Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The dog / by William Youatt. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
248/290 (page 234)
![xuteiy Aoracious. Nature seems to be providing for the ereat exnen diture of power which epilepsy will soon occasion. The n!ucuS almost entirely disappears from the eyes, although the discharge fiLTe nose v continue unabated, and for an hour or more before the fit there wil e TtaZlng °f thJ ?TJaW' fr°thing at the m0uth>and discharge of saliva! ti l t ?TnS f lorr,jaW Wil1 be seen at least twelve hours before the fir t fit, and will a little while precede every other. There will also or e^e idmgIttSoTe ^ ^ ^ °f the ™*Tchtl, 01 eyelid. It is of some consequence to attend to these, as enabling us to distinguish between fits of distemper and those of teething! worm? or unusual excitement. The latter come on suddenly. The doo l appa- ZXr&f^™^^ M] °f Spidts' -^without agm3s warning he falls inio violent convulsions cvZuZ7 \v?' HkeWiSe' be enabl^d t0 distinSu5sh between rabies and distemper. When a person, unacquainted with dogs, sees a dog stiwfflin°- in a fit, or runmng along unconscious of every surrounding object or snapping at every thing in his way, whether it be a human bein- or a stone, he raises the cry of mad dog, and the poor brute is often sacri- ficed. The very existence of a fit is proof positive that the dog is not mad. JNo epilepsy accompanies rabies in any stage of that disease The inflammation of the membrane of the nose and fauces is sometimes propagated along that of the windpipe, and the dog exhibits unequivocal proofs of chest affection, or decided pneumonia. At other times the bowels become affected, and a violent purging comes on Ihe feces vary from white with a slight tinge of gray, to a dark slate or olive colour. By degrees mucus begins to mingle with the fecal discharge, and then streaks of blood. The fecal matter rapidly lessens, and the whole seems to consist of mingled mucus and blood • and, from first to last, the stools are insufferably offensive. When the mingled blood and mucus appear, so much inflammation exists in the intestinal canal that the case is almost hopeless. The discharge from the nose becomes decidedly purulent. While it is white and without smell, and the dog is not too much emaciated, the termination may be favourable; but when it becomes of a darker colour and mingled with blood, and offensive, the ethmoid or turbinated bones are becoming carious, and death supervenes. This will particularly be the case if the mouth and lips swell, and ulcers begin to appear on them, and the gums ulcerate, and a sanious and highly offensive discharge pro- ceeds from the mouth. A singular, half-fetid smell arising from the do°\ is the almost invariable precursor of death. When the disease first visited the continent it was regarded as a hu- moral disease. Duhamel, who was one of the earliest to study the cha- racter of the malady, contended that the biliary sac contained the cause of the complaint: the bile assumed a concrete form, and its superabundance was the cause of disease. Barrier, one of the earliest writers on the subject, described it as a violent irregular bilious fever. Others regarded it as a mucous discharge, or a depurative; and others, as a salutary crisis, removing from the constitution that which oppressed the different organs. Others had recourse to inoculation, in order to give it a more benign character; and others, and among them Chabert, considered that it](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21459277_0250.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
