Early vet authors such as R S Huidekoper (1895) and J. Woodroffe Hill (1901) also discussed the feeding of cats. Pet cats in rural areas were expected to be self-sufficient or received only kitchen scraps. Those in towns were more reliant on their owners and early feline diets were nutritionally inadequate. The staple diet was milk into which was added bread (preferably stale) and ordinary crackers, water biscuits or oatmeal biscuit. Spratt's Patent cake for cats was considered a useful occasional addition. Oatmeal porridge was said to form an excellent diet, and vegetables were to be given from time to time - with most cats apparently being particularly fond of asparagus and celery! In the late 1800s/early 1900s there was a popular notion that cats should not be fed meat, although some early veterinary writers suggested a cat was better for a small quantity of meat once a day. "They much prefer it raw and prefer mutton to beef. The traditional cat-meat of the cat-meat man, which is known so well in England is made of horse-flesh, and is a wholesome, good food... fish is a very favourite diet with the cat, and can be given from time to time .. boiled liver is useful once in a week or 10 days, or when the cat is a little off its feed, as it acts as a laxative." Nowadays it is realised that cats are obligate carnivores and depend on meat, although a few misguided people would still have it otherwise.

One early veterinary writer described an addition to the ordinary method of feeding, prepared cat food, and endorsed one particular brand, probably earning himself a financial reward for doing so. "The prepared cat food which in my opinion has the best claim to the title is that manufactured by Walker. Harrison and Garthwaite Limited, at the Phoenix Biscuit Works, Radcliffe Cross, F. The ingredients. which I have thoroughly examined, tested and apportioned, being pure, wholesome and adapted to the requirements of the feline stomach. form a suitable diet for all cats where any special invalid food is not required. A great feature in W H and Gs prepared food is its easy digestibility and assimilation. Cats, especially show specimens, thrive well on it, improve in condition and retain the lustre of their coat so necessary in exhibits. Being handy. convenient, cleanly and inexpensive should bring the preparation into general favour with the feline fancy. Full instructions accompany each packet." He also advertised his own formula dog biscuit as being suitable for cats "cats […] thrive amazingly on my patent dog biscuit, manufactured by the above, broken up small and scalded with milk."

Grooming

A lack of grooming and the tendency to allow all cats to roam free, led to matted cats as previously mentioned. Exhibitors were anxious to present their cats to best effect and this included bathing ("tubbing"), dry bathing (using sand or fullers earth) and combing. It sometimes also included bleaching and dyeing to mask imperfections in show cats. People living in cities were advised not to keep white or pale coloured cats as these were difficult to keep clean! A well know breeder, Mrs. Westlake of Camden Town, London, wrote:

An early treatment for external parasites such as lice, was treated by combing the cat with a mixture of vinegar and water. A lotion could be made of one part sulphur mixed with ten parts train oil and applied all over the fur. Alternatively, a wash of equal quantities of hydrogen peroxide and water could be used (but would bleach the fur and was therefore unsuitable for many show cats). Fleas were associated with "dirty" households - cats in clean households simply did not get fleas! To flea powder a cat, the powder was tipped into a drawstring bag and the cat placed in the bag with only its head sticking out. It stayed this way for 15 or 20 minutes, with the powder being patted onto it. Flea powders included flowers of sulphur, powdered tobacco or Persian insect powder. If Persian insect powder was used, the cat was placed on a sheet of newspaper, the powder sprinkled over it and then brushed out. The paper - and the temporarily stunned fleas - must immediately be burned.

Cats were generally believed to become off-colour in the spring, losing their appetites, developing foul breath and unkempt coats. This was probably associated with the spring moult and the female approaching oestrus. Hair ball was not uncommon, especially in longhairs. Hair ball was recognised as a specific ailment; the lack of grooming and the growing popularity of longhairs meant that cats could accumulate sufficient hair to cause serious blockages. Tomcats were believed prone to summertime skin troubles (probably stud tail or fleas) which could be remedied by a twice weekly dose of olive oil. Breeding female cat sometimes developed skin problems after kittening; though normally blamed on her mating with an out-of-condition tomcat (possibly picking up mange or fleas), it may well have been related to nutrition.

Feline Medical Care
Extensive notes, from Frances Simpson's "Book of the Cat" are included later in this article. This section is a general overview of veterinary care from the 1800s through to the early 1900s.

In 1870, the Honourable Lady Cust produced a book called "The Cat" in which she perceptively wrote "In the present day, a love for cats appears chiefly permitted to 'elderly spinsters,' and is often even ridiculed". She went on to say that she was ridiculed by learned members of the Zoological Society for asserting that grass was a necessity for cats. Not all of her advice was so sensible. For instance, she recommended slitting the ear as a cure for fits. Her remedy for vomiting went"Stop it as soon as you can by giving half a teaspoon of melted beef marrow, free from skin; one dose is generally sufficient, but if not, another half-teaspoonful may be given in half an hour. To allay vomiting from irritation I have never seen this remedy fail in human or animal subject." Lady Cust described cat-pox as "a disease like chicken-pox in human subjects will sometimes appear in spring and autumn, chiefly on the throat and head." She recommended a cooling diet, grass and an ointment made of lard and brimstone.

Some of the earliest feline remedies included eating a whole kipper (including bones) to remedy constipation; and eating crushed clay pipes to remedy diarrhoea. A regular dose of fish oil kept cats regular and supposedly protected them against worms. According to Dr Gordon Stables in 1872, if a cat should have a convulsion, a smelling-salts bottle should be held to his nostrils, or a pinch of dry snuff and, if this does no good, 'Pussy must be bled'. In 1901, the only documented feline ailments were colds, pleurisy, distemper, mange, worms, fits, diarrhoea and constipation. In 1901, "How to Keep Your Cat in Health" was written by "Two Friends of the Race" and contained such advice as "If your cat should be taken ill, have as little as possible to do with drugs, unless it be in the homeopathic form". Cats with colds were dosed with a tonic of tincture of arsenicum in a spoonful of milk. The same tonic was given for distemper, along with a mixture of eggs, cream and brandy. Tincture of arsenicum was recommended for mange. The symptoms of mange were to be treated with sulphur ointment, carbolic acid ointment, green iodide of mercury ointment and acid sulphurous lotion. Arsenic was used as a tonic and an antiseptic; prussic acid was used as an anti-spasmodic and for pain relief; lead was used as an astringent and a sedative.

Pedigree cats were believed prone to dyspepsia and the "Two Friends" wrote "[Dyspepsia] is more often met with in highly-bred and notably show specimens, when a too-fixed and stimulating system of feeding is adopted". At the time, pedigree cats were not usually fed horse meat (fed to household cats) but lean chopped mutton. To set a broken bone, a papier mache cast was made. Brown paper was soaked in boiling water, the excess water was squeezed out and the papier mache was moulded onto the broken limb. Strips of calico fabric or linen were laid over this to hold the cast in place. This simple cast was effective.

One of the first small animal veterinary books was "Diseases Of Dogs And Cats And Their Treatment" by Anonymous in 1893. The anonymous veterinarian had good reason to stay anonymous - some of his opinions were controversial at the time and he made cutting about quacks and about fellow vets. In 1895 came Rush Shippen Huidekoper's "The Cat: A Guide To The Classification And Varieties Of Cats And A Short Treatise Upon Their Care, Management and Diseases" published in New York . This described all the known members of the cat family and was illustrated with scientific drawings and with drawings of cat breeds reproduced from Harrison Weir's 1889 book "Our Cats And All About Them"

In 1901, J. Woodroffe Hill, Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, brought out "The Diseases of the Cat". Some of Woodroffe Hill's opinions were the exact opposite of the anonymous vet almost 10 years earlier. His book was illustrated with photos of his clients' pedigree and non-pedigree cats. Like those before him, he described ailments in great detail, with none of the investigate methods now taken for granted diagnosis was based entirely on observation. Equally, none of the modern drugs were then available and the treatments he described now seem hit-or-miss or primitive to say the least.

Before the advent of vaccination, "Nasal Catarrh" or "Cold in the Head" was very common. "The cat becomes languid, is less inclined to play or hunt, and may show a varying degree of inappetance. A thin mucous discharge issues from the nostrils, which the cat endeavours the quicker to expel by constant sneezing. There is also a watery discharge from the eyes, a warm, dry nose, and usually attended with a normal or slightly elevated temperature." The disease (which is now called an upper respiratory tract infection) was variously considered to be due to damp, cold or contagion or to a sedentary or confined life.

Suggested treatment for a mild case included keep the cat warm and treating it with camphor water and spirits of ether nitrate. More severe cases required steaming of the cat's head with an infusion of poppy heads or 2% Jeyes fluid. "For the purpose of administering vapours, it is suggested that it may be expedient to place the cat on an old chair with perforated seat, beneath which is placed the steam kettle, the whole being surrounded by a rug." Eucalyptus oil was used as an antiseptic, but was to be applied to the cat's forehead, because if it was dropped into his bed, he would probably refuse to sleep in it. Some early vets recommended a liberal, stimulating diet, but others advised a diet of warm milk.

A disease recognisable as Feline Infectious Enteritis was described: "A special form of inflammation of the stomach and bowel combined frequently attacks cats, and has lately been somewhat prevalent, assuming the appearance of an epidemic and being undoubtedly infectious... Symptoms in many respects simulate typhoid. The disease is accompanied with great prostration, offensive diarrhoea, often of a dirty green colour, or resembling pea soup. There is increased pulse, injection of the mucus membranes, furred tongue - especially dark at the edges - high temperature, abdominal enlargement and tenderness, disinclination to move and in advanced cases the animal lies stretched out on the side. In some cases there is frequent vomiting and intense thirst. Before death the animal may become comatose or delirious."

Treatment consisted of ½ grain of napthol in salad, hot fomentations or poultices to the abdomen, doses of sulphate of copper and opium (then easily available), starch enemas, fluid, mucilaginous food and iced milk. Strict cleanliness and disinfection was to be rigidly observed. Should the cat survive, it could expect to convalesce on "a diet of Eastons syrup and cod-liver-oil, with the yolk of an egg and cream beaten up, and by degrees a little shredded or scraped raw meat can be introduced; but the greatest caution should be exercised in giving solid food, as the gastric and intestinal membrane remains in an extremely sensitive condition for a considerable period."

Early anaesthetics were unsophisticated and risky: either chloroform or chloral hydrate and largely reserved for euthanasia. Feline surgery was mostly restricted to neutering (spaying was available, although not common), repairing wounds and fractures and alleviating obstructions of the bowel.

Obstructions of the gullet, stomach or intestine were apparently common. Common causes were listed as needles, buttons, bones, hairballs (more than one good breeding cat died after swallowing a needle) and dire consequences were predicted. More than one author suggested the use of a probang - a "sponge tied onto a cleft stick, flexible cane or piece of whalebone" which was used to force an obstruction in the gullet into the stomach, but does not mention anaesthesia for this procedure. This treatment could be worse than the disease! If the gullet was damaged (either by the original obstruction or by the treatment) the animal should be "starved if necessary for a week or two, while giving nutritious enemas". If the obstruction was in the stomach or intestines, a dietary lubricant such as coarse oatmeal and sardine oil was recommended to help it pass through. One early book mentioned the possibility of surgery and the considerable danger of peritonitis (due to poor antiseptics and no antibiotics). Such surgery should only be risked by an expert abdominal surgeon.

Fractures were usually splinted using wood, pasteboard or leather. Bandages soaked in gum, starch or plaster of paris might also be used. Warm pitch was used to prevent the splint from slipping. Quite complicated fractures could be treated and many cats made an excellent recovery though a few complicated or infected cases required amputation.

In the days of hearth fires, burns were common. "Puss, with its love for the fireside more often gets burnt than scalded, and very deep burns sometimes occur when a large cinder falls on the fur, which more readily ignites than the coat of a dog. A cat aflame is a dangerous creature, for it may rush to any part of the house, and set fire to other materials. This disaster is treated by the application of equal parts of linseed oil and lime water, covered over with cotton wool... poulticed and warm emollient fomentations may be required." If a large amount of skin was lost to a burn or scald, the damaged area could be removed entirely and the skin drawn together: "When... a considerable blemish follows the healing process. that portion of the skin creating the eyesore... may by careful surgery be removed, and the union of the edges of the surrounding skin so neatly affected as to disguise the fact that puss is so much integument short."

Common home treatments:

• Nephritis: Hot linseed and mustard poultices to the loins, hot hip baths, the application of mustard leaves to the skin, warm enemas. A diet of milk and eggs.
• Apoplexy: Application of leeches to the back of the head, and ammonia to the nostrils. Rub a little brandy or whisky on the gums and down the spine. Keep on a low diet.
• Canker of the Ear: Syringe the ear with permanganate of potash, pour into it a few drops of sweet oil, then a pinch of zinc. Where ulceration has taken place, use nitrate of silver or sulphate of copper. In parasitic canker, nitrate of mercury will effect a cure.
• Ringworm: Wash with hyposulphate of soda and paint daily with iodine liniment. Nitrate of mercury is most efficacious... but it is necessary to guard against the patient licking.
• Worms: Half a grain of santonine and 4 minims of oil of male fern in a teaspoon full of salad oil. Give warm milk an hour afterwards. Warm salt and mustard water may cause worms to be vomited.
• Eczema: Due to constitutional trouble of a gouty nature. Quinine, Huxams tincture and syrup of wild cherry bark. Baths of sulphur water, an ointment of lard and bitrine. lodophor as a powder, or mixed with balsam of Pew.

"In well-broken cats fond of their owners the administration of medicine is sometimes an easy matter but again in equally well-broken and affectionate animals it is an excessively difficult one." Early authors all advised persuasion as better than force (the same is true today). However when force or restraint became necessary, there were no sedatives available and physical restraint was necessary. "Take the cat by the loose skin of the neck with one hand and by the skin of the pelvis with the other and place it on a table pressing down until the breast-bone in front and under surface of the pelvis behind are held firmly against the table." If the cat had to be restrained for a longer period, it might be wrapped in a sack of cloth, leather or indiarubber . At home, it could expect to be restrained in a towel or piece of sheet.

Neutering

In 1893, an anonymous "A Veterinary Surgeon" wrote "The Diseases of Dogs and Cats" which described the neutering of male cats. The cat was immobilised by rolling it in a blanket and the operation carried out without anaesthetic. This vet did not recommend the alternative method whereby a cat was thrust face down in a boot and the operation carried out quickly with a small knife. He also did not recommend anaesthesia and wrote:

An owner could insist on anaesthetics of chloroform or cocaine at additional cost though these were relatively dangerous and it was easy to overdose the cat. Consequently, the spaying of female cats was not even considered.

The castration of males was considered barbarous in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Unwanted kittens, of which there were many, were disposed of by drowning. This was believed to be quick and painless, even for adult cats. It was believed that after one gasp underwater, the brain formed carbonic acid which made the cat unconscious before it actually drowned. Some of the kittens' bodies were turned into taxidermy studies (such as the "Kittens' Wedding" where the bride, groom and all in attendance are kittens in human attire) or even into stuffed toys for children.

In her 1903 work "The Book of the Cat", Frances Simpson discusses neutering. Her euphemism of "unimpeachable manners" means "not spraying". Unusually for that time, she recommends the use of anaesthetic when castrating tomcats although she does hold to the sad myth that female cats should have a litter of kittens before spaying. Spaying was a rare operation at the time and it is possible that a veterinary surgeon might better be able to find the womb if the cat had previously had kittens - the "just one litter" myth might therefore be rooted in the vet's wellbeing rather than the cat's wellbeing! Simpson also realised that owners might prefer their cats already neutered before they purchased the cat and noted the importance of neutering a cat before it was sexually mature.

For my own part I consider between five and eight months the best time for a cat to be gelded, but I have often known successful operations taking place much later. It is, however, most important that the tom should not previously have shown any desire to mate. In all cases a cat should be kept on low plain diet for two to three days before being neutered, and it is more humane to pay the extra fee for the use of an anaesthetic."

Early feline medical writers such as R S Huidekoper ("The Cat: A Guide To The Classification And Varieties Of Cats And A Short Treatise Upon Their Care, Management and Diseases", 1895) and J. Woodroffe Hill, Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, brought out "The Diseases of the Cat". Some of Woodroffe Hill ("The Diseases of the Cat", 1901) also discussed neutering and were more humane in their approach than the earlier anonymous vet Early anaesthetics were unsophisticated and risky: either chloroform or chloral hydrate. Until the end of the 1800s their use was largely reserved for euthanasia until the Animals Anaesthetics Act of 1919 obliged the use of anaesthesia in castrations of cats aged over 6 months old (many vets apparently opted to use it on younger patients as well). Few of the castration methods of the time described tying off the cord (presumably due to the risk of infection) so bleeding after castration was sometimes seen, especially in older patients. Cauterisation was used to prevent bleeding, but is a troublesome haemorrhage occurred the scrotum could be packed with cotton wool soaked in a weak solution of liq. fern perchlor. or in 1 to 1,000 solution of adrenalin. lf bleeding continued, a ligature was applied, but often around the entire scrotal sac! Other complications included wound infection and peritonitis, though the vast majority of cats recovered without ill-effects.

"Female castration" was available, so that females "no longer call their lovers". The earliest form of spaying involved two flank incisions and removal of the ovaries only. Over the years, spaying became more common and in 1925, Hamilton Kirk's "Diseases of the Cat and its General Management" described sophisticated surgical instruments and their sterilisation by boiling; disinfection of the operation site; silk internal ligatures and skin sutures. The success rate was high (around 90%) though there could be anaesthetic or surgical complications such as haermorrhage, infection, wound breakdown and unexplained deaths in the first 2-3 days following surgery. In some early texts, neutered females are described as "a perfect pet, without lovers or families; her roaming propensities are gone and she plays like a kitten". Others described it as inhumane and extremely cruel, preferring to chloroform litter after litter of unwanted kittens in a sealed biscuit tin and apparently little thought for the strain it put on the mother.

Thankfully most females had their kittens without any difficulties. Caesarean section was a dangerous undertaking, necessitating the most guarded prognosis. Hysterectomy was preferred, but only as a last resort. Early authors all warned of the dangers of using forceps for delivery of kittens, though they described various hooks and loops of wire which could be used if manual manipulation of a stuck kitten failed. Injections of pituitrin (forerunner of oxytocin) and ergotin (still used today) were available to help stimulate contractions and reduce blood loss. The mother might also be given 5 to 10 drops of brandy or gin in water or milk.

Breeding

Most breeding cats were housed in outdoor catteries with beds made out of barrels or wooden chests and filled with hay in winter and paper in summer. Most breeders did not heat the outdoor enclosures in case it made the cats weak and susceptible to illness. Feeding was not an exact science and was often a matter of superstition (along with some medical remedies), hence the dyspesia reported in pedigree cats. Many breeding tomcats were permitted to roam free for much of the time - leading to sad little notes in Simpson's breed descriptions such as "vanished", "went missing" or "died accidentally". An outstanding year old chinchilla male roamed, never to be seen again, and his epitaph was "lost in the woods".

It was advised that pedigree females did not raise litters larger than four kittens. Often only the best kittens (or those of the desired sex) would be kept and the others disposed of. For larger litters where all kittens were to be kept, or where the female was a poor mother, a foster mother was obtained for some (or all) of the kittens. Foster mothers were not hard to find since it was common practice to destroy entire litters of kittens born to household pets. Pedigree kittens could also be sent on approval to prospective new owners and returned if unsuitable. A Mr House, in one of his articles lately published in Fur and Feather (circa 1900), advised that kittens should be kept with, and fed by, their mothers for as long as sixteen weeks. Other breeders complained this was an excessive strain upon the mother.

An excerpt from Simpson's "The Book of the Cat" stated: "I never allow my mother cats to nurse more than two kittens after the first week. If a foster cannot be found, I select the two I consider the most promising, and the lethal chamber claims the rest. Some may consider this foolish. I can only say I would far rather rear two thoroughly healthy kittens than five or six puny things."

Despite the works of Darwin, the ideas of Paternal Impression and Maternal Impression held sway. Paternal impression stated that a female's first mate would affect all of her subsequent litters, regardless of who fathered the later litters. If she was mated to an outstanding stud for her first litter, his characteristics were believed to turn up in later litters sired by other studs. Conversely, if she was mis-mated to a poor quality or moggy male she would always bear poor quality half-breed offspring, tainted by that earlier mating. One Persian female who had "strayed from the path of virtue" apparently had only poor quality kittens from a good sire, "what might be called half-breeds". She was "ruined for life".

The following explanation of Paternal Impression, or "Telegony", is taken from the 1896 work "Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine" by George M Gould and Walter L Pyle. It cites cases in horses, dogs and cat; the latter relating to long-haired cats appearing in litters born to short-haired parents.

