for the reception or the generation of distemper. It, however, fre¬ 
quently occurs without any apparent exciting cause. 
That it is highly contagious cannot admit of doubt. A healthy 
dog can seldom for many days be kept with another that labours 
under distemper without becoming affected ; and I have seen it 
communicated by the slightest momentary contact. Yet there is 
a great deal of caprice about this; and I have more than once 
kept a dog in the foul ward of my hospital for several successive 
weeks, and he has not become infected. Inoculation with the 
matter which flows from the nose, either limpid or purulent, and 
in an early or advanced stage of the distemper, will, with few ex¬ 
ceptions, produce the disease; yet I have failed in attempting to 
communicate it even by this method. Inoculation used to be 
recommended as producing a milder and less fatal disease : so 
far as my experience goes, the contrary has been the result. 
While it is thus generated and contagious, distemper is likewise 
epidemic. It occurs more frequently in the spring and autumn 
than in the winter, and, without comparison, more frequently 
than in the summer. If one or two dogs in a certain district 
