81 
ON THE DISTEMPER OF DOGS. 
occasionally appear, confined to the lower jaw, or to one fore-leg, 
or to both of them. The life of the animal is not in danger, nor is 
there fear that the disease will return ; but this nervous affection 
is with difficulty removed, and the dog is generally useless for 
every sporting purpose. 
In the greyhound the disease assumes a peculiar form. There 
is no discharge from the eyes or nose; no cough, no fever, no 
convulsion, no purging, but he wastes more or less rapidly away ; 
his eyes have a peculiar sunken appearance ; he lies listless all 
day long; he obstinately refuses his food, and his belly is 
strangely tucked up. This continues three weeks or a month, 
until lie is a walking skeleton; then twitchings appear,—usually 
in one of his fore legs; they rapidly spread ; the whole frame 
becomes convulsed; and death closes the scene. 
In the pointer and the hound, and particularly when there is little 
discharge from the eyes or nose, an intense yellowness suddenly 
appears all over the dog ; he falls away more in twenty-four 
hours than would be thought possible; his bowels are obsti¬ 
nately constipated ; he will neither eat nor move ; and in two or 
three days he is dead. 
In the pointer, hound, and greyhound, there sometimes ap¬ 
pears on the whole of the chest and belly a pustular eruption, 
which peels off in large scales. The result is usually unfavour¬ 
able. A more general eruption, however, either wearing the 
usual form of mange, or accompanied by minute pustules, may 
be regarded as a favourable symptom. The disease is leaving 
the vital parts, and expending its last energy on the integument. 
The post mortem appearances are exceedingly unsatisfactory : 
they correspond not with the original character of the disease, 
but with its strangely varying symptoms. If the dog has died 
in fits, we have inflammation of the brain or its membranes, and 
particularly at the base of the brain, with considerable effusion of 
a serous or bloody fluid. If the prevailing symptoms have led 
our attention to the lungs, we find inflammation of the bronchial 
passages, or, in a few 7 instances, inflammation of the substance 
of the lungs, or the submucous tissue of the cells. We rarely 
have inflammation of the pulmonary pleura ; and never to any ex¬ 
tent of the intercorsal pleura. In a few lingering cases, tubercles 
and vomicae of the lungs have been found. 
If the bowels have been chiefly attacked, we have intense in- 
flammation of the mucous membrane, and, generally speaking, 
the small intestines are almost filled with worms. If thedos; has 
gradually wasted away, we have contraction of the whole canal, 
including even the stomach, and sometimes considerable en¬ 
largement of the mesenteric glands. 
