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 EABIES AND HYDROPHOBIA.
 
 " Miserrimum genus morbi ; in quo simul seger et siti et aquae metu cruciatur. Quo 
 oppiessis, in angusto spes est." — Celsiis, lib. v. cap. 27. 
 
 "Ex iis vero a Cane Rabioso morsi fuissent, servatum esse neminem." — Oribasitis, lib. viii. 
 cap. 13. 
 
 " Seeing this familiar, the Dog, is the servant of poore men, the delight of great men, and 
 companion of most men : to prevent inconveniences that may fall, Pecori, pecorisq magisto, both 
 to this kinde catteU and their loving keepers, as also to prepare (if need require) a convenient 
 remedie for so disastrous a mishap, I have thought good, thus (as I can) to forewarne their 
 negligence that thinke slightly of such a wound, and to reforme their ignorance, that may be 
 (when time is) to seeke for ueedfuU help, and make bould to direct these my simple labours." 
 — Thomas Spackman, " A Declaration of such Grievous Accidents as Commonly Follow the 
 Biting of Mad Dogges." London, 1613.
 
 ?lat e , 1 . 
 
 ^Ae<^<rrjzi7n t^i/'tA^ tffn^ue^ol'J, Tri/Zamet^ a7/i/^^£^ e>f(/>€ z^cperpff?^tiffn^'t^i^-t^i^vart { i> i?^
 
 ^- 
 
 ]^S^ 
 
 RABIES AND HYDROPHOBIA: 
 
 THEIR HISTORY, NATURE, CAUSES, SYMPTOMS, 
 
 AND PREVENTION. 
 
 By GEORGE FLEMING, F.R.G.S., M.A.I., 
 
 PKESIDENT OF THE CBNTEAL VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY ; MEMBER OF COUNCIL OP THE ROYAL 
 COLLBQE OF VETERINARY SURGEONS J VETERINARY SURGEON, ROYAL ENGINEERS; 
 
 SES AN 
 ETC. 
 
 WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 LONDON : 
 CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1872.
 
 A 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PKINTED BY VIRTUE AND CO., 
 
 CITY EGAD.
 
 TO MY ESTEEMED FRIEND, 
 
 MONSIEUE HENEI BOULEY, 
 
 Member of the Institute of France, the Academy of Medicine, and other learned Societies ; 
 Inspector of the French Veterinary Schools, and Officer of the Legion of Honour ; 
 
 Iritis 'Evt)Xii5c is ^^^'^i^^'iteb, 
 
 IN RECOGNITION OF THE DISTINGUISHED AND VALUABLE SERVICES HE 
 
 HAS RENDERED TO COMPARATIVE ANATOMY AND PATHOLOGY, 
 
 AS WELL AS TO HUMAN MEDICINE, 
 
 DURING A LIFETIME DEVOTED TO THE STUDY AND PERFECTING OF 
 
 VETERINARY SCIENCE. 
 
 Bkompton Barracks, Chatham, 
 March 7, 1872.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Ix\ 1866, while engaged in preparing a work on Animal* 
 Plagues in general, my attention was more particularl}' directed 
 to the extension of Rabies, within a certain period, to countries 
 in which it had been previously unknown ; and also to the 
 unusual number of deaths occurring in this country, and 
 especially in Lancashire, in that year : no fewer than thirty-six 
 persons having been reported as dead in England from hydro- 
 phobia. In 1868 the disease was assuming greater proportions 
 among the canine species, and West Lancashire appeared to 
 have become a centre from which it spread in various directions, 
 until it became widely disseminated, and had attained the 
 dimensions of a serious epizooty — formidable alike to mankind, 
 as well as to the other domesticated animals. There can scarcely 
 be any doubt that this prevalence and extension of rabies is 
 largely due to the ignorance prevailing with regard to its 
 nature, the symptoms which precede its more violent stage, and 
 the almost total absence of efficient veterinary police measures 
 to suppress it ; as well as to the existence of dangerous errors, 
 which have become so deep-rooted in the popular mind through 
 their transmission from generation to generation, that it would 
 seem an almost hopeless task to attempt their eradication. 
 
 Since the death of the distinguished English veterinarians, 
 Blaine and Youatt, it may be said that in this country nothing
 
 viii Preface. 
 
 has been added to our knowledge of the disease as it manifests 
 itself in the dog ; while, so far as the other domesticated animals 
 are concerned, I am not aware that anything of any note has 
 been done to elucidate the malady in them ; and I believe no 
 proposal has yet been made with a view to limiting or suppressing 
 it by well-devised legislative measures, founded on an intimate 
 knowledge of its nature. 
 