The influence of the paternal seed on the physical and mental constitution of the child is well known. To designate this condition, Telegony is the Word that was coined by Weismann in his “Das Keimplasma,” and he defines it as “Infection of the Germ,” and, at another time, as “ Those doubtful instances in which the offspring is said to resemble, not the father, but an early mate of the mother,” - or, in other words, the alleged influence of a previous sire on the progeny produced by a subsequent one from the same mother. In a systematic discussion of telegony before the Royal Medical Society, Edinburgh, on March 1, 1895, Brunton Blaikie, as a means of making the definition of telegony plainer by practical example, prefaced his remarks by citing the classic example which first drew the attention of the modern scientific world to this phenomenon. The facts of this case were communicated in a letter from the Earl of Morton to the President of the Royal Society in 1821, and were as follows:

Breeders of Bedlington terriers wish to breed dogs with as powerful jaws as possible. In order to accomplish this they put the Bedlington terrier bitch first to a bull-terrier dog, and get a mongrel litter which they destroy. They now put the bitch to a Bedlington terrier dog and get a litter of puppies which are practically pure, but have much stronger jaws than they would otherwise have had, and also show much of the gameness of the bull-terrier, thus proving that physiologic as well as anatomic characters may be transmitted in this way.

Maternal Impression stated that the pregnant cat's surroundings influenced the quality of her kittens. If she was housed next to outstanding examples of her own breed, she would somehow impress their characteristics on her unborn kittens, even if she had only been mated to a mediocre stud. Conversely, if she was surrounded by moggies, this lack of quality would be impressed onto her kittens even if she had been mated to a top notch stud. This belief is also illustrated by the explanation for certain human deformities - children with hare-lip were supposedly due to the mother having been "startled by a rabbit" during her pregnancy.

A female mated towards the end of her season would supposedly have male kittens. If the stud cat was fed well, rested and strong before mating, females would predominate in his bride's litter.

Frances Simpson was one of the first advocate "pure-bred" cats (i.e. from like-to-like matings), not just "pedigree" cats. She advocated three generations of blue-to-blue breeding in order to produce "purebred" blue Persians, her favourite breed. In 1903, relatively few cats could trace their pedigrees back three generations and on some pedigrees it was unclear who sired the kittens since, to be certain of offspring, a queen might be mated to two studs in her season. It was, however, possible to mate cats too closely related and an excerpt from her 1903 work said "With regard to in-breeding I have no hard-and-fast rules to lay down. The whole matter, in spite of what one and another may say, is too experimental and speculative for anyone to dogmatise. It sometimes happens that a fancier puts together two animals which excel in some particular property,, yet not one of their progeny is above the standard of mediocrity, so far as that property is concerned. Experience has shown me the importance of studying the weak points of the dam. These I try to remedy in selecting the stud cat."

Simpson quotes a chinchilla breeder on inbreeding. Chinchillas, or 'silvers', had become badly inbred due to a series of mishaps whereby founding cats had been killed or gone missing. As a result they were more delicate than other Persians and kitten mortality was much higher. "The old rule about inbreeding is 'once in, twice out,' as all old fanciers know; but where silver Persian cats are in question, I would most strongly urge that this adage be disregarded, and, as a rule, avoid in-breeding entirely until a stronger race of silver cats is established.

Persian cats require special attention as regards their coats, and should be combed and brushed regularly, and, if the fur becomes matted, the knots should be cut away. Avoid washing your cats; there are other means of cleansing their coats, particulars of which will be given in the chapter on exhibiting.

As regards the management of female cats, it is necessary to start from the time when they first arrive at maturity, viz. When they are first capable of becoming mothers. This usually takes place - or they "come in season" as it is called - after they are seven or eight months old; and though cases have been known when this has happened before six months, it is very unusual [note: better nutrition means modern cats often mature at 5-6 months]. It may therefore be laid down as a rule that if a kitten exhibits extraordinary high spirits, racing and tearing about, it should be carefully watched, and not allowed its freedom without supervision, either out of doors or in the house.

Queens may be known to be in season by several symptoms, such as rolling on the ground, rubbing up against furniture, increased affection for their owners, and often by the curious cries they utter, at times by a soft note of invitation, at other times by shouts of impatience or distress why resound through the house. Cats should not be mated until they are nine or ten months old at least; twelve months is a better age, though if they are insistent it will not do to put them off more than three times, as there are records of cats who, having been kept back on account of extreme youth, have been seriously ill or have never had families at all. On the other hand, it is possible these cats may have had the reproductive instinct abnormally strong, though for some cause or another they would always have been infertile.

Powders are sold to quiet cats who are considered to young to become mothers, and two or three small doses of bromide have a decidedly calming effect. This drug should, however, be given with caution, as it is a dangerous one in unskilled hands. Cats come in season about every three weeks during the spring and summer; but in autumn and early winter months nature seems to intend that they should rest; therefore, as soon as the year has turned, and in very mild winters even before Christmas, no time should be lost in selecting the best sires for the various breeding queens, and arrangements made with their respective owners, so that as soon as ever a queen is ready she may be mated without delay, as some cats go off in two or three days, while others are not safe for a fortnight. If possible, it is well to select a stud cat near at hand, especially if your queen is timid and frightened, as a long journey may upset her. [Note: bear in mind that arrangements were either by letter or by telegraph.]

It is most essential that female cats should be freed from worms before being allowed to mate or breed, otherwise the kittens will probably fall victims to these pests by sucking in the disease with the mother's milk. Most cat fanciers know the symptoms which are suggestive of worms; and whenever there is a reasonable suspicion of their presence, then it is best at once to resort to some of the many remedies to be obtained from veterinaries and cat specialists.

A cat's period of gestation is nine weeks, but this is often extended to a day or two longer, so that it is best to expect a litter about nine weeks from the date of the queen's return from visiting the stud cat. An experienced breeder will most likely see symptoms of a cat coming in season, and will then do well to give a worm powder. Salvo's No 3 powder may be given one morning, and the cat sent off the next day quite safely. Visiting queens should be despatched as early in the morning as possible and insured, to save delay on the road, with the owner's name and address inside package, also the name of the cat, as poor pussie will be far happier if on her arrival she hears herself called by her pet name. Full instructions should be sent as to the return journey; also it should be stated if the cat is kept out of doors or indoors, and what food she is accustomed to have, number of meals per diem, etc. if going on a very long journey the queen should not be nailed into a box, or padlocked, as occasional delays occur, and the railway authorities will feed and look after an insured cat if packed in a hamper or box where they can get at the occupant. Boxes or hampers with skeleton lids are by far the best on this account. If the weather is very cold and a basket is used, it should be lined, and round the sides brown paper is an additional safeguard against draughts, for which all stations are proverbial. A very delicate cat or young kitten finds great comfort in winter from a hot-water bottle placed inside the hamper for it to rest against. Queens should have a good meal an hour or two before starting, as they often arrive upset with the journey, and in their strange new home will not at first touch any food. Do not put any food in the travelling basket. It is not well for a queen to mate just after a heavy meal.

Fish and warm milk, if these agree with the queen, or a small meat meal, may be offered after a long, cold journey, and, if eaten, the queen should be allowed to rest and hour of two before introducing her to the stud cat.

After mating, a queen should be kept quiet for a few days on her return home, as much apart from other cats as possible; but no uneasiness need be felt if the visit does not seem to have quieted the queen, as she will settle down in a few days and cease to think about her mate. With regard to treatment of cats in kitten, some queens are gentle and quiet, and very careful of themselves, others are exceedingly bad-tempered, fighting and quarrelling , while some amuse themselves by climbing up high places and jumping down, behaving in such a wild and excitable manner that they not only endanger their own lives, but run the risk of bringing maimed and deformed offspring into the world. Cats such as these should be kept isolated, if possible, or at most with only one other quiet queen, and all high shelves or tall articles of furniture should be removed.

It is always well to be very careful in handling cats in kitten. They must never be lifted up by their fore legs, but when absolutely necessary to move or carry them, both hands should be used to do so, one being place under the body by the shoulders to carry the weight, while the other hand gently supports the hind-quarters; but the less a cat is lifted about the better. All medicines should be given quietly and quickly, so that there may be no struggling. The cat's head should be grasped firmly with the left hand, the fingers and thumb on each side of the corners of the mouth, and forced back on the shoulders with a firm pressure; this will cause her to open her mouth, when medicine can be popped quickly down the throat from a spoon held in the right hand. In the case of a very restless cat, it is advisable to have an assistant in administering medicine. Amateurs would do well to practise giving water in a spoon to queens who are in health, so that they may become used to this simple method of administering medicine. Cats in kit require three or four meals daily of nourishing food - raw meat from four to six ounces night and morning, and fish and scraps and vegetables or biscuit, etc, for the midday meal. Half a teaspoonful of cod-liver oil on their food two or three times a week is very good for the queens in cold weather; but if sickness ensues, of course the oil must be discontinued. Never suffer diarrhoea to go on unchecked. This applies to all cats and kittens of whatever age, sex, or condition, but is especially dangerous when a cat is in kit or nursing her young. Mr Ward and Salvo prepare powders which will stop diarrhoea, and if persevered with will restore the bowels to their normal condition. Change of diet is also very helpful. If the diarrhoea is very violent or persistent, or if no medicine can be procured, a small quantity of powdered chalk, as much as will lie on a sixpence, may be given every hour or two, three of four times; but the primary cause, of which diarrhoea is only a symptom, should be sought out, and if not discoverable, the advice of a cat doctor should be obtained.

Persistent diarrhoea (if not the accompaniment of diseases, such as inflammation of the bowels, etc) is usually caused by indigestion or worms, and sometimes by a stoppage of fur or food imperfectly digested, which nature in this way tries to get rid of; and if this is the case, or there is even reason to suspect it may be, a dose or two of warm salad oil, a teaspoonful every two hours, will often bring away the obstruction. Cats in kitten frequently suffer from constipation, for which also warm salad oil is far better than castor oil, as the latter is irritative to the bowels, and though acting as an aperient [gentle laxative], the after effects are increased costiveness [constipation]. Warm salad oil, given a few hours before the birth of the kittens, is helpful to the mother. For at least a week before the kittens are expected, a nice cosy bed should be prepared in some retired spot; and, to a novice, the caution would not be amiss - do not let a cat in kitten sleep on your bed, or she will either have her kittens there, or will drag the poor little things into the bed the first chance she gets. If the box is to be made ready for the cat, it should be of a fair size (about twenty-six inches by eighteen inches), and should be placed on its side, and a bit of wood about three inches deep nailed on to the bottom of the side, standing up to keep the bedding in its place and the kittens from rolling out. This box may be placed on a table or two chairs, so arranged the the cat can step in and out from another chair.

The floor of the box should be covered with several thicknesses of flannel or blanket in the winter and paper in the summer. Avoid coloured materials, as the dye will come out if they get wet. A bolster may be placed at one side of the box stuffed with straw, or hay or paper torn up very small, to support the cat's back; but should the weather be very cold and the mother delicate, a hot water bottle covered with flannel may be used instead and is a great comfort. A covering should be thrown over the box, which may be pulled down to hide the interior, as cats love to be screened from observation, and also it is very essential that the tiny babies should be kept almost in the dark for the first fortnight, after which time, when their eyes are open, the covering can be raised in the day and lowered at night in cold weather. This box must be placed on the ground as soon as the kittens can walk about, but retaining the ledge already referred to, which will keep them from ground draughts to a great extent. A nice little box with run attached is the best house for a cat and kittens; but as these cost about 25 shillings each, a number of them become costly and beyond the means of some breeders. The bed described is the next best thing, far better for shy queens than a box of basket used in the ordinary way. An empty drawer makes a good place, but the kittens should be moved out of it as soon as they can see, as it is rather too dark and close after the blind period is past.

A cat should sleep in whatever bed is arranged for her for at least a week before the kittens are expected, and when that day arrives the queen should be carefully watched, as some cats will have their kittens anywhere if not looked after. For the sake of those new to the fancy, it may be as well to remark that cats become very restless, walking about sometimes purring loudly, and looking in cupboards and dark corners while occasionally the first noticeable indication that the even is about to come off is that the fur behind is wet, and if this should be the case no time should be lost in carrying the cat most carefully to her bed, as the kittens may then be expected at any moment. Some animals like to be left entirely alone while giving birth to their young; others, especially pets, prefer to have their owners near to them; but if there is any uncertainty it is better to leave her to herself.

Experienced breeders will know that should the labour by dry or very prolonged it is a great help to a cat to pass the hand firmly and slowly down the side during an expulsive pain, as the pressure will help the mother and hasten the birth of the kittens.

After the first is born, the rest come comparatively easily. Very occasionally there is a cross presentation; but as only those really competent should attempt to do anything in this case, no time should be lost in sending for the nearest cat doctor or veterinary. After the first kitten has arrived - the birth of which is usually heralded by a loud cry of pain from the mother - some milk should be made hot, and as soon as the new baby has been cleaned the mother will gladly drink this; but on no account should cold or even luke-warm milk be given the same day, or, indeed, indeed for two or three days. Novices are sometimes startled at seeing the cat eating a lump of something which they fear may be a kitten; but there is no occasion for alarm, as it is merely the afterbirth, the consumption of which is probably Nature's provision for affording sustenance to the mother, as an animal in a wild state could get no food for at least several hours after the birth of its offspring. If a cat is wild or shy, it is better to leave her alone (with the exception of offering hot milk from time to time) until all the kittens are born, and they should not be examined or handled for some days.

With a gentle queen the first kitten may be taken away when the second is born, well wrapped up in warm flannel and put by the fire, and so on, always leaving one kitten until the last is warm and dry, when the others should be returned to the mother. This plan is most necessary in cold weather (especially if the kittens are born out-of-doors), for if the labour is easy and quick it is quite impossible for the queen to dry one kitten before the advent of the next, and by the time they are all born they are frequently stone cold, and so wet that the mother gives up the attempt to dry them in despair; and many kittens, thought to be stillborn, have died in the night this way. Kittens quite cold and nearly dead have been restored (and have lived to a good old age) by being taken at once to the fire and warmed and dried, and though at first life may appear extinct, time and patience will work wonders. If the kittens are taken away from the mother at birth as described above, it is a good opportunity for destroying any that are not wanted, because of sex or colour.. when the litter is given to the mother she should be offered milk again, and should after that be left alone several hours; but she will most likely welcome a few kind words and loving pats as a reward for all she has gone through, and will then cuddle down contentedly with her little ones.

In giving milk do not take the mother out, or even make her get up to drink it, on the day of her confinement; if she cannot reach it comfortably, raise her head and shoulders with one hand, until she can reach the saucer held in the other conveniently, and do not be in a hurry, as she knows well the temperature the milk ought to be, and will not take it if too hot or too cold. Milk should be given night and morning, and offered during the day, for some days after the kittens are born. Cats that never like it at other times are thankful for it when nursing; but, on the other hand, cats that have been fond of milk will turn away from it at these times. Queens usually come out every few hours for food, and their meat or ordinary meal should be ready for them, as they will want to eat it quickly and return to their little ones. After the second or third day a warm, clean blanket should be substituted for the one on which the kittens were born, and it is well to do this when the mother is present, as some cats resent interference during their absence.

As soon as the kittens are about a week old, a finger should be passed over their eyes, and if there is a little ridge on the lids, the eye should be moistened with eye-lotion twice daily with a camel-hair brush. If, after ten days, they do not open as usual, the eyes should be sponged with warm water, as in this case they must have become glued together with mucus, which should be cleared away, and the eye moistened with eye-lotion, taking care a little goes well into the eye. The lid should then be smeared with olive oil to prevent adhesion. It is this adhesion of the lids which causes inflammation, and the eyes must be frequently attended to, so that they may be frequently attended to, so that they may be kept open, avoiding any very strong light.

If the kittens are born indoors in the summer, windows should be kept open during the day, and when the little creatures are about a fortnight old put them out in the sunshine for an hour or so daily. The mother must be as well fed as she was before the kittens were born, but carefully notice if she suffers from diarrhoea, for if this is the case, and change of diet does not cure it, you may be certain that she is nursing too many kittens, and if some of them are not speedily removed you will lose them all.

If a foster-mother can be procured, by all means have one, accompanied by one of her own kittens if possible. Make a cosy bed for her, warming the blanket, and leave her in it till night, when, if she seems settled down, give her two or more kittens as the case may be, removing her own the following night. Do not attempt to interfere with the kittens while the mother is away, and act very gently, talking to and stroking her so that she may not resent your interference. If no foster-mother can be obtained, Mr War, of Manchester, has clever little appliance which he claims can be used instead of a foster mother.

Some fanciers may take upon themselves the task of bringing up the kittens by hand, and in that case wrap them up in warm flannel, keeping them by the fire by day, and giving them a hot water bottle at night, feeding with week milk and water about every two hours (this should be about half and half) with a teaspoonful of lime-water to each cup of milk and water. It should be given warm, not hot, and the milk scalded, not boiled. In London or large towns unsweetened condensed milk is better than cow's milk, as the colouring or preservative acids used by dairymen in the latter is very injurious to kittens. This condensed milk should be much diluted, and flavoured with small quantities of salt and sugar. If too strong or too sweet, the food will cause diarrhoea. Kittens will soon learn to suck out of an eggspoon; but do not give too much at once, or force the food down their little throats when the object to take any more.

At about five weeks old the kittens will begin to lap and possibly to eat. Many fanciers are delighted if they will eat and drink before a month old, and some make the serious mistake of trying to coax the little ones to eat solid food at this tender age. Such persons do not stop to think how weak are all the digestive organs of these tiny creatures. The milk of the mother supplies all that is needful for their growth and well-being until such time as Nature makes itself heard in her demands for further nourishment, and if substantial food is given to them too soon, or too strong, it merely goes through the stomach, passing out in the bowels undigested, decomposes, and forms slimy mucus which is the hotbed for worms, even if it does not set up inflammation of the bowels. More kittens die from worms and consumption of the bowels than from any other complaint, and much of this loss of life is directly traceable to strong food at too tender an age.

Lung disease, gastric catarrh, gastro-enteritis, are all directly or indirectly set up by the non-assimilation of food; hence the supreme importance of giving nourishment which can be digested easily. After six weeks scraped raw beef may be given (if the kittens want to eat) three times daily in very small quantities, about half a teaspoonful to start with, and they may have warm milk and water with lime in it. This should be followed by Mellin's or Benger's Frame Food, as directed for infants [Mellin's is a baby food, Benger's is an invalid food]. It is advisable not to allow kittens to overload their stomachs, but to feed them about four times daily. If healthy they will eat eagerly, but not ravenously; a kitten who is greedy and precipitates itself into the saucer in its anxiety to get its dinner may be suspected of worms, and when about eight weeks old a course of Salvo's No 1 powder may be given with safety.

As soon as the kittens are about a month old, a shallow tin of dry earth or ashes (I do not recommend sawdust) should be provided for them, and it will well repay their owners to spend some portion of the day with the little ones and lift them into the earth-pan when necessary. If this is done two or three times, the lesson is probably learnt for life. Kittens are naturally clean, and will get out of their beds, and run about crying loudly for some accommodation for their wants; and if this neglected the seeds of dirty habits are sown, and the poor untaught little ones reap a sad harvest of cuffs and sometimes kicks from servants, who naturally dislike the trouble caused by dirty house pets. Even in catteries cleanly habits in cats are much to be desired. If a cat or kitten gets into dirty ways, it should never be beaten and put into the tin, but should be gently stroked and coaxed into good habits. Those who only keep one or two queens will find that if they spend a few minutes playing with the kittens before their meals, they will be well rewarded by the quicker growth and better digestion of the little ones; but, of course, this is out of the question in a large cattery.

In summer, kittens should be combed daily with a small tooth comb, as the insects which inhabit their coats not only worry them and cause them to scratch out their fur, but they convey disease from one to another, to say nothing of sucking out so much blood that the poor little creatures become absolutely anaemic, and in this state they fall an easy prey to the first disease that attacks them. Fleas were formerly treated as irritating but otherwise harmless insects; but we are assured on the best authority that they are a dangerous medium of disease, and that tapeworms are generated in dogs and cats by their means. The poor animals, wildly resenting the annoyance of these pests, hunt for them with teeth and tongue, and, swallowing their enemy, may also swallow a number of undeveloped tapeworms, which in the larval or grub state are secreted in the abdomen of the flea. Tapeworms are said to undergo certain metamorphoses or transformations, and require to pass through the body of some other creature than the one they exist in their mature state of being.

It is a great mistake to keep kittens in heated rooms, worse still t allow them to be close to a fire by day and then to let the room get cold at night. An even temperature, cold and dry, is better than sudden changed; cats and kittens love warmth and comfort, but, at the same time, all extremes of heat and cold are bad. Never neglect the first symptoms of illness; note the signs, and if you are not able to dose the invalid yourself send off a wire to some competent cat doctor describing the form the indisposition has taken, and while waiting for medicine no harm can be done by giving as much bicarbonate of soda as will lie on a threepenny-bit in a little water two or three times daily. Salvo has lately advertised a medicine which is said to be very valuable for giving on the first signs of a cat or kitten being out of sorts, and which, he says, will take down fever, stop colds, and modify attacks of bronchitis, pneumonia, etc; and for such fragile little beings as kittens fanciers would do well to keep the medicine by them. People often say that their cats and kittens seem ill or out of sorts, and allow this sort of thing to go on quite calmly for a week or so, when one day they wake up to the fact that the poor creature is very seriously ill, and they then send off in a hurry for medicine which frequently arrives too late; and the sufferer may be beyond all human aid.

