Those countries . . . under the tropic, were of a distemper uninhabitable.
Sir W. Raleigh.
3. A morbid state of the animal system; indisposition; malady; disorder; -- at present chiefly applied to diseases of brutes; as, a distemper in dogs; the horse distemper; the horn distemper in cattle.
They heighten distempers to diseases.
Suckling.
4. Morbid temper of the mind; undue predominance of a passion or appetite; mental derangement; bad temper; ill humor. [Obs.]
Little faults proceeding on distemper.
Shak.
Some frenzy distemper had got into his head.
Bunyan.