78 
ON THE DISTEMPER OF DOGS. 
will continue two or three weeks without any serious or scarcely 
recognizable illness. Then a peculiar husking will be heard, 
altogether different from the sonorous cough of catarrh, or the 
wheezing of asthma. It will be an apparent attempt to get some¬ 
thing from the fauces or throat. By degrees the discharge from 
the eyes and nose, and particularly the former, will increase. 
More mucus will collect in the corners of the eyes, and the eye 
will sometimes be closed in the morning. The conjunctiva, par¬ 
ticularly that portion which covers the sclerotica, will be consi¬ 
derably injected; but it will not be the usual intense red of inflam¬ 
mation. The vessels will be large and turgid rather than nume¬ 
rous, and of a darkish hue. 
Occasionally,however, the inflammation of the conjunctiva is 
exceedingly intense, and the membrane is vividly red, and the 
eye impatient of light. An opacity spreads over the cornea, and 
this is quickly succeeded by ulceration. The first spot of ulcera¬ 
tion is generally found precisely in the centre of the cornea, and 
is perfectly circular: this will distinguish it from a scratch or 
other inj ury. The ulcer widens and deepens, and sometimes eats 
through the cornea, and the aqueous humour escapes. Fungous 
granulations spring from it, and protrude through the lids; and 
the animal evidently suffers extreme torture. A remarkable pe¬ 
culiarity attends this affection of the eye. However violent may 
be the inflammation, and whatever disorganization it may pro¬ 
duce, if we can cure the distemper, the granulations will disap¬ 
pear, the ulcer will heal, the opacity will clear away, and the eye 
will not eventually suffer in the slightest degree. One-fourth 
part of the mischief in other cases, and unconnected with dis¬ 
temper, would inevitably terminate in blindness; but permanent 
blindness is rarely or never the consequence of distemper. 
It may not be improper here to glance at the different appear¬ 
ance of the eye in rabies. In the early stage of rabies there is an 
unnatural and often terrific brightness of the eye. The cornea 
in distemper is from the first rather clouded. In rabies there is 
frequent strabismus, with the axes distorted outward. The appa¬ 
rent squinting of the eye in distemper is caused by the protrusion, 
probably unequal protrusion, of the membrana nictitans over a 
portion of the eye at the inner can thus, to protect it from the 
li^ht Finally, in rabies there is not the white cloudiness which 
I have described, and the occasional ulceration with very little 
cloudiness, and the ulceration confined to the cornea; but a dense, 
green opacity comes on, speedily followed by disorganization and 
ulceration of every part of the eye. 
The dog will now be evidently feverish, and he will shiver and 
creep to the fire. He will more evidently and rapidly lose flesh. 