Double pneumonia, which is perhaps the quickest and most fatal of all diseases, is not so sudden but that it is ushered in by various symptoms, beginning often a week before the attack becomes acute. An animal will seem cold, will creep near the fire, or sit in the fender, mope about, refusing to play, sit in a hunch with its back up, or is very sleepy and stupid; the fur is rough; there may be sickness, and the evacuations are a bright yellow colour; perhaps it has not quite finished its meals for a few days; and the nose is hot and dry, and if taken up, the cat feels hot and dry all over. When there are several of these symptoms, no time should be lost in administering the remedies named above every hour or two until suitable remedies can be obtained; but do not rely upon them alone, or think if you give them persistently they will pull the animal through the illness, for they will not, special remedies being needed for various stages of disease. No two animals are exactly alike, and the experienced cat doctor will prescribe carefully for each individual cat in the same way as a physician will give different prescription to suit the needs of different patients [note: it sounds like cat flu, a major killer of kittens].

One thing should never be neglected, and this is keeping up the strength from the first with beef-tea, eggs and milk. Brand's Essence, or animal Kreochyle - a teaspoonful every hour. As soon as an animal has refused two meals, begin feeding with spoon, as it will have so much more strength with which to battle against disease if fed up well from the first.

People who desire to sell kittens for profit will do well to part with them at about two months old, before they start teething, for at this period of their little lives fresh troubles begin. Occasionally they suffer from fits, but though these are sometimes caused by cutting their teeth, they are oftener due to the presence of worms. If the gums are swollen and inflamed, a quarter of one of Steedman's teething powders will soothe them, or a few doses of bromide, as prescribed before for kittens desiring to mate too early, may be given, and excitable kittens should be kept quiet.. if kittens are troubled with diarrhoea, all starchy food should be avoided, as it is never easily digested by animals. The reason of this is not far to seek, when we know that the saliva partly digests starch, while the juices of the stomach act directly on meat.

Animals, instead of masticating their food, by which means the saliva acts upon it, often bolt it, and it goes into the stomach and is passed out into the large bowel practically undigested, where it decomposes, working off in noxious gases which escape through the skin, causing eczema, or in many cases producing inflammation of the bowels or enteritis. Nothing needs more careful attention than the diet of kittens, and nothing is so little studied. It would be no exaggeration to say that all disease, apart from outside or accidental causes, such as draughts, cold winds, contagion, etc, is in the first place set up by undigested food, and even what may be called external causes would often not be harmful to an animal if the digestive organs were in proper working order. Remember, it is not the quantity of food a kitten takes that benefits it. The secret of its health and wellbeing is in the quantity it digests. A kitten should only digest certain things in certain proportions, and whatever remains undigested produces irritation, and in this case the kitten cannot possibly develop, and is generally weakly and fretful.

Those who have never cared much for cats will be interested and amused if they bring up a family of kittens, and the love and trust of the little creatures will well repay them for all their care.

A male cat should not be allowed to mate under a year old, and if you wish to keep your stud in good condition do not allow more than two, or at most three, lady visitors a week. There is no doubt that a really reliable stud cat is a very profitable possession. The most essential recommendations are a sound constitution and absolute health, combined with a good pedigree and a list of prize-winning progeny. It is necessary to exhibit your stud cat at the best cat shows from time to time, and thus to keep him before the public. It is also advisable to advertise him in the cat papers, and it is often useful to have a photograph to forward to fanciers who may be unable otherwise to obtain any idea of your cat. Needless to say that for stud purposes a cat should possess the highest possible qualifications of the breed to which he belongs, and a massive frame and broad head are most desirable in all stud cats [note: bear in mind the limited number of breeds in 1903]. It is a good plan to allow the visiting queen to be within sight of the male for a short time before she is put in the stud cat's house, and for this purpose it is convenient to have a small movable pen or hutch to place where the two pussies can hold catty conversation.

A stud cat cannot, for many and obvious reasons, be allowed his full freedom; but it is essential that his dwelling place should have as long and roomy an exercise ground as possible. It I also possible with some male cats to tether them out-of-doors for a short period during the day, in which case great care should be taken to have the lead only as long as will permit of exercise within a safe distance of dangerous pitfalls or spreading trees and shrubs.

The best time for mating is about one hour after feeding. It is most important that stud cats should be in good coat at the time of mating, and that they should be free from worms.

The usual fee for a visit to a stud cat is £1 1s [one pound, one shilling] , and this should be sent at the same time as the request for permission to send a queen. A second visit is generally considered allowable if the first one has proved unsuccessful. An additional amount of food may be given to a cat whilst he is being used at stud, and always remember to provide grass in some form or other in your stud cat's house/

There is no universal remedy for all cats, neither can there be any rule for feeding them. Different cats need different treatment, and those which are kept in a captive state, as are stud cats, should not be fed on the same lines as those that are allowed full liberty.

Opinions differ as to the best period for a cat to be made neuter, but it is generally considered advisable to have the operation performed between the ages of five and eight months. A male cat can be kept as a household pet till he is about nine or ten months old without any unpleasantness, but after that period he must be relegated to an outside cattery or stud house. It is cruel to put off gelding a cat till he shows signs of wishing to mate. A duly qualified veterinary ought to be employed, and an anaesthetic used. The cat should be kept on a low diet for a day or two before and after the operation. It is very seldom that any evil effects ensue, and after a few days the puss is quite himself again. Neuter cats grow to an immense size , and the Persian varieties develop great length of fur, which is generally not shed to frequently or to such an extent as in the males and females. Neuter cats are very docile, and generally rather lazy and listless; for this reason they are not accounted such good mousers. [Note: neutering has no effect on mousing ability; possibly the anaesthetics used in 1903 had long-term effects]

Female cats can also be rendered sexless, but in their case the operation is more likely to be attended with dangerous results. I have heard it stated that a female cat ought to be allowed one litter of kittens before being neutered [note: this may have been necessary in 1903 for the uterus to be located, it is unnecessary in modern times]. There are not many very fine neuters on exhibition at our shows, and this fact may be accounted for by reason of fanciers picking out weedy and altogether below the mark specimens of their litters to be gelded because they do not consider them worth keeping to breed from. In this way several poor specimens of neuters are to be seen with indifferent markings, white spots, incorrect coloured eyes, and long noses [note: Simpson bred Persians in which long noses are not desirable]. For a home pet there is, of course, nothing to come up to a fine neuter cat who will not roam, who does not attract amorous females, and who is content to lie for hours stretched out on the drawing-room rug or the kitchen hearth, the admired of all admirers. From the lips of many noted breeders of Persian cats who have been troubled by wandering males and prolific females, I have heard the exclamation, "I shall end by keeping only neuters!"

Cat owners in general, and lovers of neuters in particular, might do worse than agitate for more consideration to be extended to these grand pets at our leading shows, and I cannot help thinking that a neuter club or society might be formed to assist in this and other objects connected with the general improvement of our neuter cats.

Rearing of Kittens (The Book of the Cat, 1903, Frances Simpson)

It may truly be said that the subject most interesting to cat fanciers is the successful rearing of kittens, and pages might be written on what to do and what not to do in order to bring up a family of kits in health and strength. Experience teaches us many things, and certainly during the number of years I have been breeding Persian kittens I have had ample opportunity of judging what food suited the little mites best, and which was the surest method of bringing up a wholesome litter of kittens. I am sure that in the olden days there was less delicacy amongst Persian kittens than at this present time [note: owner interference and superstitions about food and methods contributed to, rather than alleviating, kitten mortality].

With the advent of the first family the anxieties of the novice begin. Perhaps a goodly sum has been risked in the purchase of a pedigree queen, or else with much carefulness and taking thought a valuable kitten has been reared to happy matronhood. So far well; the trouble has been slight, but the account book shows all on the debit side. Now, as we gaze upon the tiny blind bobbing atoms, over which the mother croons and purrs with pride, here is the investment that has to swell our credit column. And ignorance here spells loss.

If a large number yearly are successfully raised, a still larger number sadly "pass out" and might claim the baby's plaintive epithet:

Neither does the comfortable law of the "survival of the fittest" seem to hold good here. At least, Nature and the exhibitor are at variance in their ideas of such, for always it is our choicest, our sure and certain champion, that slips out too eager grasp. Here is our experimental nest of champions, they are but two days old, and in this early stage of their existence the less they are handled and examined and the mother interfered with, the better. Attend to two things - darkness and fresh air; and leave them alone till they introduce themselves of their own accord to your notice.

Shift on to a clean nest the second day after birth. It is safer not to do so before, as I have known a belated kitten arrive twenty-four hours after the rest of the family, and in the case of an excitable or inexperienced mother she will be then be more composed and can be coaxed out to feed while the change of bed is being made. Hay, short and sweet, is the best bedding - much better than blankets or cushions. Many fanciers use boxes turned on their sides and curtained. These, while giving the necessary darkness, are not sufficiently ventilated; the air in them cannot circulate freely, and becomes stuffy and foul, vapours ascend [i.e. germs breed], and the wood becomes unsanitary in very short time.

Bad eyes [i.e. conjunctivitis] follow as a matter of course, and the anxious, worried novice wonders "how can they possibly have taken cold when they have been so guarded" - from fresh air! - and seals them up still more! If, therefore, a box is used, let there be holes for ventilation, or arrange for the covering to reach only partly over the top. In an outside cattery or attic or room guard against too much light and any draught, but let in the outside air by keeping the window open during the day. If winter kittens are to be reared, heat the room to an average of 55 degrees [Fahrenheit], and have the window open, taking precautions naturally against rain or snow beating in.

When the kittens reach the age of three weeks, they will require some food beyond that provided by the mother, who, if nursing a large family, is perhaps showing signs of wear. It is when the process of weaning begins that trouble generally arises. I am inclined to put down the growing delicacy of Persian kittens to the injudicious feeding with solids at too early a period of their existence [note: more likely inbreeding!]. I never used to allow my kittens meat until they were about four or five months old, and during the period of weaning from their mothers it is most essential that all food given - such as Mellin's, Ridge's and Benger's - should be made very thinly at first, so as not in any way to try the tender digestions of the little creatures.

I believe that most of the ills that kitten's flesh is heir to, proceed from indigestion. The tendency in fanciers is to overload the stomach of the wee kittens, forgetting that it is not the amount of food eaten that nourishes the tiny creatures, but the quantity they are able to digest, and this must necessarily be small for some weeks after they have learnt to feed themselves. Another mistake that is made is giving milk that is too rich [note: in fact cow's milk is not rich enough]. In large towns we generally get our milk watered for us, but in the country the milk is richer, and needs mixing with warm water. It is not so important in the country as in London and other large towns to have the milk boiled, but it is at all times and in all places a wise precaution. In preference to risking the town dairy milk, flavoured with boracic, and most deadly to the systems of both kittens and babies, I advise a good brand of Swiss milk - such as Nestle's - being employed, or better still, Plasmon powder, made to a jelly according to directions on packet, and one teaspoon of this jelly thinned out with hot water and sweetened.

Do not give raw meat till the teeth are fairly through and they can bite sharply; then give it scraped with a blunt knife, not cut; and remember that raw meat is three times as digestible and nourishing than cooked meat - one tiny meal of meat a day, a teaspoonful per kitten to begin with. Do not give them fish while under three months old.

Rice is a very indigestible food for kittens, especially cold; but rice-water, strained from rice boiled to a pulp and given quite cold, is useful in checking diarrhoea. Melox is a most useful food for kittens of ten weeks old and upwards, soaked for an hour or two in a little good gravy, and given crumbly (not sloppy), and a little scraped raw meat mixed with it. For younger ones a tablespoonful of red gravy from a cooked joint, poured over some breadcrumbs, proves an appetising meal.

Small meals at short intervals are infinitely better than heavy meals at long intervals, and if a young kitten is left for many hours till half famished, it will in all probability eat too much and suffer in consequence. From four to ten weeks six or seven meals in the twenty-four hours are none too many. I am presuming that till that age they will be with their mother at night, which will do away with the necessity of providing food between 9 p.m. (when the last meal should be given) and 8 a.m. Give always a light and warm meal for the breakfast. After ten weeks lessen to five meals, after three months four, and give four till six months old, when they may be fed as adults, unless one should be delicate or has been through severe illness.

The best test of a properly thriving kitten is its weight, and 1 lb for each month of age is a fair average, occasionally exceeded by very big-boned and robust kittens. For young growing kittens a teaspoonful of lime-water added to a saucer of any liquid is very advisable, as it strengthens the limbs and forms bone. If a kitten under a month or six weeks old is unfortunate enough to have a sever illness, whether epidemic or accidental, my advice is to chloroform it. At so tender an age the constitution rarely recovers from the strain.

Although this article has no intention of encroaching upon that treating specially of diseases, our aim and object being to rear such healthy sturdy families of kittens that they shall never have any diseases, yet, en passant, it might not be amiss to remark what a valuable medicine for the first symptoms of distemper is Pacita, a herbal medicine that can be obtained in both powder and pill form. The latter is to be preferred, as, the smell being very nasty, kittens rebel against it. Half of No 1 size pill is sufficient for a kitten under three months, to be given fasting in the morning an hour before food for three mornings. It reduces fever and clears the system in a wonderful manner.

The question of outdoor exercise must now be discussed. I speak of summer kittens only. Winter kittens - viz those born from November to February - are, I think, a mistake. Out of season, like forced green peas at Christmas, they have not a good start in life; the damp and darkness of those months is very deterrent upon young life. Nature's plan of arranging for the new lives to come chiefly in the spring when days are lengthening and sunshine has power, is the wisest. They grow with the days, and have the summer to romp through and grow big and strong before the leaves fall. It is a mistaken policy - that of exposing to risks under the intention of hardening. We must remember that the Persian cat is an exotic, and that the present system of breeding for coat and show points does not tend to make the race hardier; on the contrary, probably the constitution is more delicate that in its native country, imported cats invariably boasting a vigour and hardihood that our pedigree specimens sadly lack. It is not cold that injures; frost and snow can be borne by grown-up Persians with impunity, and even enjoyment. It is the damp that kills, and upon consideration we shall see that this is largely a question of coat.

Look at your English sleekly groomed puss as she comes leaping across some dewy field in the early morning, pressing through a thick wet hedge. She gives herself a shake; examine her fur: not a dewdrop has adhered, hardly are her pads damp. Now pick up your Persian gentleman who has taken a slight hunting stroll through the same ground: his stomach fur is soaked, clinging like wet linen to him; his "knickerbockers" are disreputable, his frill clammy; and it will take him a good hour to get himself clean and respectable once more. The soft woolly undercoat of the Persian holds water like a sponge, where the close short coat of the British cat shakes it off as from a duck's feathers. This is the true secret of the delicacy of the Persian. So in rearing kittens, let your first care be, avoid damp.

A sick kitten generally forgets its manners, however carefully it has been trained to the use of the dry earth or sawdust box; it seems to feel too bad to care how it behaves, so due allowance must be made at the time; but in health, cleanly behaviour must be insisted upon from the time they begin to trot about their nursery. Begin by placing a very shallow tray of nice dry fine earth in one or two corners that the kittens seem to have a predilection for; it may even be necessary to put them in all four corners for a little while to convince some obstinate or dullard member of the family.

A cat's confidence is harder to win than a dog's, but once you have gained it the animal will trust you implicitly, and will bear pain or nasty dosing at your hands without resentment. I think kittens should be handled from early days. I do not advocate a valuable kitten being sent up to a human nursery, to be hugged flat or carried head downwards by the too-adoring occupants; but kittens should be thoroughly accustomed to human society and to being picked up, caressed, and handled. It will make their subsequent show career far less of a terror, and greatly augment their chances of success; and in the case of all male cats, whether for stud or neuter, it is very convenient to train them to walk on a lead. Begin by using a light ribbon, and two kittens led together on separate leads will come more willingly than one. The first lessons in walks might terminate at the feeding dish, so that the kits would quickly associate this new form of exercise with something to eat.

It sometimes happens that young kittens are too early bereft of maternal care from some cause or another. Mr A Ward, of Manchester, has invented an artificial foster-mother. This consists of a glass vessel covered with flannel, and having indiarubber teats. This is filled with warm milk and water, and the kittens help themselves!

It is only of comparatively recent date that any serious attention has been given to the successful breeding of Persian kittens. A demand has arisen for animals that approach perfection, according to a recognised standard of points, and it may not be unprofitable to devote a few pages to the consideration of how these can be obtained. Formerly a long-haired cat was not much thought of unless he really deserved his name, but nowadays coat is rather at a discount on the show bench. Points, points, points - colour of eyes, colour of coat, expression, and what not - these are all considered first, and length and beauty of coat are rather apt to be overlooked.

The amateur cat lover should provide himself with a female cat or kitten of fine health and luxuriant coat, and treat it precisely like any other "well done by" domestic pussy. Probably by the time she is twelve months old she will have insisted on matrimony. This is worth a little consideration and trouble, but if the choice lies between a health, hardy longhaired tom at large in your own neighbourhood and a pedigreed prisoner at a distance, I should recommend the local monsieur. What you want is physique and a fine appearance, and you are more likely to get them in this way. Many owners of Persians have been quite content to rear saleable kittens of average merit, and trust for their show reputation to fine animals bought from others. To encourage breeders, special prizes are offered at shows to those who in a first with a cat whose mother was in the exhibitor's possession at the time of the kitten's birth. They are very handsome trophies, and have to be won four times before becoming the property of the exhibitor.

Over against the mistake motto of "Haphazard" we must place the password of "Selection" if we would become successful breeders. Selection - clever, thoughtful, painstaking selection - lies beneath all real success. I am not denying that excellent results are obtained occasionally by accident, but these happy flukes want following up if any permanent good is to be effected. Having a queen of a given colour you should as a rule, mate her only with a cat of the same colouring, and be especially careful not to cross self-colours with tabbies.

Now selection, as too often understood, means just this: a male cat makes a great sensation at a show and wins many prizes. He is the right colour, therefore to him you will send your queen. What can be simpler? Why this fuss about the difficulty of breeding?  But you are a novice, and know nothing of the value of the pedigree owned by the winning monsieur. It is not so much he himself as his inherited tendencies you have to consider, for assuredly they will reappear in his children [note: essentially, Simpson was talking of recessive genes]. An old hand will tell you, "Yes, a grand head, but where he got it from is a miracle, with such parents"; or, "Colour? Yes, first-rate, but he was the only one clear from sandy in the litter." Well, what can a bewildered novice do? Remember, you have to try to cap each of your queen's defects with a corresponding virtue in her mate. If she is snipey in face, make head a chief point; if she fails in colour, lay great stress on colour and so on. My advice is, do not send her to a new star who has but just risen in the sky of the cat world until you know a little more about your business. Mark your catalogue at shows. Study the cats and kittens whose points please you and who are filling the prize list, and then notice their sire's name. When you find the same name repeated again and again, and always attached to animals of consistent merit, you will not do far wrong to choose the owner for your queen's mate.

But after having exercised all possible care in the selection of a male cat, we must not expect the litter of kittens to be perfection. All breeders know that there is, as a rule, one kitten in each litter which far surpasses its fellows in beauty. Perhaps one will possess the type of head you so cover, but the colour is inferior. Another has colour or markings to perfection, whilst the head is poor.. Well, then, they must be mated with an eye to remedying these defects, and a near relative possessing these strong points will be likely to prove the most successful cross; for in-breeding - careful, cautious, and judicious - is another secret of the successful breeder. But one word of caution to the novice: Never be persuaded to breed from an unhealthy animal, be his or her points what they may, and never allow your queen to mate when thoroughly debilitated and out of health; for this lies at the bottom of the difficulty experienced in carrying out the next point we have to consider - i.e. the successful rearing of kittens. If cat fanciers could learn this lesson, we should hear far less of infant mortality.

For the ordinary mode of kitten rearing it is essential to have proper out-door quarters, and, if possible, quarters isolated from each other. There is nothing more suitable than the portable houses so readily obtained; but these must be on a dry foundation. Sunshine, fresh air, and wholesome food are the essentials of a kitten nursery. Moreover, there must never be many young things kept together. Otherwise some unlucky day you will find a sad-faced kitten looking down its nose, and in two or three days more your whole tribe will be down with distemper and your hopes for the year shattered.

I know it sounds brutal, but I cannot refrain from saying sentiment is the ruin of successful kitten rearing. Some tiny morsel develops a skin trouble, has chronic diarrhoea, bad eyes or snuffles, and we tenderly nurse it for many weary weeks and perhaps save it. A victory? Yes, if the morsel were a gem of great value, one of the "surprise babies" in colour or shape that now and again visit every cattery, it may have been worth paying the cost. For pay we shall have to make no doubt of that. Your kitten nursery will never be quite so healthy again, and in spite of all precautions you will very probably carry sickness to your other stock. I would never breed from unhealthy animals, and I would at once destroy a very sick kitten of tender ages. Lethal boxes rob the act of inhumanity and you will probably have one little tombstone to erect instead of a dozen!