 I have endeavoured, therefore, in the following pages to offer 
 a complete treatise on the subject from a sanitary, and also 
 from a comparative pathologist's, point of view ; for I believed 
 that my labours would be incomplete, and would lose 
 much of their value, did I omit to include mankind in the 
 •list while treating of every other creature that suffers from 
 its effects. In this instance, as in so many others, it is 
 almost impossible to divorce human pathology from its twin, 
 and by no means to be despised, sister — comparative patho- 
 logy. For many years the student of disease has had ample 
 reason to regret the neglect with which the latter science 
 has been treated in this country, and to wonder why human 
 and veterinary medicine should be so strangely isolated from 
 each other, instead of affording mutual aid in the advancement 
 of medical knowledge. There cannot be a doubt that it will 
 be better for society and humanity in general when the healer 
 of disease in mankind knows something of the maladies of the 
 inferior animals, and when the veterinarian receives that 
 training which will enable him better to understand the 
 morbid conditions of his own species ; for he will then be more 
 fitted to comprehend those of the creatures for which he is to 
 prescribe. It is to be sincerely hoped that both branches of 
 medical science will ultimately be looked upon as one, and that 
 the benefits to be derived from their union may be fully realised. 
 
 In the historical portion of the work, I have endeavoured to 
 make this first attempt to trace the progress of rabies from the 
 earliest up to the most recent times as complete as possible ; 
 and I only regret that the limits to which I had bound
 
 Preface. ix 
 
 myself precluded the possibility of entering more fully into 
 details. The geographical extent of this strange malady has 
 also been elucidated as amply as circumstances would permit, 
 and everything available connected with the etiology, incuba- 
 tion, statistics, and other points related to it has been utilised. 
 The symptoms, particularly in the dog, have received the most 
 careful attention ; for on these being thoroughly understood 
 depends, in a great degree, the prevention of the disease in 
 other animals and in mankind. The proposed remedial, pre- 
 servative, and preventive measures have been also most care- 
 fully considered. 
 
 The legislative measures suggested for adoption may appear 
 to some lovers of the dog as unnecessarily severe, and inimical 
 to the comfort of that animal ; but any one who has had 
 experience of rabies in man or the lower creatures will, I feel 
 certain, agree with me that severity is absolutely necessary 
 if the terrors of a terrible disorder are to be averted. I 
 yield to no one in my admiration of, and regard for, the most 
 faithful and affectionate animal man has domesticated, and I 
 am convinced that the enforcement of these measures will not 
 only benefit it, but will also spare its companions, human and 
 otherwise, much serious risk and annoyance, pain, disease, and 
 death. 
 
 In explanation of the title of this work, I may state that 
 my reason for giving two designations for the same disease 
 arose from my anxiety not to mislead or be misunderstood : 
 hydrophobia, though in general used to designate the malady 
 now under consideration, and particularly among medical 
 writers, is altogether inapplicable when applied to the disease 
 in the dog or other animals, and has been a source of confusion 
 and danger ; while rabies, though the better term of the two, and 
 not so likely to cause confusion or misapprehension, is yet not 
 sufficiently well known to warrant its being applied solely to the 
 affection in man and all other creatures. I had no other course, 
 therefore, in seeking for a title by which to indicate the scope
 
 X Preface. 
 
 of the book, but to adopt that which I have chosen ; though it 
 is much to be desired that comparative pathologists should desist 
 from employing a term which has led to serious mistakes, and 
 is based on a single symptom not invariably present in even 
 only one of the many creatures susceptible of the disease.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Preface vji 
 
 Introduction 1 
 
 History 7 
 
 (tkographical Extent of Rabies ........ (jO 
 
 Etiology of Rabies ........... s.i 
 
 Spontaneous Origin 85 
 
 Supposed Causes ••••....... 92 
 
 Influence of Climate ........... 93 
 
 Influence of Season ........... 94 
 
 Influence of Hunger, Thirst, and Food 100 
 
 Influence of Sex and Generative Functions 101 
 
 Influence of Anger . . . . . . . . . . .111 
 
 Influence of Pain 113 
 
 Influence of Breed 115 
 
 Influence of Age . . . . . . . . . . .118 
 
 Contagion 121 
 
 Vitality of the Virus 122 
 
 Nature of the Virus . . . , . . , , . . .123 
 
 The Saliva 124 
 
 The Blood 125 
 
 The Flesh. . ... . 12(; 
 
 Cooked Flesh 127 
 
 Uncooked Flesh ... 128 
 
 Milk 130 
 
 Does the Vims exist in the Nerves ?........ 133 
 
 Is the Virus contained in the Breath ? 133 
 
 Does it exist in the Perspiration ? 134 
 
 Does it exist in other Secretions or Excretions ? 134 
 
 Is the Virus present in the Secretions of the Generative Organs ? . .135 
 Does the Virus exist during the Incubation of the Disease ? . . . 135 
 Between -what Species is the Disease communicable ? . . . .137 
 
 Frequency of Transmission 141 
 
 Sex in Mankind 150 
 
 Age in Mankind 151 
 
 Seat of Injurj' . . . . , 154
 
 Xll 
 
 Contents. 
 
