No opportunity of 'post-mortem' examination was lost. In some cases I
have found spicula projecting from the inner plate of the skull, and
pressing upon or even penetrating the dura mater. I know not why the dog
should be more subject to these irregularities of cranial surface than
any of our other patients; but decidedly he is so, and where they have
pressed upon the brain, there has been injection of the membranes, and
sometimes effusion between them.
In some cases I have found effusion without this external pressure, and,
in some cases, but comparatively few, there has not been any perceptible
lesion. Hydatids have been found in the different passages leading to
the cranium, but they have not penetrated.
I used to recommend that the dog should be destroyed; but I met with two
or three favourable cases, and, after that, I determined to try every
measure that could possibly be serviceable. I bled, and physicked, and
inserted setons, and tried to prevent the utter exhaustion of the
animal. When he was unable longer to perform his circumvolutions, and
found that he was foiled, he laid himself down, and by degrees resumed
his former habits. He was sadly impatient and noisy; but in a few cases
he was cured.
[We have seen but two or three cases of this disease in dogs, are led to
believe that it is quite uncommon with our domestic animals. One case in
a valuable setter came on suddenly, and without any apparent cause
(except perhaps over-feeding), and terminated fatally in the course of a
few days.--L.]
EPILEPSY
in the dog assumes a most fatal character. It is an accompaniment, or a
consequence, of almost every other disease. When the puppy is undergoing
the process of dentition, the irritation produced by the pressure of the
tooth, as it penetrates the gum, leads on to epilepsy. When he is going
through the stages of distemper, with a very little bad treatment, or in
spite of the best, fits occur. The degree of intestinal irritation which
is caused by worms, is marked by an attack of epilepsy. If the usual
exercise be neglected for a few days, and the dog is taken out, and
suffered to range as he likes, the accumulation of excitability is
expended in a fit.
The dog is, without doubt, the most intellectual animal. He is the
companion and the friend of man: he exhibits, and is debased by some of
his vices; but, to a greater degree than many will allow, he exhibits
all the intelligence and the virtues of the biped. In proportion to his
bulk, the weight of his brain far exceeds that of any other
quadruped--the very smallest animals alone being excepted, in whom there
must be a certain accumulation of medullary matter in order to give
origin to the nerves of every system, as numerous in the minutest as in
him of greatest bulk.
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