One great feature of success is the boarding out system. Any woman really fond of cats who will take a kitten into the bosom of her family and rear it is a perfect boon. Of course, she must be well paid, but if she is successful you can afford to be liberal. In these cases it is better only to put out your choice specimens that you wish to attain some age before sale or to keep for stock. The others should be sold off at about eight to ten weeks old at moderate prices.

Far more of the trouble with kittens comes from defective digestion than from any other cause, and I suspect we frequently overload their little interiors. When nature makes the small cat turn away from its dinner, we fall into a panic and pour beef essence down its throat. Probably a short fast was all that was required, and it is a mistake to force food until some hours have elapsed. In fact, healthy surroundings and common-sense treatment are the maine secrets of successful kitten rearing.

According to Hester Cochran, who contributed the "Colour Breeding" section to Frances Simpson's "The Book of the Cat" (1903), colour breeding was a most fascinating pursuit, but many cat fanciers lacked the patience to follow their attempts to a satisfactory conclusion. Breeders reported "sports" and "throwbacks" because they did not know about recessive genes or the fact that a female could carry kittens sired by different fathers. Although Cochran herself took a scientific approach to breeding for certain traits, others gave credence to maternal impression and paternal impression. Some believed in the mixing effect: mating black to white to produce grey; mating grey to white to produce pale grey.

Cat fanciers were aware of a relationship between black and blue, red and cream/fawn (dilution) even they did not fully understand the mechanism. Reading Cochran's notes, it is certain she would have been fascinated by modern feline genetics. Her conclusions are based on her own observations or long-hairs, although she emphasised that the same principles applied to short-hairs. Some of her conclusions are flawed because she was seeing the effects of carried recessives and of polygenes; effects which caused frustration to many breeders. In all of her advice she stated the necessity of using cats with the correct eye colour as well as the desired coat colour.

Few colours were recognised and bred compared to modern times. Cochran had no doubt that judicious cross-breeding would result in new colours and had seen a chocolate-brown cat and also a yellow cat with black stripe (probably a golden tabby, since these are related to chinchilla and silver cats which were very popular). She believed that chestnut-brown cats and white cats striped with black could be bred. Others, which already existed, she noted as having no value or being of no interest: blue-creams, blue tabbies and also smokes and chinchillas other than black were merely unfortunate by-products of breeding programmes.

It was noted "American fanciers have always shown a partiality for broken-coloured cats, and orange-and-white and blue-and-white cats have classifications given for them at the leading shows. In England there is a marked antipathy to these cats chiefly because they have little or no value for breeding, though they undoubtedly make pretty pets. Speculative, but, I must add, persevering fanciers might derive interest and amusement from trying to breed out-of-the-common specimens. A black-and-white spotted like a Dalmatian hound, or a cat marked with zebra stripes, could doubtless be produced in time by careful and judicious selection."

Cochran saw no advantage in crossing whites with other colours as the white cats were already excellent in type. "I do not for a moment suggest that good whites have not been bred from coloured parents, but this is unnecessary and undesirable, because there is a risk of introducing coloured patches and smudges and yellow or green eyes, and there is not corresponding advantage to be gained". Cochran did not know that those white cats or patched cats bred from coloured parents were white due to the "white spotting" gene or that "solid white" was a different gene entirely and that, being dominant, it masked other colours. A white was not, as she stated elsewhere, "necessarily white".

Blacks she saw as more troublesome, because "a white is necessarily white, while there is sometimes a diversity of opinion where black is concerned […] A smoky or dirty black is an abomination, and for this reason I consider that from the point of view of the black cat, all crosses with blues, smokes, or silvers should be avoided; in any case, a good silver would be impossible because of its green eyes. A rusty black is undesirable, but a rusty kitten usually makes a better-coloured cat than a smoky one, though there are notable exceptions to this rule. A good orange-eyed tortoiseshell or red tabby, or an orange, are all suitable mates for a black. A curious thing I have noticed is that the best blacks are bred from bright clear-coloured cats, and that dull colours, such as smokes, blues and fawns, do not, as a rule, produced good-coloured kittens." This made it preferable to have blacks bred from silver tabbies rather than from dark brown tabbies, while a brightly coloured tortoiseshell supposedly threw the best blacks of all.

Since these observations were based on long-hairs, it is entirely possible that some of those "smoky or dirty blacks" were actually very dark smokes with minimal pale undercoat. Many black kittens have a rusty hue early on, this probably distinguished solid blacks from dark smokes. Many adult blacks have a rusty hue due either to the bleaching effect of sunshine or to poor nutrition; both of which were possible in the late 1800s.

Cochran discouraged the crossing of blues with any other colour as there were so many different blue strains. "I have often heard that crossing a blue with a white will produce very pale blue kittens; I have not found this to be so, and it seems unlikely, for mate a black cat with a white one as often as you like, and you may wait a lifetime before they breed a blue kittens; therefore why should a dark blue and a white produce a pale blue kitten?" This would, unknown to Ms Cochran, have depended on what colour was being masked by the dominant white colour and on whether the black cat carried blue.

If a blue was mated to a black to improve type or eye colour, she wrote "Let the black parent be the male, as otherwise the kittens may very likely all be black." Presumably she had noticed that some black cats also carried blue, but had concluded that this effect was related to gender.

The best crosses for a chinchilla were, in order of preference, the smoke, then the black, then the white. A cat produced from crossing with a white tended to be a dingy, dirty white cat (probably due to whatever colour the white was masking!), which though not attractive in itself, could be crossed with a chinchilla, a black or even a blue. However blue chinchillas were undesirable "A blue cross is, as a rule, rather objectionable, because it seems to produce a muddy, dull colour." Cochran had noticed a link between chinchilla and tabby, although she again concluded that this was due to the gender of the blue parent. She wrote that if a blue was used, the blue parent "should be the sire, as when the reverse is the case the kittens are frequently blue tabby."

"I must confess that chinchilla kittens occasionally turn up most unexpectedly. I recollect a very pale one appearing in a litter whose sire was a cream of brown tabby and cream parentage, and whose dam was a pale blue bred from a blue and a blue tabby. There may have been silver tabby blood in the strain, but certainly no chinchilla." It is now known that silver tabby and the chinchilla (and shaded silver) are genetically very similar. Cochran's personal experience was that some excellent chinchillas, although of irreproachable (i.e. excellent pedigree) chinchilla parents, produced only brown tabby kittens, however they were mated.

A major fault with brown tabbies was markings which were too heavy and which spread into a heavy black saddle obscuring the clear golden-brown ground colour; often the brown tabbies also had white chins which were a fault. With the "sable cat", a white chin was forgivable, because he was such a magnificent animal, but Cochran cautioned that a sable cat was not a tabby and should not be shown as one. To counter the tendency for over-heavy markings "A cross of strongly marked red tabby is the thing; not a 'self orange' mind you - that would only make things worse - but the best coloured red, with a dark chin."

There were considered to be two varieties of brown tabby: the sable colour and the old brown colour. Sables were considered more attractive, but were prone to white lips chins. Breeders wanting to produce the ideal brown tabby for exhibition were advised to breed together the "old coloured brown" tabby and the sable variety. Red tabby short-hairs were prone to having white markings on the chest.

After mating to another colour, there was a danger of the colours "washing out" (without knowing it, she was describing the effects of polygenes), though the brown tabbies were less prone to this than the silver tabbies. Cochran remarked that she had bred beautifully marked clear silver tabbies from a brown tabby sire and a sandy, silver tabby female, both of unknown pedigree.

Just as blue is the dilute of black, cream is the dilute of red. Other genes make reds and creams richer or paler in colour. In 1903, "red" referred to the richer colour while others were "orange". Cream was described as a pale, yellow. There were also "fawns" - what we would call "hot" creams and what others called "biscuit" - and Cochran wrote that fawns and creams should not be confused although they sometimes appeared in the same litter.

Although the blue-cream tortoiseshell was held in little regard, the standard tortoiseshell (black and red) was considered very useful in breeding programs. Lacking a modern genetics knowledge, the late 1800s breeder noticed only that a tortoiseshell female produced a whole spectrum of different coloured kittens. In long-hairs at least, the tortoiseshell was becoming valued for the kittens it could produce rather than for its own looks:

Brindling, or the "over-running" of the black by red and yellow, was a problem. Clear patches were preferred, particularly in long-hairs. The best tortoiseshells were bred from blacks. A black and a red tabby or orange produced good tortoiseshells. A tortoiseshell and a black-and-white, rather than a tortoiseshell and a white, produced tortoiseshell-and-whites Red tabbies were to be avoided in producing tortoiseshell-and-whites because of the tabby markings they produced. Elsewhere, editor Frances Simpson had noted that attempts to breed tortoiseshell males were unsuccessful.

Although the detailed genetics knowledge of dominant and recessive genes was lacking, and some of her own conclusions were incorrect, Cochran observed that the ancestors of cats had to be taken into account when pairing cats together. "When breeding chinchillas, if we used a black bred from a brown tabby mother the results would be disastrous".

Medical

From the 1880s, it was generally believed that cats were becoming weaker than their predecessors. This was blamed in part on the breeding (or inbreeding) of delicate pedigree cats, especially imported varieties such as Angoras, which supposedly brought disease with them. Many of the home remedies used by owners contributed to early death of the cats they were trying to make well. The less harmful early remedies included eating a whole kipper (including bones) to remedy constipation; or dosing the cat with crushed clay pipes to remedy diarrhoea. A regular dose of fish oil kept cats regular and was believed to protect them against worms. In 1901, the only documented feline ailments were colds, pleurisy, distemper, mange, worms, fits, diarrhoea and constipation.

In 1901, "How to Keep Your Cat in Health" written by "Two Friends of the Race" contained such advice as "If your cat should be taken ill, have as little as possible to do with drugs, unless it be in the homeopathic form". Cats with colds could be given a tonic of tincture of arsenicum in a spoonful of milk. The same treatment was advised for other ailments such as distemper, along with a mixture of eggs, cream and brandy. Tincture of arsenicum could also be given for mange. The symptoms of mange were to be treated with sulphur ointment, carbolic acid ointment, green iodide of mercury ointment and acid sulphurous lotion. Arsenic was used as both a tonic and an antiseptic. Prussic acid was used as an anti-spasmodic and also for pain relief. Lead was used as an astringent and also a sedative. Most of these remedies are actually poisonous.

To set a broken bone, a papier mache cast was made. Brown paper was soaked in boiling water, the excess water was squeezed out and the papier mache was moulded onto the broken limb. Strips of calico fabric or linen were laid over this to hold the cast in place. This treatment (immobilisation using a cast) is familiar and effective, even if the materials are not.

The most serious feline disease was distemper, now called Feline Infectious Enteritis (panleucopaenia) though some early descriptions confuse it with cat flu (calicivirus etc). It was also known as "show fever" since cats returning from shows often developed it as a result of mixing with cats carrying the disease (the "mother and kitten" classes at early shows were particularly vulnerable). "Show fever" was sometimes blamed on a jealous competitor poisoning cats. Another name was "market fever" since kittens or cats purchased from crowded markets often went down with the disease. Whatever the name used, distemper wiped out entire breeding lines, but no-one understood how it was transmitted.

Distemper was believed to be caused by high temperatures or drought and that outbreaks diminished in cooler weather. Cats with symptoms of distemper were treated with a mixture of castor oil and liquid paraffin which supposedly cleared bile. The owner was instructed to dose the cat every three hours with a dessertspoon of egg white mixed with ten drops of brandy to settle the stomach.

Although distemper has been around since the 15th Century, with major outbreaks in Britain and Europe in 1796 and another in the USA in 1803, the anonymous 1893 "A Veterinary Surgeon" blamed longhaired cats of spreading the disease (they were considered weak and carriers of various diseases). He wrote, "Cats did not formerly suffer from distemper when wild in back gardens the noble tabby ran, but since the long-haired varieties have been largely bred, and the meanest-looking cat may give birth to a long-haired kitten through some casual acquaintance, distemper has become quite common, and many lovely kittens succumb to it despite the most careful nursing and attention."

In 1900, diarrhoea was treated by dissolving I oz of fresh mutton suet in a quarter pint of warm milk. A teaspoon of the mixture was given every two hours. For sick cats not up to taking solids, a preparation of beef called "Somatose" was recommended by Mrs Hardy, breeder of blue Persians (1903). Somatose came in 1 oz and 2 oz tins and was a fine soluble powder. This could be made into a beef tea and, unlike beef essence, the powder could be stored for longer periods of times. The beef tea was made by mixing a teaspoonful with a boiling water and serving when cold. She also recommended "Plasmon" powder for cats and kittens with chronic dyspepsia, diarrhoea or dysentary. Cold Plasmon jelly should be alternated with cold Somatose tea. A cat or kitten with looseness of the bowels should not be given milk in any form. "Salvo's Preventive" was tonic used by breeders of Mrs Hardy's time.

For the braver owner, feline constipation could be treated with an enema of water and glycerine. The other cure for constipation through the ages was a tablespoon of olive oil. Olive oil and cod liver oil (or halibut oil) were cure-alls and preventatives for many years and are still given as supplements today. A suitable treatment for an out-of-condition cat was a mixture of olive oil, milk, cream and salad oil beaten together or, alternatively, sardine oil. A pregnant cat was given a teaspoon of olive oil at least twice a week for the last three weeks. If cod liver oil was not to be had, fried bacon and bacon fat could be given instead.

Cats were generally believed to become off-colour in the spring, losing their appetites, developing foul breath and unkempt coats. A daily dose of cascara laxative tablets supposedly prevented those symptoms from worsening. Failure to treat these symptoms would result in constipation, diarrhoea, runny eyes, running nose and suppurating ears! If untreated, the cat would die from nervous exhaustion, heart failure, enteritis, pneumonia or pleurisy. In all likelihood, the cats were going through a combination of spring moult, hair balls, hormonal changes (they were unneutered) and were picking up external parasites such as fleas and mites. Tomcats were believed prone to summertime skin troubles which could be remedied by a twice weekly dose of olive oil. Female cat sometimes developed skin problems after having kittens; this was blamed on her mating with an out-of-condition tomcat.

Early wormers were toxic to cats and would have killed a good many. In the mid to late 1800s, cats with worms were dosed with turpentine. Turpentine also caused cystitis (inflamed bladder) which could be treated with hot hip baths, linseed poultices between the cat's thighs, warm gruel enemas and opiates (turpentine is toxic and causes kidney damage). It was far safer to prevent worms in the first place and in the early 1900s, a pinch of salt with every meal was supposed to prevent worms. In 1901, regular doses of cod liver oil were considered an excellent antidote to worms.

Despite the vogue for freaks such as "heaviest" or "fattest" cats at shows, obese cats were said to be prone to apoplexy which could be treated by applying leeches to areas from which fur had been clipped or shaved. Dropsy (accumulation of fluid) could be treated by "tapping" i.e. removing the fluid, bandaging the affected area and then dosing the cat with brandy in warm milk as a stimulant. Little was known of dental or oral problems. Mouth or tongue ulcers indicated "internal derangement" and were treated with Milk of Magnesia.

Up until the early 20th century, cats were believed prone to fits, in which case smelling salts were waved under their noses. Fits were believed due to a variety of causes such as eating raw meat, or a female cat having all her kittens taken away (i.e. destroyed) at once. Female cats would supposedly never have fits if they had at least one litter of kittens. Other early treatments for fits were a warm bath and an enema (in the case of female cats whose kittens were removed), or slitting the cat's ears and expelling a few drops of blood. A good many fits were probably caused by the many toxic medications then given to cats.

THE DISEASES OF CATS AND THEIR TREATMENT
Contributed by Henry Gray, MRCVS to Frances Simpson's "The Book of the Cat", 1903. By modern standards, some of the remedies are quite scary; in some cases the "cure" is likely to be as lethal as whatever disease or symptoms the owner is trying to treat.

In the treatment of the diseases of the cat, the correct method of administering whatever medicaments are deemed necessary is a most important consideration. To the uninitiated and timid the task is generally a difficult one, and may, in some cases, appear almost impossible; but with a little practice, aided by courage and determination, the difficulties can nearly always be overcome. The administration of medicine, however, is seldom so easy in the case of the cat as in that of the dog.

Some cats are so gentle that the mouth can easily be opened by means of the index finger and thumb of the left hand acting as a wedge between the jaws. The palm of the hand rests on the top of the head, while the finger and thumb gently but firmly press the cheeks at the angle of the jaws inwards, until they intervene between the finger and thumb of the operator and the posterior teeth of the patient.

The jaws being thus kept open, and the head at the same time raised, the right hand of the operator drops the pill or powder at the back of the mouth between the tongue and palate. This having been accomplished, the right hand is passed under the lower jaw, so as to keep the head raised until the animal swallows, while the left hand is withdrawn from its previous position and the jaws allowed to close, thus facilitating the act of swallowing.

For the administration of liquid medicine it is not necessary to open the mouth The operator grasps the head with his left hand, and taking the spoon in his right he slowly and carefully drops the liquid between the teeth, or into the space between the cheek and teeth, at the angle of the mouth. For the cat, a coffee-spoon is preferable to a tea-spoon, and care must be taken that too much is not poured into the mouth at once. The dose should be administered drop by drop, and time allowed for swallowing.

Vomiting, though a symptom common to many diseases, may be quite natural in some instances, such as over-feeding or during the weaning period, when the mother cat eats a lot of animal food and them brings it home and vomits it up for her young kittens to feed upon [note: this is how dogs feed puppies, cats carry home intact prey!]. The act consists of ejecting the contents of the stomach through the gullet and then out of the mouth.

The causes of vomition are various: worms travelling from the bowel into the stomach, emetics, expectorants, poisons, foreign bodies (as hair, cork, pins, etc); bad or altered food, blood-poisoning, distemper, gastritis, tumours, tuberculosis, jaundice, diseases of the kidneys, etc, may cause it. It may also occur from parasites in the ear, foreign bodies in the mouth, and as a symptom of brain disease, such as meningitis.

Treatment - This depends upon the cause, which should be removed if possible. When due to foreign bodies or altered food, an emetic (especially the hypodermic injection of one fortieth to one twentieth grain of apomorphine hydrochloride) would most likely remove the source of trouble. If the foreign body cannot be removed by simple means, an operation may be deemed necessary. If due to inflammation of the stomach, bismuth and aerated soda-water are of great value. Ice and cocaine or chloretone are occasionally useful when these have failed. Sometimes it is necessary to wash the stomach out with mild antiseptic. If of nervous origin, a hypodermic injection of one twelfth to one eight grain of morphine, or five-minim doses of tincture of opium or bromide of potassium, given by the mouth, may prove successful. When resulting from tumours of tuberculosis, humanity dictates that the lethal chamber should be called into requisition and the animal put out of its misery. Easily assimilable and non-irritating food only should be given for a few days. Aerated soda-water forms the best drinking fluid.

Gastritis, or inflammation of the stomach is sometimes called gastric fever, and when of a mild type, gastric catarrh. Its causes are variable. It may be due to altered or decomposed food, distemper, microbes of various kinds, large doses of emetics or aperients, mineral poisons, chills, absorption of dressing applied to the skin, or licking the same off. It is also caused by worms, especially the broad-necked tapeworm (Taenia crassicollis), travelling into the stomach and setting up irritation. Again, diseases of the uterus, liver, kidneys, and other organs give rise to gastritis. It frequently rages as an epizootic, causing considerable mortality in some catteries, especially after cat shows.

Symptoms - The disease is ushered in by sudden vomiting of the food, followed by the repeated rejection of ropy mucus, and then, if the case is severe, this is succeeded by a thin, clear, greenish yellow or bloody fluid; saliva flows from the mouth, the thirst is great, especially for cold water, which is generally expelled almost as soon as taken; there is a distressed appearance, restlessness, or a frequent shifting of the posture. As a rule, the animal prefers to lie on its belly full length, with its limbs resting on cold objects.

Pressure on the region of the stomach causes moaning and sometimes vomiting. After the lapse of some time, when a fatal termination is advancing, the eyes appear sunken, the pupils become dilated, the expression is sad, the animal becomes cold and indifferent to his surroundings, the mouth gives off an offensive odour, and the coat is dull, open, and lustreless. The animal dies either in a comatose state or from sudden failure of the heart during a fit of vomiting.

