CAT AND DOG DISEASES.

Patea Mail, 21 July 1882, Page 4

CAT AND DOG DISEASES.

Dr Newman is evidently not of the same opinion as Shakespeare in regard to “ the harmless, necessary cat.” In the couise of his lecture he denounced in the strongest terms the “ disgusting practice.” of having cats and 'dogs in the house. There were many diseases which could be caught from them. He particularly instanced hydatids, a horrible disease, so prevalent in Iceland, where the inhabitants passed months together in their huts with the dogs, that one-sixth of the tota] number of deaths lesuUedfiom this cause. It was also feaifully common in Australia, although fortunately it was not yet very prevalent in New Zealand. If it once got a hold in this country, a large proportion of those who kept dogs in their houses would suffer. If the people got hydatids in their brain, they died ; if they got them in their eyes, they lost their sight; and if they get them in their lungs, they died from what appeared to be consumption, but what was really the effect of this revolting parasite. One of the most loathsome skin diseases from which it was possible to suffer was contracted from cats, and many people who suffered f oni asthma were often much worse when they had cats and dogs in the room, although perhaps they did not know it. If his lecture had no other effect than inducing his hearers to discontinue the disgusting practice to which he ahuded, he felt that it would not be in vain. —Post