82 
ON THE DISTEMPER OF DOGS, 
The membrane of the nose will always exhibit marks of in- 
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fl animation, and particularly in the frontal sinuses and the 
eethmoidal cells ; and I have fancied that the portion of mem¬ 
brane on the septum, or cartilaginous division of the nostrils, 
between the frontal sinuses and oethmoidal cells, has been 
studded with small miliary tubercles. In advanced stages of the 
disease, attended with much defluxion from the nose, the cells 
of the aethmoidal bone and the frontal sinuses are filled with pus. 
Ulceration is sometimes found on the membrane of the nose, 
oftenest on the spot to which I have referred—occasionally con¬ 
fined to that; now and then spreading over the whole of the 
septum, and even eroding and eating through it; generally equal 
on both sides of the septum—in a few instances extending into 
the fauces; seldom found in the larynx, and occasionally seen 
in the bronchial passages. The other viscera rarely present any re¬ 
markable morbid appearance. 
The distemper is clearly a disease of the mucous membranes, 
usually commencing in the membrane of the nose, and resembling 
nasal catarrh. In the early stage it is coryza , or nasal catarrh ; 
but the affection rapidly extends, and seems to attack the mucous 
membranes generally—determined to some particular one, either by 
atmospheric influence or accidental cause, or constitutional predis¬ 
position. The fits arise from general disturbance of the system, or 
from the proximity of the brain to the early seat of inflammation. 
My account of the treatment of distemper will, I fear, be un¬ 
satisfactory. One thing, however, is clear; that for a disease 
which assumes such a variety of forms there can be no specific ; 
yet there is not a keeper, and there are few gentl&nen, who are 
not in possession of some supposed infallible nostrum. Nothing 
can be more absurd. A disease attacking so many organs, and 
presenting so many and such different symptoms, must require 
a mode of treatment varying with the organ attacked and the 
prevailing symptom. 
The faith in these boasted specifics is founded on two circum¬ 
stances—atmospheric influence and peculiarity of breed. There 
are some seasons when we can scarcely save a dog; there are 
others when we must almost wilfully destroy him in order to lose 
him: and there are some breeds in which, generation after gene¬ 
ration, five out of six die of distemper, while there are others in 
which, generation after generation, not one out of sixteen dies. When 
the season is favouiable, and the animal, by heieditaiy influence, 
is not disposed to assume the virulent type of the disease, these 
two important agents are overlooked, and the immunity from 
fatal result is attributed to medicine. Many gentlemen have 
told me that they could cure distemper better than 1 could ; that 