Treatment - If recognised early, an emetic is sometimes very useful in cutting short the complaint. No food or ordinary water should be allowed until twenty-four to forty-eight hours have elapsed since the last vomiting; but a teaspoonful of Brand's essence of beef jelly and two to four tablespoonfuls of aerated water should be given every four hours. Bismuth subnitrate of carbonate in five-grain doses may be shaken on the tongue and hour before these two latter are administered. [note: the inability to diagnose the cause- simple gastritis vs FIE - makes treatment hit-or-miss]

If this means of treatment should prove ineffectual after twenty-four hours, one may conclude that the disease is of a severe type, and in this case one to five minims of the liquid extract of opium in a little mucilage, or chloretone, half to two and a half grains, should be given every three hours. Feeding by means of rectal suppositories, or injection of an ounce of milk containing a little common salt, may be attempted. Finally, if this fail, washing out the stomach with borax or boracic acid, or chinosol and warm water, and a hypodermic injection of bullock's or sheep's serum might be tried. In gastric inflammation due to infection the hypodermic injection of quinine hydrochloride or trichloride of iodine will sometimes answer when everything else has failed. Cocaine and orthoform have no advantage over opiates, especially the denarcotised preparations, in soothing the stomach. Ice in small pieces pushed down the throat sometimes answers in assuaging the thirst when the soda-water does not. In the chronic form, doses of one eighth to half grain of calomel or mercury with chalk given in bismuth three times a day are beneficial in many instances.

Enteritis, or inflammation of the intestines or bowels, frequently co-exists with gastritis, and then the disease takes on the term of gastro-enteritis. The causes, like those of gastritis, are various. It may be due to infection, bad food, drugs, foreign bodies, chills, distemper, intussusception or irritating enemas, etc. There also seems to be a special contagious type of this disease which frequently causes great mortality in catteries, especially with kittens. Generally the small intestine forms the seat of the disease, which may in rare cases, however, extend the whole length of the bowel, which is sometimes lined with croupy or diphtheritic membrane.

The symptoms are restlessness, great pain, frequent crying or moaning, offensive and profuse and frequent diarrhoea. The dejections varying in colour and consistence and frequently containing blood, and sometimes vomiting, especially when the stomach is implicated; thirst is intense, food is refused, the animal is cold, haggard, and depressed; its fur is dull, open, and lustreless, and becomes soiled, giving off an abominable odour. When the abdomen is manipulated, the animals cries or moans from the pain caused. If the pupils are dilated and the expression has an anxious appearance, and emaciation is rapid, a fatal termination may be anticipated.

The treatment varies according to the cause. If the case is seen in the early stage a tea- to a dessert-spoonful of castor-oil containing 1 to 2½ minims of liquid extract of opium may be given at once, to clear out any irritating material from the bowels and also to allay pain and irritation; or morphine in one sixteenth to one twelfth grain doses may be injected under the skin every four hours. Bismuth salicylate, in five grain doses, should be dropped on the tongue about the same time. Starch enemas containing liquid extract of opium may also be administered. Boiled milk containing bicarbonate of sod should be given in small and repeated quantities.

Turpentine stupes frequently applied to the abdomen are recommended, but where this is objected to, the floor of the abdomen may be painted with tincture of capsicum or tincture of iodine, until soreness is produced, the hair being first clipped off.

In those cases of epizootic nature, isolation is called for. The food and surroundings should be changed, and the catteries and utensils thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. In the chronic form a powder composed of bismuth salicylate 2 to 5 grains, and beta-naphtol 1 to 2½ grains, should be shaken on the tongue three times a day. Milk and rice for the best diet.

Diarrhoea, like vomiting, is not a disease of itself, but an expression of many different affections. It may be salutary or otherwise. It may be due to aperients, irritating or indigestible food, microbes, diseases of the bowels, kidneys, and liver. It frequently results from distemper or gastro-enteritis, tuberculosis, intestinal cattarrh, and from licking applications put on the skin in the treatment of skin affections. Sour milk, tainted milk or fish, and chills will also induce it. In kittens, improper food, especially during hot weather, is a common cause.

The symptoms are a looseness of the dejections from the bowels, which are passed several times a day. The stools vary in colour according to the food taken by the animal, or according to the severity of the cause; they are generally of a very offensive odour, and may contain blood.

Treatment - If the cause of the diarrhoea is due to irritating food, a dose of castor-oil will be beneficial. When due to catarrh of the bowels, the carbonate subnitrate, or salicylate of bismuth, in five-grain doses, two or three times a day, is the most appropriate treatment. If it is associated with distemper, or typhus, the bismuth salts mentioned above, or tannablin or tannigen, in 2½- to 5-grain doses, are suitable. For chronic diarrhoea, 2½ to 5 grains of salicylate of bismuth, with 1 to 5 grains of beta-naphtol, given three times a day on the food, is generally followed by recovery. Failing this, a mixture composed of dilute sulphuric acid, concentrated infusion of cloves, and concentrted infusion of haematoxylin should be tried. When the diarrhoea is due to irritation of the so-called large or posterior bowel, injections containing starch, laudanum, and tannic acid should be used.

As long as the diarrhoea lasts, no meat or meat infusions should be given. But milk, rice-pudding, bread and milk, and such-like food are suitable [note: we now know that milk causes, rather than reduces, diarrhoea]. 

Constipation is an impaction of faeces in the hind bowel, and is generally due to weakness of this portion of gut, or results from a cleanly animal having no place to evacuate its faeces in. Sometimes it is due to a ball of fur, and occasionally foreign bodies, such as cat's-meat skewers, being swallowed along with the meat by a greedy animal. When due to paralysis of the bowel, which is occasionally seen in young cats, the abdomen becomes distended by the faeces in the bowel. It also occurs as a symptom of spinal paralysis. The non-passage of faeces seen in cats when not well and not taking solid food must not be confounded with constipation.

The symptoms, as a rule, are the non-passage of faeces for some time, distension of the abdomen, and impaction of the bowel with faeces which can be felt by manipulating the abdomen.

Treatment - A dose of castor-oil and an enema of soapy water or glycerine will generally put matter right. If these means do not succeed, massage or kneading of the bowels, by grasping the abdomen with the hand and alternately compressing and relaxing the grasp, will assist to stimulate the intestines to force on their contents. Of course, this only applies when impaction is due to soft material and not hard foreign bodies, which, in this latter case, should be removed by the fingers or forceps. If any irritation of the mucous membrane, evidenced by frequent straining as if to pass faeces, remains after the bowels have been relieved, an enema of warm salad-oil, containing a few drops of liquid extract of opium, will allay it, and prevent straining. In case of the bowel remaining weakened or paralysed so as to bring about a recurrence of the constipation, pills containing one sixteenth grain of the alcoholic extract of nux vomica should be administered morning, noon, and night after food.

Cats, like all other animals, are liable to be infested with worms, which may not cause any disturbance, unless in great numbers or when another disease is in existence.

The Common Round-worm is very prevalent in young kittens, generally when they are living on milk, upon which these worms thrive. Their natural residence in the cat is in the small intestine, but sometimes they wander from here into the stomach, and set up vomiting and occasionally convulsions.

Treatment - The worms should be expelled and the animal fed on a nutritious and stimulating food, such as raw fish, raw meat, and fresh birds. The milk, to which is added a pinch of salt, should be boiled. The best remedy to expel these worms is santonin given along with or followed by an aperient. The following is a convenient formula: Santonin 1 grain, Calomel ½ grain. This powder is to be dropped on the back of the tongue of an adult cat after fasting twelve hours, every other morning, until four doses have been given. Half this quantity is suitable for a cat three or four months old, and a quarter for a kitten of a month to six weeks of age.

The commonest Tapeworm of the cat is the Taenia elliptica vel jelis, with which fifty per cent or more are affected. It is caused by fleas, lice, and mange-mites, which have at some time or another infested the cat. They do not seem to cause much harm, even when numbering hundreds. In one case that I encountered the cat was in the pink of condition, and yet I found 700 of these worms. It is a delicate tapeworm with joints resembling a cucumber in outline. The ripe joints, which are often of a reddish tint, frequently become detached, and pass with the faeces, on which they are seen. They are generally termed by fanciers maw-worms.

Treatment - The worms should be expelled, and fleas, lice, or mange-mites destroyed, so as to prevent a recurrence of the trouble.

Another tapeworm of the cat is the Taenia crassicollis, or broad-necked species. It is seen only in cats that kill and eat rats and mice, in the liver of which the larval form of this parasite resides. It is a big, coarse tapeworm, measuring eighteen to thirty inches in length, and having no well-defined neck.

Treatment - For the expulsion of tapeworms there are many remedies, the best of which are areca nut, kamala, oil of male fern, pomegranate, and kousso, but as the dose of these in the crude in generally too bulky for the cat, it is advisable to give either of them, with the exception of the male fern, in their alkaloidal form, as: Koussein ½ to 2 grains, Kamalin - ½ to 2 grains, Arecoline - ¼ to ½ grain, Pelletierine - ¼ to ½ grain.

Any one of these may be given wither in pill or tabloid form, or rubbed up with milk sugar, as a powder on an empty stomach after the animal has fasted at least twelve hours, and repeated every third or fourth morning. A dose of castor-oil or jalap should be given an hour later. The oil of male-fern is best administered in a capsule. Powdered pumpkin seed may be sprinkled on the food.

Diseases of the kidneys, such as degeneration, fatty degeneration, parasitic disease, tuberculosis, cancer, acute and chronic Bright's disease, and calculi are not rare, but, as the space at our command is limited, we only mention them.

Incontinence, or the involuntary passage of urine, is usually due to weakness of the bladder, brought on by over-distension. It sometimes results from injury to the spine and calculi.

The treatment that is best suited for this is the administration of one sixteenth grain of the alcoholic extract of nux vomica and ½ grain of quinine in a pill three times a day. If there be irritability of the bladder, soda bicarbonate 2 grains and extract of henbane one eighth grain in a pill should be given.

Retention of urine is generally caused by a calculus or chalky material blocking up the urethra or canal leading from the bladder, and preventing the exit of the fluid. If relief is not given to the bladder - that is, if the obstruction is not immeidately removed - the urine decomposes and then sets up inflammation of the bladder, and death takes place from uraemic poisoning.

Symptoms - The cat seems in pain, and makes ineffectual attempts to pass its urine; it strains to no purpose; it seems restless, getting up, lying down, rolling on its side, swishing its tail, looking towards its side, and crying. After a time the animal becomes drowsy and indifferent. If the abdomen is manipulated, the bladder will be felt to be distended, hard, and painful.

Treatment - The only rational treatment is to remove the obstruction and pass the catheter immediately, a special silver catheter, half the size of the smallest human catheter, being required for this purpose. If the urine is bloody, it may be necessary to wash out the bladder with a warm solution of boracic acid and alkalis and sedatives, but no meat or meat extracts should be given.

A Common Cold, or coryza, or acute nasal catarrh, or cold in the head, is caused by exposing the cat to inclement weather, or washing it and not thoroughly drying afterwards. It may also be due to the irritating vapours of chloroform or ether sued by inhalation to produce anaesthesia. Letting a cat out in the cold and wet after it has been used to a warm, dry dwelling sometimes results in a cold. It is not contagious, but is frequently mistaken for distemper [note: viruses and their infectiousness were not understood, it appears to be a description of mild cat flu].

Symptoms - There is frequent sneezing, and sometimes a cough; a clear watery discharge trickles from the corner of the eyelids and nostrils. After a time this discharge becomes gluey, thick, and yellowish or greenish; the eyelids become partially closed, and the haw protrudes over the front of the eyeball; food is refused, or sparingly eaten; the fur is dull and open; warm or dark corners are sought for; the animal trembles and seems miserable. If the throat is sore, there is a cough; the breathing is wheezy, and a discharge may issue from the angles of the mouth. These symptoms generally pass away in a few days.

Treatment - Where many cats are kept, an animal suffering from "a cold" should be isolated from the rest as soon as possible, as it is difficult to distinguish a simple case of "catarrh" from the early stage of distemper. A warm place, well ventilated, but free from draughts, is essential. Raw meat, scraped and given three times a day, is the best diet. Fish, milk, bread-and-milk, or rice pudding should be offered.

A small pilule of half a grain of quinine sulphate should be dropped at the back of the mouth three times a day. The nostrils and eyelids should be sponged with a warm solution of boric acid, containing eight grains to the ounce of water, and afterwards smeared with a little white vaseline three times a day. Sanitas or turpentine should be sprinkled on the floor of the room. Great relief is often given by inhaling the fumes of eucalyptus oil dropped into a jug of boiling water.

Chronic Nasal Catarrh, sometimes called "feline glanders," differs from the preceding complaint, inasmuch as it runs a longer and more persistent course; it may, however, follow on simple catarrh which has been neglected. Distemper is one of the commonest causes of it, but it is also seen after diptheria. It may occur as a symptom of tuberculosis, foreign bodies in the nasal channels, malignant growths, such as sarcoma or cancer attacking the turbinated bones, diseased bone, or teeth, etc. When neglected, it may last for months or even years, and is frequently incurable.

Symptoms - There is persistent gluey odourless, or sometimes foetid discharge either of a gelatinous or yellowish appearance, with or without streaks of blood from the nostrils, the outsides of which are sometimes ulcerated. The throat may be swollen; the appetite and general condition of the animals are often preserved. Sometimes there is an abscess in the inner corner of the eye.

Treatment - in those cases that are due to malignant tumours or tuberculosis, and in consequence, incurable, merciful destruction of the animal is called for. If due to foreign bodies - such as fish-bones, pieces of grass, or food, or to diseased teeth - they should be removed. Syringing the nostrils, so as to wash the diseased lining membrane of the nasal channels, with some mild antiseptic is the only means to insure success. The mode of procedure is this: A skilled assistant must firmly secure the animal between his hands - that is, he holds the limbs firmly - then the operator grasps the head with his left hand, taking care to keep the mouth shut by means of the thumb and index finger, and steadies it on the table; and with the right hand he carefully and gently passes the pipe of the syringe up one of the nasal channels and the presses out the fluid. When this is finished, the other nostril is served the same.

The following is a suitable formula for the solution to be injected: Alum - 30 grains, Boric Acid - 2 drachms, Liquid Extract of Hydrastis - 2 drachms, Warm Water - ½ pint. This should be used every other day until some benefit is derived from it. If the disease is not amenable after a fortnight's adoption of this treatment, the following should be substituted: Tincture of Iodine (BP) - 10 minims, Glycerine - 6 ounces, Warm Water - 1 ounce.

Pills of iron, quinine, arsenic, and such-like, as well as plenty of flesh food along with cod-liver oil, should be given. Fresh air is invigorating, and a change to the seaside sometimes does miracles. Eucalyptus sprinkle about the cat's box is useful, because it acts not only as an antiseptic, but as a stimulant to the mucous membranes of the nostrils.

Bronchitis, or inflammation of the bronchial or air tubes, may occur as a sequel to catarrh or during its course, and may also accompany distemper. It is also due to small worms in the tubes; washing followed by exposure to draughts; medicine, especially light powders, going down the windpipe, etc. It is frequently due to tuberculosis [note: from milk, frequently fed to cats].

Symptoms - There is a frequent cough, the breathing is difficult. The desire for warmth is great; there is shivering, and perhaps a discharge from the eyes and nose. On listening to the chest by means of the stethoscope, wheezing or hissing or bubbling sounds will be heard.

Treatment - the animal should be kept in a constant temperature of 60^oF, and have warm milk and beef administered to it. The throat and sides should be rubbed with oil of mustard. Inhalations of steam are useful with expectoration seems difficult. Kermese mineral (two grains) and powdered squill (one grain) should be given.

Pneumonia, or inflammation of the substance of the lungs, may be due to various causes, such as exposure to cold, chills after washing, medicines passing down the windpipe, foreign bodies, blood-poisoning, small worms, and principally distemper or tuberculosis. It may be associated with pleurisy or bronchitis, and is then termed pleuro-pneumonia or broncho-pneumonia respectively; and also sometimes with a purulent collection or tuberculosis, and then it receives the names septic pneumonia or tubercular pneumonia, or phthisis.

Symptoms - At first there is intense shivering, a great desire for warmth, loss of appetite, dull appearance, dull cough, sickness, difficulty of breathing,  which after some days becomes laboured or panting. On auscultation of the chest the characteristic sounds may be heard. At first fine crepitations, then a day or two after the tubular or blowing sounds, and when convalescence sets in the fine crackling of crepitating sounds are heard again. The cough becomes more frequent and the appetite increases. On the other hand, if there be no improvement, the coat becomes dull and open, the eyes sunken, and the pupils dilated; the flanks move up and down like a pump-handle, and the breath become foetid; food is totally refused, and diarrhoea sets in, a fatal termination is to be anticipated.

Treatment - The animal should be kept in a temperature of 60^oF, and fresh air, but no draughts, allowed. The sides are to be rubbed with oil of mustard, or painted with tincture of iodine, or an ointment composed of one part of tartar emetic to eight of lard. Quinine sulphate, ½ grain; alcoholic extract of nux vomica, one sixteenth grain; and extract of digitalis, one eighth grain, in a pill, may be administered every four hours, and nourishing food given. In the case of tubercular pneumonia, which is generally chronic, the animal should be destroyed.

Pleurisy, or inflammation of the covering of the lungs or internal lining of the chest cavity , in the cat as well as in the dog, is chiefly due to tuberculosis. It may however, result from pneumonia, abscess in the lung, cancer, parasites, foreign bodies, gunshot wounds, cold, etc. It is generally accompanied with a dirty sanious, or clear amber-tinted, or port-wine coloured fluid, sometimes containing yellowish-white strings of lymph floating in it in the chest cavity. One or both sides may be affected. It is usually fatal.

Symptoms - The cat has an anxious, painful facial expression, and moans, or rather grunts, and sometimes attempts to bite when the chest is touched or made to move; the abdomen is retracted, and the breathing, which is short and jerky, seems to be performed by the flanks. There is a slight or suppressed cough, but this is often absent. The animal wastes away, the coat becomes dull and open and lustreless, and the hairs are easily pulled out. The creature hides under the furniture and refuses its food, and when a fatal termination is at hand, the flanks move up and down like a pump-handle, the breathing becomes difficult and suffocative, the mouth, which is offensive, being opened at every inspiratory and expiratory effort; the tongue becomes purplish, the elbows turn out, the cat assumes a squatting position on all-fours, and a foetid diarrhoea sets in.

Treatment - Although generally fatal, treatment may be desired to be attempted. The chest should be painted with tincture of iodine or oil of mustard; if there be much pain, a hypodermic injection of morphine will prove useful, and a pill composed of ¼ grain powdered digitalis leaves, ½ grain of sulphate of quinine, and 1 grain of iodide of potassium, administered three times a day. When the breathing becomes difficult in consequence of the accumulation of fluid in the chest cavity, it may be deemed advisable to draw the fluid off by means of a trocar. Nourishing liquid food, such as milk, Mosquera's beef jelly, or eggs, should be given, little and often.

Distemper is a contagious, inoculable fever, due to a specific microbe (the cocco-bacillus, or pasteurella of Lignieres), and is similar, if not identical, to that causing distemper in the dog. Krajewsky, Laosson, Lignieres, and others have experimentally demonstrated its identity, but I have never observed the cat naturally giving the dog distemper, nor vice versa, and I believe this is the experience of most veterinary surgeons in this country.

The microbe of distemper - which belongs to the same class of micro-organisms, the pasteurella, that causes influenza in the horse, fowl cholera, swine-fever, guinea-pig distemper etc - is generally found in the blood which it alters to such a degree as to make so profound an impression on the system as to diminish its natural resistance to the ordinary germs, which become, in consequence, increased in virulence, and cause the various phenomena by which we know the disease. It is difficult to detect in the body after about a week [note: some cases of distemper could be due to FeLV or FIV causing immune deficiency so that the cat picked up other infections].

The disease varies in severity according to the degree of virulence of the microbe [note: probably due to being different viruses entirely]. If this is very virulent, it causes a very acute or septic disease, as is observed in the typhus of gastro-enteric outbreak, which kills off a large number of animals within a few days or even hours [note: FIE]. If it is of milder strength, we get a subacute form with localisations, such as we usually see in distemper. There is also a chronic form, which lasts a long time, and which tries the patience of the owner as well as the vitality of the sufferer. Finally, a chronic wasting or cachectic form is sometimes observed; it resembles the "going light" in birds and other animals, and may be mistaken for starvation, which it simulates very much [note: possibly FIP, FeLV or FIV].

The microbe may exit in a healthy cat's body for weeks without causing it any disturbance until, perhaps, the animal catches cold, or is depressed in some other manner. However, an apparently healthy animal with the microbe may be infective for other cats.

Period of Incubation - this varies according to the degree of virulency of the microbe and the state of the cat's system and the surroundings in which it is kept. A very virulent infection has a much shorter period of incubation than a mild infection. Whereas the form may cause distemper in from two to five days, the latter takes from one to three weeks. It seems doubtful whether the specific microbe causes the symptoms we usually see in distemper, or whether these are due to a secondary infection resulting from the invasion of the normal microbes of the body, which has become virulent, and prey upon their hosts.

Duration of the Disease - This, like the period of incubation, varies according also according to the degree of virulence of the virus [note: meaning microbe, not virus in the modern sense]. A very virulent virus kills in a few days or even hours, or the animal recovers very quickly. It is not so with a virus of a milder degree of virulence, which may cause symptoms that take from one to five or six weeks to disappear, if the animal recover. In other cases the disease shows itself in so mild a form that it appears like an ordinary catarrh, and recovery is established within a few days. In a few instances death takes place suddenly before any premonitory symptoms have had time to develop.

