86 
ON TflE DISTEMPER OF DOGS. 
Should fits appear in an early r stage, give a strong emetic; 
then bleed, and open the bowels with six grains of calomel and a 
quarter of a grain of opium: insert a seton, and afterwards give 
the tonic balls. 
The progress of fits, in the early stage-of the disease, may thus 
be sometimes arrested. Two or three should not make us de¬ 
spair; but if they occur at a later period, and when the dog is 
much reduced, there is little hope; for this additional expendi¬ 
ture of animal power will soon carry him off. All that is to be 
done, is to administer a strong emetic, obviate costiveness by 
castor oil, and give the tonic balls with opium. 
In fits, and indeed in every period of the disease, the animal 
should be kindly treated. Rough brutal usage will often bring on 
fits, and coaxing and kindness, even without medicinal aid, will 
sometimes put an end to them. At the moment of the fit, and 
especially if the dog is dangerous and will not be fondled, a cup 
of cold water dashed violently in his muzzle will frequently have 
an instantaneous and almost magical effect. The dog starts, 
looks eagerly around him, and is himself. 
Of the treatment of the yellow disease I can say little. I 
have not succeeded in; one case in twenty. When good effect 
has been produced, it has been by one large bleeding, opening 
the bowels well with Epsom salts, and then giving grain doses of 
calomel twice a day in a tonic ball. 
While it is prudent to obviate costiveness, there is nothing 
more to be dreaded, in every stage of distemper, than diarrhoea. 
The purging of distemper will often bid defiance to the most 
powerful astringents. This shews the folly of giving violent 
cathartics in distemper; and when I hear of the ten, and twenty, 
and thirty grains of calomel that are sometimes given, I think it 
very fortunate that the stomach of the dog is so irritable. The 
greater part of these kill-or-cure doses is ejected, otherwise the 
patient would soon be carried off by superpurgation. There is 
an irritability about the whole of the mucous membrane that may 
be easily excited, but cannot be so readily allayed ; and, therefore, 
except in the earliest stage of distemper, or in fits, or the small 
portion of calomel which enters into our emetic, I would never 
give a stronger purgative than castor oil or Epsom salts. It is of 
the utmost consequence that the purging of distemper should be 
checked as soon as possible. In some diseases a sudden purg¬ 
ing, and even one of considerable violence, constitutes what is 
called the crisis. It is hailed as a favourable symptom, and from 
that moment the animal begins to recover; but this is never the 
case in distemper; it is a morbid action, and, much sooner than 
we are aware, produces a dangerous degree of debility. 
The proper treatment of distemper-purging is first to give a 
