ON THE DISTEMPER OF DOGS. 
77 
be affected, we may be perfectly assured that it will soon ex¬ 
tensively prevail there; and, where the disease could not possi ¬ 
bly be communicated by contagion. Sometimes it is, properly 
speaking, epidemic. It rages all over the country. At other 
times it is endemic. It is confined to some particular district. 
Not only is the disease epidemic, or endemic, but the form 
which it assumes is so. In one season, almost every dog with 
distemper has violent fits; at another time, in the majority of 
cases, there will be considerable chest affection, running on to 
pneumonia; a few months afterwards, a great proportion of them 
will be worn down by diarrhoea, which no medicine will arrest ; 
and, presently, it will be scarcely distinguishable from mild 
catarrh. 
It varies much with different breeds. The shepherd's dog, 
generally speaking, cares little about it: he is scarcely ill a day. 
The cur is not often seriously affected. The terrier has it more 
severely, especially the white terrier. The hound comes next in 
the order of severity; and next, the setter. With the small 
spaniel it is more dangerous; more so with the pointer, especially 
if he have the disease early; still more with the greyhound ; next 
with the pug; and it is most fatal of all with the Newfoundland. 
Should a foreign dog be affected, he almost certainly dies. The 
greater part of the northern dogs brought by Captain Parry did 
not survive a twelvemonth; and the delicate Italian greyhound 
has little chance. 
Not only does it thus differ in different species of dogs, but in 
differents breeds of the same species. I have known several 
gentlemen who have laboured in vain for many a year to rear 
particular and valuable breeds of pointers and greyhounds. The 
distemper would uniformly carry off five out of six. Other 
spoilsmen laugh at the supposed danger of distemper, and declare 
that they seldom lose a dog. This hereditary predisposition to 
certain diseases cannot be denied, and is not sufficiently attended 
to. When a peculiar fatality has attended a certain breed, I have 
advised the owner to cross it from the kennel of one of these gen¬ 
tlemen who boasted of his success in the treatment of distemper. 
This has generally succeeded far beyond expectation. 
It is time, however, to proceed to the symptoms of this disease ; 
but here I feel very great difficulty, for it is, what I have called 
it, a truly protean disease; and it is impossible to fix on any 
symptom which shall invariably characterise it. 
I would take as an early and frequent symptom a very gradual 
loss of appetite, spirits, and condition. The eyes will appear 
weak and watery; and there will be a very slight limpid discharge 
trom the nose. In the morning there will probably be a little 
indurated mucus at the inner corner of the eye. This, perhaps, 
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