The principal sources of propagation of the infection are cat shows, catteries (especially those belonging to people who exhibit), homes for lost and  stray cats, and institutions that take in these animals as boarders. The cat dealer's shop is not free from blame - many newly purchased kittens develop distemper a few days after purchase, contracted, no doubt at the dealer's. Many cases have been traced to the cattery where the female has been sent to stud. Hampers, cages, and persons coming from infected catteries are so many media of contagion. Even if a cat has apparently recovered from the disease, it may still give off infection and contaminate other cats for a variable but uncertain period.

Although the disease may be seen at all times of the year, it is most prevalent during spring and autumn, especially if the weather is changeable and wet. Moisture of the atmosphere favours the increase of distemper. Wet, following very dry weather, continuous dampness and rain, all predispose an animal to disease. Where catteries or homes for lost and strays are continuously being washed out and not properly dried, especially in damp weather, before the cats are allowed into the rooms, distemper is very prevalent. Where too many cats are crowded into a given space, especially if the place is badly lighted and not very well ventilated, this is favourable for the contamination of the inmates.

The mortality varies according to the breed of the animal, its surroundings, and the degree of virulence of the infection. Seasons and periods have also some bearing on it. Common-bred cats allowed to roam out in the open at their will are more likely to recover from the disease, but if confined to cages or in catteries, or in the house, the mortality is quite twenty-five per cent. The long-haired cats are less resistant against it, and as many as fifty per cent die. In the Siamese breed of cats, the fatality is as high as ninety out of every hundred. The younger the animals, the greater the death-rate; yet, on the other hand, if old animals are very fat or anaemic from want of fresh air and exercise, the mortality is just as high [note: in long-hairs and Siamese, the mortality was partly due to excessive inbreeding depressing the immune system].

Many cats are resistant at one time against the infection, others have it in a mild form, and yet others have it severely; but this does not always prevent them from having it again at some future period. My experience is that a cat may frequently have a recurrence of distemper at least two or three times, and then succumb to it. One season it may appear as a contagious catarrh, another season as an infectious sore throat, and at other times as a bronchitis or pneumonia, and, lastly, as a contagious gastritis or gastro-enteritis. Frequently all these forms may co-exist in a single outbreak, and often a single animal exhibits the whole of these manifestations. For the convenience of description of the symptoms of this multiform malady we divide it into five principle forms as follows:-

1. The Catarrhal, attacking chiefly the eyes and nostrils
2. The Pharyngeal or Tonsillar, affecting the region of the throat
3. The Pulmonary or Chest form
4. The Abdominal or Gastro-enteric
5. The Cachectic or Wasting

The Catarrhal form of distemper is that which is generally seen in the cat, and is the least fatal of any. The first symptoms noticed are a watery discharge from one and sometimes both eyes, the lids of which may be partially or completely closed, so as to hide the front of the eye, and a frequent licking of the upper lip and nose as if they were parched and burning. After a day or so the inner lining of the eyelids may be very much reddened, swollen, and giving rise to a yellow-white or greenish-white thick discharge, which adheres to the lids and seals them together. There may also be shivering fits, a dull open coat, and a great desire for warmth (this being so intense in some cases that the animals frequently gets under the grate when a fire is in it). There is sneezing, followed by a snuffling kind of breathing; the nostrils discharge a thick, ropy, whitish or greenish matter, which clings to their openings, and very often closes them up. When the pharynx or larynx is the seat of catarrh there are frequent fits of coughing. The appetite is diminished or absent, but thirst is, as a rule, great. There may also be seen at times vomiting, diarrhoea, or constipation. Emaciation is gradual and slight, or rapid and great, varying according to the severity of the symptoms.

The breathing is not much altered in the majority of cases, but in a few instances it becomes frequent. The temperature rises a few degrees, but this is variable, and it is sometimes normal. The body and limbs feel cold to the touch, and sometimes give off an offensive odour. The tongue, lips, hard and soft palates, and gums (especially around the teeth) are occasionally ulcerated. Now and again the eyes become the seat of ulceration, which on rare occasions becomes perforated; at other times they become affected with a severe inflammation, which extends to the whole eyeball and destroys this organ. There is at times dulness [sic] or drowsiness, and the animal seeks dark corners or gets under the furniture. Many cats from sheer nervousness, especially in strange places, avoid the fire and seek obscure or lofty positions. Recovery generally takes place within a fortnight or three weeks, but death may take place within twenty-four to forty-eight hours from the commencement of the attack.

The Pharyngeal, Tonsillar, or Throat form is the most deadly manifestation of distemper. The first symptom to attract attention is the drivelling of clear, ropy, albuminous saliva from the corners of the mouth. The animal crouches upon all four of its limbs; there is a frequent gulping movement, and a sound is emitted from the throat as if there was an attempt to swallow the thick ropy saliva which clings about the mouth and pharynx; the swallowing seems difficult or impossible; food is refused, but thirst is constant, although the animal seems incapable of swallowing; there is a great dulness or depression, and the cat appears indifferent to its surroundings.

On examination of the outside of the throat it is found swollen and painful, the glands are enlarged, and there appears to be a gurgling noise at each inspiration and expiration. On inspection of the mouth and back of the throat, the tongue and pharynx are found to be covered with a thick, ropy, bubbling saliva, the mucous membrane is swollen and congested, and the soft palate is of a pinkish or even dark reddish arborescent appearance, due to the congested state of the small blood-vessels. Sometimes ulcers appear on the hard and soft palates. After a day or so the depression increases, there is a discharge from the eyes and nostrils, which appears at first as a clear viscid fluid, and afterwards becomes yellowish or dirty green in colour, and, if the animal lives long enough, ultimately bloody, in consequence of it irritating the mucous membranes and surrounding skin of the eyes and nose. There may also be a catarrhal or purulent foetid discharge from one or both ears, but this is quite exceptional, and is mostly seen in cases having a fatal termination.

If the prostration is very great, and the discharge from the mouth, nostrils, and eyes become foetid, coupled with total loss of appetite, and no abatement of the other symptoms, a fatal termination is to be anticipated. Late in the complaint the pharyngeal mucus may become of a dirty colour or sanious; purple spots appear on the tongue or gums, and lips, and there is a moan or cry emitted at each respiratory effort; convulsive movements of the muscles of the temples, shoulders, and thighs set in, and death takes place from intoxication. The temperature rises at first, but when a fatal termination is to be anticipated it falls below the normal.

The Pulmonary or Chest form, although not so frequently seen in the cat as in the dog, may appear from the outset as a distinct localisation, or follow or intervene during an attack of the other forms as a complication. It may or may not be ushered in by shivering fits; the coat becomes dull and open, there is sneezing or coughing, or both; tears run from the eyes, and mucus issues from the nostrils, and there is a great desire for warmth. The temperature is elevated, and varies from 102.5^o to 106 ^o (Fahrenheit], but rarely tunning a typical course. The cough, when present, is frequent and rattling or harsh, and sometimes dull. On listening to the chest wheezing, rattling, or blowing, or rubbing, or splashing sounds may be heard. Emaciation is either gradual or rapid, thirst is generally great, but the appetite is diminished or absent.

The breathing is either quickened or the inspiratory and expiratory efforts may be prolonged and accompanies or not with a moan or grunt, which is sometimes associated with fluid in the chest cavity, which is known by the pumping or lifting action of the flanks, this effusion in one or both of the pleural sacs being either of a clear greenish or amber-tinted or bloody or dirty yellowish appearance, and sometimes of a foetid odour. Besides pleurisy, which is only occasionally encountered, there may be pneumonia, broncho-pneumonia, or bronchitis, according to the structure of lung involved in this form of distemper. (For a description of these localisations or complications, see under their respective headings.)

The lesions of the lungs may be slight, and yet the symptoms may be severe; on the contrary, the lesions may be extensive, and the resulting symptoms comparatively slight. If the fever remains high, the appetite abolished, the pupils dilated, the breathing plaintive and very rapid, and prostration great, death soon takes place from failure of the hear due to intoxication. In many cases, though, the fever is not intense, and yet death intervenes.

The Abdominal, Gastric, or Gastro-enteric form of distemper is oftener seen than either the pharyngeal or pulmonary form, and may occur as a very acute and rapidly fatal manifestation, or as a chronic disease. It frequently accompanies the other forms. In acute cases there is sudden vomiting of food, quickly followed by a frequently repeated ejection of thick, slimy, and frothy mucus, and ultimately by a thin, watery, serous fluid, which is of an olive-green or yellowish appearance. The thirst is intense, and no sooner is water sipped than it is expelled. There is frequent diarrhoea; the stools at first seem fluid, then become watery, sometimes bloody, and very foetid. The appetite is suppressed, and the animal becomes cold and indifferent to its surroundings, the facial expression is pinched, the eyes are semi-closed; the coat is dull and open, and on pressure over the region of the stomach pain is evinced by a moan or cry, and death usually takes place in a few hours. There is not as a rule any discharge from the eyes and nostrils.

In the subacute cases, beyond a slight catarrhal discharge from the eyes and nostrils, there may be either vomiting or diarrhoea - often both - and at other instances vomiting and constipation. When the bowels are the principal seat of the disease, vomiting is rare, but diarrhoea is generally persistent. Thirst is great, and food is refused or taken sparingly. The animal is dull, cries if moved or if the abdomen is manipulated; emaciation is rapid, and the animal dies in a state of exhaustion.

In the chronic cases there may or may not be any catarrhal symptoms, but there is a chronic and persistent diarrhoea, and sometimes vomiting. The appetite is capricious or sometimes ravenous, thirst moderate, and emaciation gradual, and liquid faeces may be expelled on the least effort, as by coughing; the fur or pelage around the tail becomes soiled, and, in consequence, the animal gives off an offensive odour. In some instances the breath becomes foetid; the teeth, gums, tongue, and lips are covered with a dirty brown or greenish slimy material; and frequently the gum around the neck of the teeth is spongy, and bleed on the slightest touch. Occasionally the bone into which the teeth are inserted becomes exposed, ulcerated, or necrosed. Ulcers are at times seen on the lips and tongue.

The Chronic Cachetic or Wasting form is sometimes encountered as a chronic wasting malady, not showing many symptoms beyond gradual emaciation, great weakness, intense thirst, ravenous or capricious appetite, and occasional diarrhoea. At other times the animal goes off its appetite, sits about in a mopish manner, has a staring and dull coat, the mucous membranes are pallid, the haw protrudes over the front of the inner portion of the eyeballs, and becomes light in weight.

It very occasionally happens in these wasting cases that the skin becomes the seat of parasitic mange, and, in consequence, gives off an offensive mousy or mouldy odour. If treatment is not skilfully and early adopted, death takes place, and on post-mortem examination the remains simulate those of an animal having died from starvation. It may follow on the other forms of manifestation.

Skin eruptions are rarely noticed in distemper of the cat, but sometimes one sees on kittens a scabby eruption resembling ecthyma, the discharge of which mats the hairs in these young creatures. Female cats, when pregnant frequently abort - in fact, nearly every cat in this condition in a cattery affected with distemper will miscarry, making it appear as if it were a special contagious disease.

The ears occasionally become the seat of acute catarrh or ulceration, and give rise to an offensive discharge. This complication is mostly associated with the pharyngeal form. The cornea of the eye is sometimes the seat of ulceration, which generally disappears as the animal recovers. The whole eyeball occasionally partakes of inflammation, which destroys it. When the eyes of young kittens become the seat of catarrh, the eye is generally destroyed, and consequently the sight is lost. The nervous type, showing itself as excitement, convulsions, chorea, meningitis, or paralysis, although seen, is somewhat rare in this creature [note: this is because the causative agent is not the same as in the dog].

Death may occur either suddenly from convulsions, or rapidly from intoxication, or slowly from exhaustion. When due to intoxication, clonic, convulsive, or twitching movements of the muscles of the temples, shoulders, and hind limbs precede, and are even seen shortly after death. Frequently death takes place without any symptoms of the disease having been noticed. In this case is appears to be due to the rapidity of the formation of the toxin or poison of the microbe, which causes intense shock to the system.

Diagnosis - In many instance this disease is mistake for a simple catarrh, diarrhoea, or sore throat - a mistake unfortunate where other cats are concerned. It is true that the first stage of distemper frequently resembles either of these simple complaints, which are not contagious, and generally only affect one out of several animals kept together, and run their course in a few days; whereas in distemper the disease usually runs a prolonged course, is very prostrating, and in many instances fatal, and, beyond all, contagious. On the other hand, it may resemble diptheria, which is contagious, but has false membranes on the soft palate, pharynx, larynx, and tonsils, which are absent in distemper.

Prognosis. - Distemper is a most treacherous disease, and one of which even and expert cannot foretell the result. Many instances occur in which an animal appears to be on the right road towards recovery, when a relapse suddenly sets in a carries off the poor creature. If the appetite is moderate, the emaciation not rapid or great, the diarrhoea not intense or too frequent, and no complications set in after the end of the first week, recovery may be anticipated. On the other hand, if the weakness be progressive and prolonged, emaciation rapid and great, an offensive odour is given off from the body, and the facial expression is haggard, death is to be expected. Again, relapses (which are commonly encountered), early youth, obesity, complications, the breed of the animal (such as Siamese and long-haired varieties, especially light-coloured animals), are generally unfavourable towards a certain recovery. Chronic nasal catarrh, chronic pneumonia, or phthisis, and persistent diarrhoea may also give trouble after the distemper has run its ordinary course, and will have to be reckoned with.

Treatment - An old maxim is, "Prevention is better than cure," and ought to be carried out as far as possible by isolating all those animals that have been in contact with the infection. Animals coming from homes for lost and stray cats, cat shows, dealers in cats, should be kept apart from those in the cattery for at least a fortnight, to see if they develop the complaint. The place of isolation should have no communication with the building or house in which the majority of healthy cats are kept. The baskets, cages, clothing, etc, should be thoroughly washed and disinfected before they are used again for sound cats. It ought not to be forgotten that persons who have been in contact with sick animals may carry the infection on their hands or clothes.

When distemper has declared itself in a cattery and the inmates have recovered, the place should be thoroughly scrubbed, disinfected, and afterwards lime-washed or repainted. Boiling water and soda, used with the aid of a scrubbing-brush, is much more reliable to remove infection than many of the so-called disinfectants, which frequently do not destroy the virus, but often injure the cats. After the habitation has been scrupulously cleansed, it may be well to disinfect it with chlorinated lime (1 lb to the gallon of cold water), which should be brushed all over the floor, walls, partitions, etc. Baskets, hampers, etc, should be served likewise. Metal and earthenware utensils may be boiled in strong soda-water. Before any cats are again put into the place, the doors and windows should be opened for at least a week, and fresh air and daylight admitted, as they are the best destructors of micro-organisms.

Where valuable cats are kept and the risk of distemper is great, it would be advisable for the owner to have the cats immunised, or rendered proof against the disease, by means of the Pasteurian system of vaccination with the attenuated microbe of distemper, as introduced into practice by Profesor Lignieres and Dr Phisalix. Several degrees of strength of the vaccine are used. The animals is at first vaccinated or inoculated with a mild degree of virus, and afterwards with vaccine of gradually increased virulence, so that the most virulent virus (which would quickly kill, or cause disease in a severe form in an animal not previously inoculated with the milder vaccine) would not produce any disturbance in the vaccinated creature.

Medical or Curative Treatment - The sick animals should be kept in a well-lighted and well-ventilated but not draughty room, which ought to be dry, and kept at a temperature of about 60^o (Fahrenheit). The floor should be covered with a thick layer of fresh pine sawdust, heaps of which should be placed in tins, boxes, or old coal-scuttles for the convenience of the animals.

If the cat is seen in the first stage of the disease, an emetic of ¼ to ½ grain of tartar emetic in a teaspoonful of warm water may be given to clear out the stomach and bronchial tubes. In place of this drug, one thirtieth to one twentieth grain of hydrochloride of apomorphine in tabloid form may be injected under the skin. After the emetic has passed off, easily digested and nourishing food, such as milk, should be offered, and, if refused, forced upon the animal [note: milk would cause diarrhoea!]. When the appetite is fairly good, one eighth to one quarter grain of calomel may be given twice a day, but must be stopped as soon as it causes vomiting or diarrhoea. When the appetite is bad, quinine sulphate (½ grain) given three times a day for a lengthened period may be useful in remedying it.

The eyes and nostrils should be bathed three times a day with the following lotion: Chinosol - 3½ grains, Rose-water - 8 ounces; and then smeared with an ointment composed of Boracic Acid - ½ drachm, Cold Cream - 4 drachms. When the throat is very much inflamed, it should be painted on the outside, after all the hair is clipped off from ear to ear, with tincture of iodine or the aetherial tincture of capsicum, three times a day, until soreness is produced. As it is a difficult job to paint the inside of the cat's throat, the following powder dropped on the tongue will act in a similar manner: Quinine sulphate - ½ grain, Borax - 2½ grains; to be given morning, noon, and night.

If there is either pleurisy or pneumonia, or both combined, the hair should be cut off over the ribs, and the skin painted with a solution of tartar emetic (composed of 1 drachm of the drug to an ounce of spirit), and them wrapped up with a binder, under which a layer of cotton wool is placed.

In case there is repeated vomiting, a powder composed of Bismuth carbonate - 5 grains and Cocaine hydrochloride one eighth grain should be shaken on the tongue every four hours until twenty-four hours have elapsed since the last vomiting took place. If there should be a persistent and profuse diarrhoea, it must be moderated, but not suppressed, by means of 2½ grains of tannigen given morning, noon, and night. When there are any convulsions or much pain, a sixth to a quarter grain of extract of opium in pill form should be administered morning and night.

Light and easily digested food - such as peptonised milk, Mosquera's beef jelly, Benger's peptonised food, etc - should be given in small and repeated quantities during the earlier or active stages of the disease. Later on, in the convalescent stage, scraped raw beef, boiled fish, rice pudding, etc, may be offered. Parrish's chemical food and cod-liver oil given by some cat-owners during the acute stage of distemper when there is no appetite, are harmful and cruel remedies.

The external ear in the cat is short, upright, triangular, pointed and opens in front. Its apex in some cats - especially Persians - has a tuft of hair growing from the inside. In the outer margin the ear doubles on itself, forming a pouch, in which lumps of dirt, ear-mites, etc, frequently accumulate.

A Serous Cyst, or abscess, forms between the skin and cartilage of the inside, and sometimes also of the outside, of the ear or ears. The ear is swollen, feels tense, has a bluish or reddish tint, but is not very painful. The contents of this swelling are a thin, reddish fluid and a blood clot, which separate the skin from the cartilage and its covering. It is always associated with ear-mites, and generally results in the ear shrinking and becoming drawn down, which, when both eats are affected, give the animal a peculiar appearance, resembling some wild variety of the cat tribe that usually carries these organs in a semi-pendulous manner.

Treatment - It can be prevented by keeping the cat's ears clean and free from ear-mites. When it is present, the cyst should be freely opened (which can be done painlessly by previously injecting a few drops of a 4 per cent solution of cocaine), the blood clot carefully removed, and the inner surface of the cavity washed out with a 5 per cent solution of chinosol. The ear must be gently pulled every day to prevent shrinking, and consequently, deformity.

True Canker is an inflammation of the deeper part of the cavity of the ear, accompanied with a chronic foetid, whitish, cheesy, or gluey discharge, and sometimes ulceration, and, rarely, warty-looking growths.  It usually runs a long course, unless skilfully treated, and is liable to recur.

Treatment - The ear should be carefully washed out with tincture of calendula, and then well dried with cotton-wool, and afterwards have finely sifted boracic powder blown down the cavity. This treatment should be carried out at least every other day until recovery takes place.

Quite 90 per cent of long-haired varieties and cross-breeds suffer from Parasitic Canker. It is seen in kittens a month old, as well as in aged cats, and is conveyable to the dog. The ferret also is liable to it. It is due to the ear-mite called Symbiotes auricularum, which was first found in the ear of the dog by Professor Hering, of Stuttgart, in 1834, and in the cat by Huber, of Memingen, in 1860. It resembles the mange and cheese mites in general characters, and is only with difficulty seen with the naked eye. When viewed in strong sunlight, it appears as a small whitish or cinnamon-coloured woolly speck, resembling a grain of meal or flour crawling about on the brownish dirt in the ears. These mites nearly always collect together in large colonies.

There is frequent scratching of the ears with the hind limbs. The cat stops suddenly, sits down, inclines its head to one side, and scratches away as if it gave it great pleasure to do so. In some cases, however, it becomes quite frantic, and swears. Frequently there is an abrasion of the skin behind the ears due to this scratching, and occasionally the flap of the ear becomes the seat of a serous abscess, which I have described. When the mite wanders over the drum of the ear, especially in warm weather, some cats are seized with convulsions, others become delirious, and many reel about as if intoxicated.

