132 
REPORTS OF CASES. 
transmissibility of this disease from mankind to the lower 
animals. 
The animal in question was a young white poodle dog. I 
was first called to see him on December 29tli last, and was told 
that he had been sick several days, and the owner’s family thought 
he had taken cold. When I first saw him his nose was cool and 
moist, the respiration rapid and jerky, somewhat abdominal. The 
history then was that at times his nose was hot and dry, and that 
his appetite was capricious, sometimes good, and at other times 
poor. 
I thought it was a bad case of bronchitis, and prescribed a 
simple cough syrup, telling the people of the house to let me 
know if he was not better in a few days. 1 saw him again in 
much the same condition December 31st, and again January 
2d. 
January 2d I learned more of the history of the case, which 
aided me in reaching a hasty, but, as was afterwards proved, a 
correct diagnosis. 
Mrs. H., the wife of the owner of the house where the dog 
was kept, died of consumption November 8th last, after a long 
and lingering illness of over a year. The dog, then a puppy, had 
been given to the children of the family the previous July, and I 
was told that he had acquired the disgusting habit of eating the 
sputa coughed up by Mrs. H. from the spittoon whenever he had 
an opportunity, although he was continually driven away when he 
was noticed to be indulging his abnormal appetite. 
“ Is it not possible,” I was asked, “ that he may have taken 
consumption from Mrs. H. ?” 1 thought it not only possible, but 
probable, and as he was the pet of the young children advised 
his speedy destruction. He was therefore shot that evening 
(January 2d) and I held an autopsy upon him the following 
morning. 
The post-mortem examination revealed phthisis of both lungs, 
with a large abscess in the posterior lobe of the left. There was 
also a little puro-serous fluid in the thoracic cavity, and a some¬ 
what fatty liver, which I thought might contain miliary tuber¬ 
cles. 
