Chapter XIV - Footnotes

Footnote 1: The following is a very frequent and unexaggerated history of distemper, when calomel has been given in too powerful doses:

August 30, 1828. — A spaniel, six months old, has been ailing a fortnight, and three doses of calomel have been given by the owner. He has violent purging, with tenesmus and blood. Half an ounce of caster-oil administered.

31st. Astringents, morning, noon, and night.

Sept. 6. The astringents have little effect, or, if the purging is restrained one day, it returns with increased violence on the following day. Getting rapidly thin. Begins to husk. Astringents continued.

10th. The purging is at last overcome, but the huskiness has rapidly increased, accompanied by laborious and hurried respiration. — Bleed to the extent of three ounces.

11th. The breathing relieved, but he obstinately refuses to eat, and is forced several times in the day with arrow-root or strong soup.

18th. He had become much thinner and weaker, and died in the evening. No appearance of inflammation on the thoracic viscera, nor in any part of the alimentary canal. The intestines are contracted through the whole extent.

Veterinarian, ii. 290.

Footnote 2: Medico-Chirurgical Transitions, 31st March, 1809.

Also read: Dog Health.