Treatment - The ears should be washed out with warm soap and water, and then well dried with cotton-wool, and afterwards have a liniment composed of oil of stavesacre (2 drachms) and almond oil (6 drachms), mixed together, and poured in every day until all signs of irritation have passed away, care being taken to wipe off the superfluous dressing from the ears after each dressing.

In certain respects the eye of the cat differs from that of the other domesticated animals. It resembles the eye of the dog in its shape, which is somewhat rounded and globular. The membrana nictitans, haw or third eyelid, is not so well developed as in some other animals, as the cat is able to protect the eye with the paw to a considerable extent. The tapetum lucidum is of a brilliant metallic golden yellow or greenish (in Siamese and albino cats pinkish colour), and is so well developed that it probably enables the animal to see better at night, by reflecting the rays of light a second times through the retina. It is also the cause of the well-known glare of the cat's eyes in the dark.

The iris, or curtain, is yellowish-green, orange, or golden in most cats, sometimes it is amber-coloured, and in other cases golden with a tinge of metallic green around the pupillary circumference. Some cats, especially white cats, have the iris of one of the eyes of a bluish white appearance, and the other a golden, amber, or greenish colour. The Siamese cat and many white cats have pale blue or bluish eyes. The shade of the iris generally varies with the colour of the cat's fur, and is taken into consideration in the judging of points at shows.

The pupil, or opening in the centre of the iris, when widely dilated, is circular in shape, but when contracted it becomes vertically elliptical, and may become so narrow as to appear as a mere thin perpendicular slit. The optic disc, or entrance of the optic nerve before it expands in the cavity of the eyeball to form the retina, is small, round, and cupped, and of a clear grey colour, and the veins in it can be distinguished from the arteries which radiate from the optic disc. The choroidal vessels are rarely seen, but in the Siamese cat they are seen in the red peripheral zone.

Kittens, like puppies, are, as a rule, born with the eyelids closed, and this condition lasts usually from nine to twelve days, when the membrane joining the two lids together wastes and finally gives way. Sometimes, however, the eyelids do not become separated, or only become so at one part, so that surgical intervention may be necessary to separate the partially or completely closed lids. I have, on several occasions, seen kittens born with their eyes open, but have not been able to satisfy myself if the condition was due to any prolongation of the period of utero-gestation.

The eyelids are sometimes the seat of ringworm, mange, follicular scabies, or eczema, and as these affections are usually present in other parts of the body, they can easily be diagnosed by means of the naked eye or the microscope. The best remedy for any of these diseases, when situated on the eyelids, is: Yellow oxide of mercury - 4 grains, White vaseline - 1 ounce. These ingredients are to be well mixed by a competent chemist, and a small piece, about the size of a pea, is to be well rubbed on the affected part of parts every morning. Care must be taken that no superfluous ointment is left on the hairs, as most cats will rub it off with their paws, which they will immediately lick, and so may become poisoned.

The eyelids occasionally become turned inwards, so that the hairs covering it rub on the glassy portion of the eyeball, and frequently set up irritation, inflammation, and opacity, and a copious discharge of tears. This is termed entropium, and requires an operation. When the eyelid is turned outwards from the eyeball, the condition takes the name of ectropium, which rarely calls for any interference, as it does not injure the animal, even if it is unsightly. A very rare anomaly of the eyelid in the cat is when the hairs of it take an unusual direction, and rub on the glassy portion of the eyeball, and, like entropium, set up irritation, inflammation, and smokiness of it. This is termed trichiasis, and requires an operation to remedy it.

The eyelids are also subject to wounds, bruises, abscesses, warts, and Meibornian cysts, which do not call for special attention. The third eyelid, haw, or membrana nictitans - though, as before stated, it is not so well developed in the cat as in some other animals - is liable, in debilitating diseases, such as distemper, anaemia, etc. to protrude persistently over the inner part of the front of the eyeball. It will, however, resume its normal position as the cat regains strength, and should, therefore, on no account be removed. It frequently becomes inflamed during distemper, catarrh, or ophthalmia, or from injuries, but should not in these cases be removed, as if it were a foreign body or new growth; a simple soothing antiseptic lotion will put it right as the original disease abates and strength is regained.

Frequently in the cat, as in the dog, just below the inner angle of the eye socket an abscess forms. This is due to pus in the cavity of the jaw bones, called also the antrum of highmore, above the teeth, and is generally caused by some disturbance or disease of the tooth. When the tooth immediately below the abscess is removed, and the abscess cavity is washed out with some astringent, recovery usually takes place. It should, however, be borne in mind that the teeth below the eye are frequently disease, and no abscess is caused by them

A fistula may form immediately below the inner angle of the eyelids. It results from an abscess which opens, and then heals up, to break out again. The process goes on until a permanent opening or fistula remains, from which a discharge of matter issues. This is connected with some disturbance, or even disease, of the tooth or teeth immediately below it. When the tooth or teeth are removed, and the opening occasionally well washed out with some astringent, it heals up and no further trouble is seen. However, it is sometimes due to tuberculosis, and the mere removal of teeth does not do away with the fistula. It is mostly mistaken for a lachrymal fistula.

Sometimes the conjunctiva, or the pinkish membrane lining the inner surface of the eye-lids and the front of the eyeball, becomes the seat of disease. A non-inflammatory swelling of it is seen due to an infiltration of serum. This is called chemosis. It has the appearance of a palish pink swelling all round the eye, which seems sunken in the orbit but does not seem inflamed or painful. It may quickly disappear on dropping a few minims of a 4 per cent solution of cocaine hydrochloride into the eye. It is liable to recur at some future time.

Conjunctivitis, or inflammation of the membrane covering the inner lining of the yes and the front of the eyeball, is also termed external or simple ophthalmia. It is frequently seen in the cat during distemper, diphtheria, catarrh or from an injury to, or presence of a foreign body in, the eye.

Conjunctivitis, or inflammation of the membrane covering the inner lining of the yes and the front of the eyeball, is also termed external or simple ophthalmia. It is frequently seen in the cat during distemper, diphtheria, catarrh or from an injury to, or presence of a foreign body in, the eye. The animal evidently dreads the light, as the eyelids are partially closed, and the haw is drawn a little way over the front of the eyeball. Tears run down the face, and, if the eyelids are separated, and the internal lining thus exposed, it will be found that it is swollen and reddened from the distension of the small blood-vessels. After a day or two, the discharge alters in character, and instead of being watery, as before, appears a yellowish white thick matter, flowing from or sticking to the inner corner of the eye. The lining membrane may become so swollen that it laps over the lids, and the eyeball seems to have sunk into its orbit.

Sometimes it is associated with the presence on the conjunctiva of small, round, pinkish bodies, the size of a pin's head, which completely disappear as the affection passes off, leaving the mucous membrane as they found it. Frequently, there are reddish-yellow granulations or greyish-white, semi-transparent, or glistening bodies, of the size of a rape-seed, or less, scattered over the conjunctival membrane, or protruding from it. To these two latter varieties of conjunctivitis the terms of follicular and granular are respectively applied. They both seem contagious.

Treatment - If the catarrh of the eyes is due to a foreign body, it must be removed. The cat should be kept in a dark, warm place, free from draughts and away from the fire, and eye bathed with a warm lotion composed of the following ingredients: Boracic acid - 8 grains, cocaine hydrochloride - 8 grains, Rose-water - 1 ounce. If there are any granules on the conjunctiva, the lining membrane of the lids should be everted, after the eye has been cocainised, and painted with a 10 per cent solution of nitrate of silver or rubbed with a stick of copper sulphate, care being taken that the superfluous material is afterwards washed off with warm water.

The Purulent Ophthalmia of the New-born is seen in young kittens as soon as their eyes are opened, or even before, and is a very serious complaint, as it generally attacks the eyeball, which it destroys, and consequently the sight is lost. This disease seems contagious. There is a bulging of the eyelids, which are glued together. When these are separated, a thick, yellowish matter flows out, the eyes are ulcerated and perforated, the inner surfaces of the eyelids are inflamed, and soon after the contents of the eye protrude as a fleshy mass.

Treatment - If the eyes are destroyed, the animals should be put into the lethal chamber at once. On the other hand, if there is no ulceration of the eyeball, the eyelids should be separated and the eyes and under-surface of the eyelids constantly irrigated for a quarter of an hour at a time with a warm solution of chinosol. The eyelids must not be allowed to become sealed up, else matter will collect and press on the delicate eyeballs and destroy them. It may be advisable to paint the inside of the eyelids with a 10 per cent solution of nitrate of silver.

The cornea, or clear, glassy transparent membrane of the front of the eyeball, is frequently involved in the disease just described, or it may become inflamed or ulcerated independent of it. Inflammation of the cornea, termed Corneitis, keratitis, or external ophthalmia, may result from conjunctivitis, injuries, distemper, diphtheria, or disease of the brain or nerves, sunstroke, etc. It is very prevalent during the cold winds of spring, and in the majority of instances seems to be contagious. It appears in the form of patchy congestion or inflammation, or at a later stage as ulceration.

One or both eyes may be affected. There is a dread of light, a continual flow of tears, and frequent winking of the eyelids, or almost complete closure of them. The cornea, usually glassy and transparent, becomes clouded by a smoky or milky white film, which has a rounded or irregular form.

Blood vessels, which in the normal state are absent, appear on the cornea, spreading from a part or all round the circumference towards the centre of the eye. If the inflammation is intense and prolonged, the eyeball perforated, and the contents bulge outwards and become rough, dirty, and leathery in appearance, this condition is generally seen either as the result of an injury, or from improper treatment, or neglect of a simple inflammation of the eye. In distemper, the inflammation usually expends itself on some particular spot or spots in one or both eyes. These spots may appear as mere milky-white patches, or they may present an appearance which might lead an ordinary observer to the conclusion that a small piece has been dug out of the eye. They may occur either in the centre of the cornea, or a little above it, or sometimes a little towards the outer angle of the eye.

At the outset the cornea at the particular spot or spots in which the inflammation is localised becomes softened, then bulges, and finally gives way, so that a depression or ulcer is left on the eye. Some time after this ulcer becomes filled up with granulations of a dirty red colour, which afterwards become absorbed, when the cure is complete. Frequently two ulcers appear side by side. Sometimes, when these ulcerations are improperly treated or neglected, or associated with great debility or anaemia, the white speck remains as a permanent blemish, or in the more serious cases, the ulcer perforates the eye, and the contents of which bulge and cause what is termed a staphyloma, from its resemblance to a grape, or the whole eye may become involved in the inflammation and be totally destroyed. In these cases of the destroyed or "lost" eyes, the whole eyeball has a greenish-white appearance, and seems to bulge out from the socket in consequence of the general swelling of the organ. It may give way or become ulcerated, giving rise to a continual discharge, and if not removed causes great pain and exhaustion.

Treatment - The cat should be kept in the dark, and soothing antiseptics applied to the eye. The solution recommended for conjunctivitis is also very serviceable here. If the eye affection is due to distemper or any other general disease, it is, of course, necessary to treat this disease in addition to the local applications to the eye. When ulceration takes place, the following drops are recommended: Eserine salicylate - ½ grain, Distilled water - 2 drachms. To be instilled between the eyelids by means of an eye-dropper, two or three times a day. If, however, there is much vascularity, the following drops are advisable: Atropine sulphate - ½ grain, Cocaine hydrochloride - 6 grains, Distilled water -2 drachms. After all the acute symptoms have passed away, the indolent granulations may require treatment. A suitable application for this purpose is: Chinosol - 3½ grains, Rose-water - 8 ounces; to bathe the eye, by means of allowing the lotion to drop by squeezing a piece of lint saturated with it between the eyelids several times a day.

When the eye is irretrievably lost, and suppuration commences in the interior of the eye, it is necessary to remove the whole eyeball. However, this should not be performed in the case of distemper until after the original disease abates, else removal of one eye will probably end in destruction of the other.

General Remarks on the Eye - In all affections of the eyes, a careful examination of them should be made by an experienced qualified veterinary surgeon. As, however, in some out-of-the-way places professional aid is difficult, if not impossible to obtain, a few brief hints as to general treatment should be useful. Many amateurs, in their anxiety to effect a speedy and complete cure, attempt too much, use powerful and irritating drugs (often also in improper proportions), and frequently, with the best intentions in the world, succeed in permanently injuring or even destroying the sight. It is therefore better, in the absence of professional aid, and especially in the earlier stages of inflammation of the eyes, to trust to mild and palliative treatment, and to "give nature a chance".

In all cases of recent inflammation, soothing applications should be used, such as warm infusion of poppy-heads or camomile flowers, warm milk, cocaine drops, etc. if the inflammation is associated with increased tension of the eyeball, due to an excessive quantity of fluid within it, or is accompanied by deep ulceration, the increased tension should be reduced by means of the eserine drops.

Lotions containing either lead or silver nitrate should not be used in inflammation of the cornea associates with ulceration, as the former is apt to leave a white spot or patch, and the latter a brown or blackish stain. Last, but by no means least, animals affected with disturbance of the eyes should be kept in the dark, or at any rate away from the fire of from any glaring light, and should be shielded from draughts. The general health should also be looked to, and nourishing food given.

The cat is very fortunately free from many of the skin complaints that affect the dog. Nevertheless, domestication and improper surroundings - the curses of health - demand a few victims now and again, and hence the much-maligned cat is not exempt from this bane. The disease are either contagious and conveyable from one cat to another, or simple and not spread by contact. The contagious skin disease are due either to an animal parasite (as in mange) or to a vegetable parasite (as in ringworm).

Sarcoptic Mange is a contagious skin disease of the cat due to an animal parasite or mange-mite, termed Sarcoptes minor var cati. It generally attacks ill-fed, neglected, and badly housed cats which are allowed to stray, and is seen chiefly in the autumn. It frequently occurs as an epizootic, and where no attention is bestowed on the victims it is very fatal.

The adult or mature mite has an almost circular body. When viewed under the microscope, its limbs seem to be under its body. It has eight pairs of legs in the adult and six in the larval stage. In the female the hind legs are provided at the extremities with bristles only, but in the male the central pair of hind legs or provided with suckers, although the outer pair have bristles. It does not excavate a subcutaneous gallery, or burrow, like the mange mites of other animals, but makes a simple nest, that appears as a minute eminence. The larvae, nymphae, and males wander in the midst of the crusts. It is capable of being transmitted to man, and to the dog, rat, horse, and ox.

Whatever part of the body it first touches, it always goes to the head to do its injurious work. At first, small reddish pimples, no larger than a pin's head or turnip seed, appear; these exude a yellowish fluid which dries and forms crusts. The animal scratches, the hair falls off, numerous other scales appear, and become thicker and thicker, until the whole head and eats become encased in a cast of dirty yellowish crusts. The crusts may be absent in young kittens or cats, but slightly adherent scales are seen instead.

After a time the disease spreads to the neck and shoulders, elbows and thighs, or even to the whole body. In kittens or young cats the complaint is more likely to spread to various parts of the body, but in older animals it is generally confined to the head, or head and neck, but may, as in young cats, spread to other parts or to the whole body, the skin of which, after some time, becomes wrinkled and gives off a musty odour.

The nostrils and eyes may be blocked up by the thickened crusts, so that the animal can see, or breathe through the nostrils, only with difficulty.  The cat hides or strays away, it mopes and seems sad; it becomes emaciated, and indifferent to its surroundings, and finally succumbs to exhaustion or some concurrent disease. It may be associated with ringworm or parasitic ear canker; it is nearly always accompanied by the elliptical tapeworm. It quickly kills within five or six weeks if no treatment or attention is bestowed on the cat, especially if young; but where it is partially treated, it may linger for months, even years. Cold weather retards its progress, but its energy is renewed in the following spring. It spreads slowly on well-cared-for cats.

Treatment - The mangy cat should be kept isolated from the healthy animals, and kept away from children. Its basket, bedding, or cage should be boiled, burnt, or thoroughly disinfected. The cat must be carefully dressed with sulphurated lime lotion, which should be applied by means of a piece of lint every day, taking care that the animal is kept warm and well fed.

Follicular Mange is due to a caterpillar-shaped mite - the Demodex or Acarus folliculorum, var cat - which inhabits the sebaceous follicles of the skin. It is sometimes found in the ears, nose, and head of the cat, but rarely causes severe itchiness. It produces pimples and scabs, which are only of short duration, and seldom occasions trouble. It is frequently associated with sarcoptic mange. The parasite is a quarter smaller than that of the dog.

Treatment - A lotion composed of sulphurated potash (1 drachm), glycerine (½ oz to 6 parts of rose-water), applied by means of lint to the affected part once a day, generally suffices to cause its disappearance.

Grey Ringworm, or Tinea tonsurans, is not a common affection of the cat. It is due to a vegetable parasite or mould, termed the Trichophyton felineum, which attacks the hairs, these becoming much altered and broken, and their ends split up and frayed like a brush. There will be noticed circular or oval bald patches, covered with an abundance of scales, which are of a slaty or greyish appearance, and vary according to the colour of the animal. These are seen on the head and limbs and round the eyelids and mouth, but also on other parts of the body. They may run into one another, and form large patches. There may be itchiness and scratching; and in this latter case the crusts may be covered with blood and resemble eczema.

Treatment - As this disease is conveyable to other cats, to the horse, ox, dog, and children, the affected animal should be isolated and the patches dressed with tincture of perchloride of iron once every third day. (Whole families, and even a whole school, have been known to become infected with ringworm from a cat.)

Yellow Ringworm, or Tinea javosa, or favus, also termed "honeycomb ringworm," is a commoner disease in the cat than grey ringworm. It is due to a vegetable parasite named Achorion Quinckeanum, which causes at first yellow-coloured crusts that are arranged as cup-shaped masses, which disturb the hairs so that they are shed. These cup-shaped masses resemble a honeycomb in appearance, hence its name. The sulphur-yellow colour after a time changes to a dirty yellow or grey. The patches may be circular or zigzag, and raised above the skin, but the centre is depressed so as to give them a cup-shaped appearance. They vary in size from a pin's head to a shilling, or larger. They may run into one another, so that the circular form is no longer present. The hairs are stiff and lustreless, and can be easily pulled out. They seem to grow in the centre of the "cups." After a time the parasite loosens the hair in the follicle, so that it is shed.

It prefers to affect the root of the claws, or the belly, sides of the chest, elbows, head, base of ears, nose, and then spreads all over the body. When it attacks the head, it ensheathes the face and scalp as if clay had been moulded to the parts, so that the eyes become hidden from view.

The cat hides itself, or strays away; it moans or mew, crouches on all fours, and seems utterly miserable. The skin gives off an abominable odour, which resembles mouldy decaying wood in a damp, dark building, or a mousy smell. When the disease is in an advanced stage, the animal dies from exhaustion or some concurrent disease. It affects old cats as well as young ones, and it is said they contract it from mice and rats, which become affected before the ears. A week or fortnight elapses before any symptom appears after infection. Young animals are easily infected, but older ones may resist it. It is transmissible to children and adults, from cat to cat, from man to cat, and from rats and mice to man and cat. It may be associated with mange and parasitic ear canker.

Treatment - The cat affected with yellow ringworm should be kept away from children and other cats; the affected patches may be painted with the following: Salicylic acid - 1 drachm, Ether - 2 drachms, Spirit of wine - ½ ounce, Glycerine - 4 drachms, Camphor-water - to 3 ounces.

The term Eczema is given to all those skin eruptions that are characterised by pimples and vesicles followed by scabs and scales, and accompanied with great itchiness. It is said to be non-contagious, and as far as the cat is concerned this seems to me to be true. On the other hand, in the dog some of the varieties of eczema appear to be spread by contact. It very often runs a chronic course, and frequently recurs.

It generally affects the back, loins, root of tail, and back of the thighs, although any part of the body may be attacked. There is great itchiness, the animal bites or licks itself, the skin becomes red, pimples the size of a head of a millet seed, or even a small pea, appear; these, after a time, burst, and a fluid issues from them and dries, forming scabs. Sometimes the itchiness is so intense as to cause the animal to bite or lick itself until the skin becomes raw and bleeding. In rare instance it produces a kind of mania for licking, which is followed by epileptiform seizures. The hair falls off, leaving bare patches, or it becomes matted together by the gluey discharge and ultimately sheds itself.

In suckling cats, after sudden deprivation of their offspring, an eczematous eruption may appear on the belly, back, and loins, but it is not, as a rule severe. The she-cat, especially of the light-coloured variety, when not allowed to breed, is often troubled with a scattered vesicular eruption, which is too difficult to eradicate, and is very liable to recur. In the castrated male cat it is very common to find a papular and vesicular eruption, which breaks out every spring and autumn.

The causes of eczema in the cat are an unnatural, sedentary life and an abundance of rich food without any compensatory or sufficient exercise in the fresh air. Hot weather, especially when accompanied by wet, predisposes to it, but the affection is seen also in the cold months of the year.

