EPILEPSY IN DOGS. 
491 
ted bitch is permitted to suckle the whole of her litter, her sup¬ 
ply of nutriment soon becomes exhausted, and the continued 
drain upon her produces a great degree of exhaustion, and conse¬ 
quent irritability. She gets rapidly thin; she staggers ; is half 
unconscious; neglects her puppies, and suddenly falls into a fit 
of a very peculiar character. It begins with and is sometimes 
confined to the respiratory apparatus: she lies on her side, and 
pants violently; the sound of her laboured breathing may be 
heard at a distance of twenty yards: sometimes spasms steal over 
her limbs; at other times, the diaphragm and respiratory mus¬ 
cles alone are convulsed. In a few hours she is certainly lost; 
or, if there are moments of remission, they are speedily succeeded 
by increased heavings. 
The practitioner, unaccustomed to this fearful state of excita¬ 
tion, and forgetful or unaware of its cause, proceeds to bleed her, 
and he seals her fate: although one system is thus convulsively 
labouring, it is because others are suddenly and perfectly ex¬ 
hausted ; and by abstraction of the vital current, he reduces this 
last hold of life to the helpless condition of the rest. There is 
not a more common or fatal error than this. 
The veterinary practitioner is unable to apply the wonderful 
agency of the tepid bath to his larger patients in order to quiet 
the erythism of certain parts and systems, and produce an equa¬ 
ble diffusion of nervous influence and action; and, unable to ap¬ 
ply it to his larger patients, he forgets it when he has it in his 
power to save the smaller ones. Let this poor bitch be put into 
a bath, temperature 96° of Fahrenheit; her head and ears ex¬ 
cepted, let her be covered by the water. It will be surprising 
to see how soon the simple application of this equable tempera¬ 
ture will quiet down the erythism of the excited system. In ten 
minutes, or a quarter of an hour, she may be taken out of the 
bath evidently relieved, and then, when, after a hasty and not 
very accurate drying, she is wrapped in a blanket and placed in 
some warm situation (a good dose of physic having been previ¬ 
ously administered), and she breaks out into a profuse perspira¬ 
tion all over her, every thing becomes gradually quiet, and she 
falls into a deep and long sleep; and, at length, awakes some¬ 
what weak, but in a manner restored. If, then, all her puppies 
except one or two are taken from her, and her food is, for a day 
or two, somewhat restricted, and after that given again of its 
usual quantity and kind, she will live and do well: but a 
bleeding at the time of her fit, or the suffering all her puppies 
to return to her, will inevitably destroy her. f do not know' a 
case in which, by the exercise of a very little judginent, a prac¬ 
titioner will accpiire so much repute. 
