636 
HOWARD B. FELTON. 
nary diagnostician and his prognosis that they do in human 
medicine, even more, and the earlier we as members of this pro¬ 
fession grasp these advantages just so the earlier will we surmount 
one of the greatest difficulties we have to contend with, the one 
which causes the most derision and most harms our patient, viz., 
unsatisfactory and oftentimes outrageously incorrect diagnosis of 
internal and hidden diseases of our fellow-creatures. 
CANINE DISTEMPER. 
By Howard B. Felton, B. S., V. M. D., Philadelphia, Pa. 
A Paper read before the Pennsylvania Vet. Med. Association, at Reading, Oct. 6, 1896. 
Canine distemper is a disease that can be traced back to a 
very early period. Virgil writes of it in his “ Georgies,” and 
there is no doubt that if the records had been properly kept we 
would find that neolithic man was acquainted with this dis¬ 
order that gave his dog the running nose and weeping eyes, and 
was aware that the proper treatment was a supernasal applica¬ 
tion of the pitchy products of the conifera. We find it described 
in the hunting books of the Middle Ages. Hewitt, an Knglisli 
author, was the first to recognize its contagious nature, which 
was afterwards demonstrated by Karle, Trasbot, Venuta, Kra- 
jewski and Laosson. 
Distemper is a disease proper of canines, although it has 
been observed by Taosson in both domestic and wild cats, and, 
according to Friedberger and Frohner, in the fox, wolf, hyena, 
jackal and monkey. To this list we must add man, as Zelinski, 
Nancki and Ivarpinski have recently discovered that distemper 
can be transmitted from the dog to man, causing in the latter 
tenonitis, or an inflammation of the capsule of Tenon. A full 
account of this interesting discovery will be found in a transla¬ 
tion by Dr. S. J. J. Harger of an article on “ The Microbe of 
Canine Distemper,” in the Veterviary Magazine for June, 1895, 
to which article we acknowledge our indebtedness in speaking 
of the specific origin of the disease. 
Distemper has been claimed by some authors to be variola 