Treatment - the animal suffering from eczema should be allowed as much exercise of its functions in the open air as possible. Grass or freshly boiled green vegetables, or asparagus, should be put within its reach. Raw meat, uncooked fish with the bones in, or birds with the feathers on, or bullock's liver are suitable as ordinary food. Rice-pudding, oatmeal, and milk should not be given.

The treatment of the skin is chiefly local. The itchiness must be allayed. This can be obtained by applying precipitates sulphur (2 drachms), zinc oxide (2 drachms), mixed in olive oil (2 ounces) twice a day to the affected parts. If the eruptions are spread over a wide area, the hair should be cut off close to the skin before applying the dressing. For internal treatment a powder composed of calomel (one eighth to one quarter grain) and bicarbonate of sodium (2½ to 5 grains) should be given twice a day. If the disease runs a chronic course, arsenic bromide or iodide (one hundredth grain in a pilule) should be given three times a day.

The Cat Flea (Pulex serraticeps, var cati) - The cat flea is identical with, but rather smaller than, that of the dog. It differs from the flea of mankind (Pulex irritans) by having black, blunt spines, seven to nine in number, arranged as the teth of a come, at the posterior border of the prothorax and at the inferior border of the head. It is a troublesome pest by irritating and disturbing rest. It prefers to attack the cat when she is suckling. The flea plays an important part in the evolution of the elliptical tapeworm (Taenia elliptica) by harbouring the intermediary cysticercus, the ingestion of which gives rise to the development of this tapeworm in the intestine.

Treatment - The cat should have powdered pyrethrum well rubbed into its skin, and then combed out, care to be taken that the combings are burnt. The crevices or corners of the cat's house shoulf be sprinkled with oil of turpentine, or Sanitas powder.

Fortunately for the cat, it is affected with only one variety of louse, the Cat Louse (Trichodectes subrostratus), which differs from the flea in being wingless and not jumping from but only quitting the cat by accident. It has three-articles antennae, the head has five sides to it; the body is oval, and in the female notched behind. Its colour is yellowish-brown. It is not a blood-sucker, but attacks the hair and eats the epidermis, preferably that of the head, neck, back, and limbs, where it causes intense itching. It develops rapidly upon poorly fed, weak, or debilitates animals. There is, besides itchiness, loos of hair, scurfiness, and nits (eggs) in more or less large numbers, which by their presence indicate that the skin has not received sufficient attention. The nits, or eggs, are attached to the hair.

Treatment - The hair may be sprayed with equal parts of vinegar and concentrated infusion of quassia. Moreover, should the animal lick itself after this dressing is applied, it will act as a tonic. Raw meat, or fish, cod-liver oil, etc, should be given.

A knowledge of how painlessly to destroy a cat's life is very important to the owner of a cat who is not in reach of a veterinary surgeon - the proper person to undertake this duty under ordinary circumstances.

The most humane method is to place the animal in a small air-tight box, into which has been placed previously two to four drachms of chloroform on a sponge or cotton-wool, which produces at first anaesthesia or painless sleep, and afterwards, death from failure of the respiration and heart. It does not cause a suffocation feeling or sensation like coal-gas, or spasm as does prussic acid. Care must be taken not to take the cat out of the box too soon, or else life, not quite extinct, may return.

Euthanasia was also mentioned elsewhere in Frances Simpson's "The Book of the Cat". Unlike some of her contemporaries, Simpson did not recommend the drowning of adult cats as a method of destruction although at that time it was considered quick and painless - one gasp and carbonic acid would build up in the brain, killing the cat. It was, as we now understand, a prolonged, panicky and inhumane method of disposal. Realising that many owners would not have access to veterinarians, Simpson gave instructions on how to make a "lethal chamber". Although more tightly controlled today, things like chloroform were relatively easy for the owner to obtain. In modern times, chloroform is not recommended as it can cause distress, but all things are relative and it was certainly much kinder than the alternative methods available to the early 1900s owner. Though chloroform was recommended, other vapours were sometimes used e.g. coal gas, prussic acid (cyanide), ether or carbon monoxide.

(The 12-animal lethal chamber from at the Royal London Institution for Lost and Starving Cats at Camden Town is illustrated here)

Simpson wrote: Mr Ward, the well-known feline specialist, has patented a lethal box of more moderate dimensions. Mr Ward, not yet having a description of it, kindly writes the description as follows:- "The box inside is 15 inches by 12 inches by 12 inches. A sheet of glass is inserted in the lid, so that the operator may watch the process. The vapour - coal-gas passed through chloroform - enters through a tube at end. Two minutes is sufficient time." Fanciers, I think, will agree that this simple peace-giving box is not among the least of Mr Ward's kindly ministrations to the cat he loves so well. Few amongst as can bear to see unmoved the terrible last pains of a pet who in its days of health delighted us with its beauty.

Simpson also wrote of the humane destruction of unwanted kittens (in this case the kittens of a foster mother, whose natural offspring were disposed of so she could rear pedigree kittens). Simpson wrote that the little kittens taken from their mother for the breeder's benefit should not be drowned. If they must be "sent along the silent road to the Quiet City", it should be done mercifully using chloroform. A big biscuit box, the lids of which usually close tightly, was a large enough lethal box for tiny kittens. 1 oz of chloroform poured on a piece of flannel or sponged laid on a small saucer by their side would send them painlessly to sleep.

Elsewhere in her work, Simpson noted: Cats probably owe this reputation [nine lives] to their extraordinary powers of endurance, and certain it is that they have a greater tenacity than any other animals. At the Battersea Home a dog and a cat have been placed in the lethal chamber, and it was observed that the dog died in five minutes, whereas the cat be breathed for forty minutes longer. A short time ago I received the following letter from a cat fancier:

THE CAT'S PLACE IN NATURE: ITS ANCESTRY, CLASSIFICATION, STRUCTURE AND DISTRIBUTION
Provided for Frances Simpson's 1903 "The Book of the Cat" by Robert Holding. This is one of the first serious descriptions of feline anatomy and taxonomy written for the ordinary cat fancier. It was accompanied by a number of plates showing the skeleton and musculature.

At a very remote period in the history of animal life when the struggle for existence was rife, the carnivorous and predaceaous animals (to which the existing cat belongs) occupied a position in the scale of creation as important as the one they hold today. We find locked up in the rocks of the tertiary and recent pleistocene formations the bones and teeth of these ancient cats along with those of the animals upon which they lived.

These ancestors of our cat had a tolerably wide geographical distribution, and they apparently differed considerably in size, as do the different members of the existing cat family. The crested cat (F crestata) was probably as large as a tiger - more recent remains having a closer affinity to existing cats are found plentifully in caves and in the deeper beds of rivers and lakes all over the British Islands.

Probably the most remarkable of these extinct cat-like creatures is the Machoerodus, the skulls of which, with portions of its skeleton, associated with the bones of other animals, have been found in the cave deposits in Brazil, North and South America, India, Persia, many parts of Europe, as well as in the British Islands - viz Kent's Cavern, Creswell bone caves, and other places. The skull, which is very typical and cat-like in form, is remarkable for the extraordinary development of the upper canine teeth, which in some species exceed seven inches in length. The Machoerodus was about the size of a lion.

The ancestors of our cat were certainly more specialised in parts of their organisation. The nearer we approach the recent forms a greater uniformity in structure prevails, until we get in the existing cat-like group (Felis) probably the most consolidated and uniform of all the generic mammalia.

Under the generic title of Felis are included over fifty-one distinct species, of which the lion, tiger, leopard, puma, and our common domesticated cat may be taken as representative. They inhabit every region on the earth's surface, except the extreme northern latitudes, and vary in size from the tiger and lion to the little red-spotted cat of India, which does not exceed fifteen or sixteen inches in length. But it is, as already indicated, very uniform in order as regards structural points. All have well-developed, retractile claws, the only exception being the cheetah, whose claws are only partially retractile; all have five toes on the fore feet, and four on the hind feet; all the teeth are cusped, or pointed, and specialised for flesh-eating, as well as for aggressive purposes. The incisors in front of the upper and lower jaws are small, the four canines well grown and long, with a cutting edge on the inner side; the molars, or cheek teeth, have one to five cusps, points or lobes. Al the members of the family are digitigrade (i.e. use only the extremity of the toes in walking); the tympanic bulla, or ear-bone, is large and prominent; the general form of the skull is rounded and broad across the orbits, or eye-sockets (the latter are, with two exceptions, open or incomplete behind); the clavicle, or collar-bone, is reduced to a short curved, splint-like bone; in many species it is absent.

The stomach is always simple, intestines relatively short, tongue covered with minute spines. In many species the pupil of the eve contracts in one direction only, thus giving it a linear and upright form. The majority of the species are nocturnal; the habits of the genus are very diverse. The lion apparently prefers the drier, sandy areas covered with short, scrubby vegetation; others prefer the dense forests, and live much in the trees. Many species are found at considerable altitudes, the snow leopard being found at 18,000 feet. All the members of the group can swim, and several species (i.e. the fishing cat of India and South China) are adepts at catching fish, but immersion is invariably avoided.

The colours of the different members of the genus Felis vary considerably. It may be a uniform, tawny, pale brow, or a grey - as in the lion, puma, eyra [jaguarundi]. The tiger is striped transversely; the ocelot has bands or rows of more or less fused spots; the serval and several other species have solid black spots; the leopard, clusters of spots, forming a kind of star; the jaguar has the spots arranged in an open ring. In the clouded leopard of Southern India the markings are composed of irregular groups of lines and spots, merging into the ground colour of the animal's coat. A black variety of the common leopard is occasionally found in a wild state. Albinos, or white forms, are extremely rare in nature, though quite common in the domesticated cat.

The natural food of all the cat tribe in a state of nature is carnivorous, and the whole organisation of the group is specialised and adapted for aggressive or, if need be, defensive purposes. The body is compressed laterally, and has a considerable amount of flexibility as a whole. [This section was accompanied by a standard plate of a cat's skeleton and photographs of the skull]

The bony framework or skeleton is light, and, for the purpose of an elementary description, is readily divisible into three parts - viz (1) the skull; (2) the axial skeleton, comprising the bones of the neck, thorax, loins, and tail; (3) the appendicular skeleton or limbs. The skull is hort, rounded, and broad across the orbits or eye-sockets, which are large in proportion to the skull. The posterior rim of the orbit is, with three exception, out of the fifty-one species - viz the fishing-cat (F viverrina), the rusty spotted cat (F rubiginosa), and the flat-headed cat (F planiceps) - incomplete or open.

The teeth of the fully adult cat should be thirty in number - sixteen in the upper jaw and fourteen in the lower. They are divided by the comparative anatomist into three sets of groups - viz incisors, canines, premolars, and molars - their number and position being concisely expressed by a dental formula thus:- I' 3/3, C 1/1, PM 2/3, M 1/1. The six incisors in the upper and lower jaw are small, simple-pointed teeth, with a simple fang or root. Then we have a long canine or flesh tooth CC'. The most important functional tooth the cat has, for with it and its fellow the living, struggling prey is seized, retained, and killed.

In the upper jaw, immediately after the canine, are three premolars PM. These are the second or permanent series, and succeed the kitten's milk-teeth. The first one is very small, and has only a single cusp; the second is larger, and has two cusps; the third is the largest, and is sometimes called the "sectorial" tooth. It has three pointed cusps and three fangs, or root. Immediately behind it, and place somewhat transversely, is the single true molar. It is a small tooth, of obtuse form, and indefinitely cusped; it has no predecessor in the kitten's milk set.

In the lower jaw, immediately after the canine toot, there are only two premolars (PM, PM') in the permanent set which have predecessors, the last tooth (M) being the only true molar, and having no predecessor in the milk set. Occasionally, in the lower jaw there is a small premolar corresponding to the first premolar of the upper jaw. In the kitten from about six or seven weeks to about five months old, there are only twenty-six teeth, the number and form being very similar to the adult set. The two permanent molars in the upper and lower jaw are absent.

The Axial Skeleton consists of the bones forming the neck, thorax, loins, and tail. The neck is relatively short, and consists of seven bones - a number almost constant throughout the animal kingdom, the giraffe, hippopotamus, and the whale having the same number. Succeeding these are the dorsal or thoracic, vertebrae (thirteen in number), each one supporting two ribs - one on each side. The follow the seven vertebrae composing the lumbar region. They are stout, thick bones, with long, transverse processes for the attachment of certain muscles supporting the body cavity, etc. No ribs are attached to these bones. Immediately behind are three smaller bones forming the sacrum, to which the pelvis, or hip-bones, are articulated. The terminal bones of the axial skeleton are the tail, or caudal, and vary from nineteen to twenty-one.

The Ribs (thirteen on each side) are extremely light, elastic, and slender. Nine of these on each side join the sternum or breast-bone directly, and are called true ribs; the remainder are free, and terminate in cartilaginous points, which are adherent to the true rib terminations, for support. The Sternum, or breast-bone, consists of eight bones, from each joint of which springs a rib-like costal cartilage, to which the true ribs are articulated. The cat's collar-bone or clavicle is very short and rudimentary; it has a slight attachment to the acromion process of the scapula, the other end terminating in the muscles of the chest. It is often absent.

The Appendicular Skeleton includes the fore and hind limbs. The fore limbs in the cat, as in the majority of mammals, is a subtriangular flat bone, with a ridge on the outer side of the attachment of certain muscles moving the leg. In a small hollow on the posterior or lower border is articulated the head of the humerus, or arm-bone; its lower or distal end is expanded, and receives the end of the ulna, which with the radius forms the bones of the forearm. The wrist or carpal bones include seven small bones, the upper row being attached to the radius, the lower row to the five phalanges of the toes; to these latter are articulated the bones of the digits, or fingers.

The terminal bones of the cat's foot are encased by powerful hooked claws. When at rest, the claw is brought to the outer side of the middle phalanx by the elastic ligament, the flexor tendons being relaxed. When the cat is on the point of seizing its prey, the greater power of the flexor tendons stretches the weaker elastic ligament, the claw is brought down, and so a powerful grip is obtained. The under-surface of the cat's fore and hind feet is protected by certain hardened pads of subcutaneous and fibrous tissue - viz the plantar pad, giving chief support to the leg, and the digital pads protecting the claws etc. These pads are, of course, of additional use in aiding the cat's noiseless and stealthy progression.

The cat's hind limb is articulated by a ball and socket joint to the hip-bone or pelvis, which is again firmly united to the three bones forming the sacrum. The thigh-bone or femur sustains the whole body, and has many powerful muscles attached to it concerned in the springing movements so characteristic of the animal; to its lower end is articulated the principal bone of the lower leg, the tibia. At the union of these two bones on the anterior side is the knee-cap, or patella. On the outer aspect of the tibia is a slender bone, the fibula, its outer end being attached to a prominence on the tibia, the lower end to one of the large bones (the astragalus) which forms the tarsus of the foot.

The Tarsal bones consist of seven bones, the largest of which is the os calcis, or heel-bone, to which powerful muscles are attached. Succeeding the tarsal bones are the four bones forming the metatarsal bones (the fifth or inner toe being absent, though often present in the dog). To these are attached the phalanges of the toes, with the claws etc, similar to the fore foot.

A better idea of the superficial muscles of the cat is obtained from an examination of the plate than by any technical description [note: a veterinary plate showing muscles is provided by the authorl be seen that for its size the cat's muscles are well developed; its kin, the lion and tiger, are known for their prodigious strength in bearing away young oxen, deer, antelopes, etc, upon which they live, as well as for their leaping powers and agility and courage.

Although the cat's muscles are identical with those of its more powerful relatives, it lives too much in the lap of luxury for them to attain to a proportionate development. A well-known writer has estimated that there are 500 muscles concerned in the movements of the cat's body.

The cavity of the cat's body is separated into two unequal compartments by a muscular partition called the midriff or diaphragm. In the anterior or foremost cavity are the two lungs, and the heart and its blood vessels; in the larger or most posterior compartment is the stomach, intestines, liver, kidneys, etc. Without a considerable number of diagrams it is difficult to convey in a popular manner some peculaiarities of these internal organs. The cat's tongue is, however, very characteristic of the order, and is easily observed. It is supplied with the usual glands common to all mammals - viz tonsils, flattened soft papillae, four circumvallate papillae, conical papillae, and the more minute fungiform papillae. The peculiarity of the cat's tongue is that the conical papillae are specialised into horny processes or hooks, and are of value not only in assisting to clear the flesh from bones, but are of undoubted use in cleaning the animal's fur. The cat also has the parotid, sublingual, and other glands concerned in the preparation of the food for primary digestion.

The cat's liver is mainly on its right side; it is divided into several lobes, which give it a complicated appearance as compared with the simpler livers of other animals. The gall-bladder is present in the usual position. The cat's heart is somewhat small for the size of the animal, and is not so pointed at its apex as in other animals; the veins entering the heart, and the branching of the arteries leaving it, are nearly identical with those of closely allied animals. The time required for the complete circulation of the blood throughout the body of the cat is fourteen to sixteen seconds. The pulse, each beat of which correlates to one contraction of the left ventricle of the heart, may easily be felt on the inner side of the fore-paw, about an inch above the prominence of the radius; it may also be felt at the same place as the horse's pulse - on the inner side of the lower jaw. There are two other situations on the cat's body where it may be felt, but to find the exact point requires some intimate anatomical knowledge. The temperature, or normal heat, of the body of the cat is 100^oF; it may, however, be slightly above or below this.

The brain of the cat, following the general structure of the higher mammals, is divided into very similar areas or divisions. The larger or more anterior portion is called the cerebrum, and is divided into right and left hemispheres. Its surface is divided into convolutions or gyri by certain shallow fissures, which have received specific names. Very intimately attached to the under-surface of this part of the brain are the olfactory lobes, in which are situated certain nerves concerned in the sense of smell. The hinder and small part of the brain is called the cerebellum, and is much darker in colour than the cerebrum. Its surface is made up of numerous small foldings of its substance, which, on section, look like the branches of a small tree; these branches finally fuse and terminate on the under-side of the base of the brain.

Intimately associated in a most complex manner with the cerebrum and cerebellum is the medulla oblongata, and enlarged part of the spinal cord. The brain of the cat, it may be remarked, is not nearly so highly organised as that of the dog.

In all the higher mammals the eye can accommodate itself to the varying influence of light. This is mainly done by means of the central black part or pupil. The pupil is merely a hole in the iris, or coloured part of the eyeball, and it is by its contraction or expansion that the exact amount of light necessary is admitted to act upon the sensitive retina at the back of the eye. The form of the pupil varies considerably in different animals. In the cat's eye during birght sunshine it is reduced to a thin vertical line; at dusk it expands to a nearly circular form. This vertical reduction is by no means common to the entire cat family. In very many species the pupil retains a rounded form even when contracted to its minimum.

On the inner angle of the cat's eye there is a curious semi-transparent fold of skin, called by naturalists the plica semilunaris, or nictitating membrane. In reptiles and birds this is a very important factor in the preservation of the eye from external injuries, and it acts also as a regulator of the admission of light. It is well developed in nocturnal reptiles and birds, and as the cat's ancestors were doubtless more nocturnal than they are now, it probably was in active use. It is, however, useless now, the cat having no control over it. It is one of many interesting vestigial structures the cat carries about with it of its former ancestry from a lower-organised animal.

Long-continued and systematic study of the habits of living animals has led to the division of the surface of the world into specific areas, called Zoogeographical regions, of which there are six - viz (1) Palaearctic region; (2) Ethiopian or African region; (3) Oriental or Indian region; (4) Australia region; (5) Nearctic or North American region; and (6) Neotropical or South American reagion. The cats of the Old World and of the New World are, with the exception of the debatable northern lynx, specifically distinct. No native cats exist in Australia.

The Palaearctic region comprises the whole of Europe, part of North Africa, and extends eastward to Kamtchatka, and includes the islands of Japan. There area about twenty-one known species of the cat family inhabiting this extensive area, the best-known being the tiger, which is found in Mongolia; the common leopard, widely distributed in Southern Siberia; the snow leopard, wild cats, the lynx, and many others. The Ethiopian or African region includes the whole of the continent of Africa up to the tropic of Cancer, and the greater parts of Arabia and Madagascar. About nine species are known to inhabit this region. The best-known are the lion, leopard, serval, Egyptian cat, caracal lynx, and cheetah. The Oriental or Indian region includes a strip of southern Persia, the whole of India, China, and the Malay peninsula, Borneo, and other islands of the East Indian Archipelago. There are about sixteen species inhabiting this region. The best known examples of the cat family here are the lion (inhabiting the southern portions of Persia), tiger, leopard, cheetah, clouded leopard and a great variety of smaller the species.

The Nearctic or North American region includes Greenland and the whole of the continent of North America down to Mexico City and Vera Cruz. There are only seven indigenous species of the cat family, the best-known being the puma, which also extends into the neotropical region, the northern and the bay lynx.

The Neotropical or South American region extends from Vera Cruz in Central America, through the whole of South America to Patagonia. About thirteen well-marked species of the cat family inhabit this region. The better known species are the puma, jaguar, ocelot, margay, pampas cat, and the curious eeyra [sic] [jaguarundi].