Medicine: Man Bites Dog

Ever since they began sharing the same cave, dogs have been giving diseases to men. Last fortnight, a doctor reported a disease that human beings give to dogs. Dr. Leon F. Whitney of Orange, Conn. says in Veterinary Medicine that in the last two years he has seen 800 cases of the new disease compared with eight of distemper.

He calls it house dog disease, because only house dogs get it. The sick dog usually comes from a household where someone has a cold. The illness begins with a sore throat, mouth and bronchial infection with a little fever. Most dogs recover in a week, but some go on to a frequently fatal encephalitis with convulsions, tics, paralysis, dizziness, forgetfulness or blindness. Of 309 cases of house dog disease Dr. Whitney reports in detail, 58 died of encephalitis.

Unable to find any bacterial cause for the disease, Dr. Whitney blames some unknown virus. The only treatment that seems to do any good is injection of serum from a recovered dog, but this works only in the early stages.