 Rate of Mortality from Hydrophobia 
 Proportions between Rabies and Hydrophobia 
 Mode of Access of the Virus 
 Incubation ...... 
 
 in the Dog 
 
 in the Cat 
 
 in the Horse . 
 
 in the Ox . . . 
 
 in the Sheep and Goat . 
 
 in the Pig 
 
 in Man .... 
 
 »> 
 
 >> 
 
 >> 
 
 Symptoms 
 
 in the Dog 
 
 Diagnosis ...... 
 
 Duration of Rabies in the Dog . 
 Resume of the Symptoms in the Dog 
 Sj'mptoms in the Cat .... 
 
 „ in the Fox and Wolf 
 
 ,, in Man .... 
 
 Diagnosis in Man .... 
 
 Symptoms in the Horse 
 Diagnosis in the Horse 
 Symptoms in the Cow 
 Diagnosis in the Cow 
 Symptoms in the Sheep 
 ,, in the Goat 
 
 „ in the Pig 
 
 Diagnosis in the Pig .... 
 
 Symptoms in Poultry 
 Morbid Appearances apter Death . 
 Analogies and Dissimilarities between 
 Nature of Rabies and Hydrophobia 
 Medical Treatment . 
 Preservative- Treatment 
 Value of Preservative and 
 Object to be effected 
 Rapidity of Absorption 
 Prognosis . 
 
 Nature of Wounds . 
 Local Treatment 
 Suction . 
 
 Expression, Washing 
 Compression . 
 Cupping 
 Cauterisation 
 The Hot Iron 
 
 Substitutes for the Hot Iron 
 Caustics .... 
 
 Piev 
 
 ntive Tv 
 
 R 
 
 ABIE; 
 
 eatnio 
 
 An'i
 
 Contents. 
 
 Xlll 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Solid Caustics . . 333 
 
 Fluid Caustics 333 
 
 Modification of Treatment 33-1 
 
 Excision ............. 335 
 
 Remarks 336 
 
 Results of Cauterisation ......... 337 
 
 Results of Excision and Caustics ........ 341 
 
 Ingestion of Fluids 341 
 
 The Moral Influence of Local Treatment ....... 342 
 
 Mental Treatment 343 
 
 General Preservative Treatment 345 
 
 Treatment of Lyssi 347 
 
 Resume of Preservative Treatment 348 
 
 Preventive Measures 350 
 
 Hygienic Treatment of Dogs 351 
 
 Diminish the Number of Useless Dogs 353 
 
 Emasculation ............ 359 
 
 Blunting the Teeth 360 
 
 Muzzling 364 
 
 Quarantine ............ 376 
 
 Public Instructions 378 
 
 Measures to be adopted when Rabies has appeared ..... 379 
 
 Disinfection 391 
 
 Duration of Police Regulations . ........ 393 
 
 Measures to be adopted with other Animals than Dogs .... 393 
 
 The Flesh as Food 396 
 
 Milk 396 
 
 Resume of Preventive Measures 396 
 
 Precautions to be observed in handling Dogs and other Carnivorous 
 
 Animals 399 
 
 Appendix ............. 402 
 
 History (p. 68) 402 
 
 Geographical Extent of Rabies (p. 70) 402 
 
 Symptoms in the Rabbit (p. 280) 402 
 
 Morbid Appearances after Death (p. 296) 404 
 
 Killing Diseased or Suspected Animals (p. 388) 404
 
 RABIES AND HYDROPHOBIA. 
 
 INTEODUCTION. 
 
 Of all the maladies that are transmissible from the lower 
 animals to man, there is perhaps not one which possesses so 
 much interest, nor a knowledge of which is so important for 
 the human species, as that which is popularly, though 
 erroneously, designated Hydrophohia. It is even to be doubted 
 whether any of the many diseases which afflict humanity, and 
 are a source of dread, either because of their painfulness, their 
 mortality, or the circumstances attending their advent and 
 progress, can equal this in the terror it inspires in the minds 
 of those who are cognisant of its effects, or who chance to be 
 exposed to the risk of its attack, as well as in the uniform 
 fatality which terminates the distressing and hideous symptoms 
 that characterise the disorder. 
 
 And what renders the story of this malady still more sad 
 and alarming is the fact, that it is generally derived from the 
 most faithful and numerous of our domestic pets and servants — 
 the doff — whose attachment to — I had almost said " veneration " 
 for — man brings this animal at all times and everywhere to 
 share his company, to join with him in sport, pastime, toil, or 
 hardship, and whose motto justly deserves to be semper f delis. 
 
 Probably long before arrows were invented, the dog aided 
 man in obtaining the means wherewith to live by the chase. 
 And it is pre-eminently, among all the domestic animals, the 
 self-constituted friend of man, because more than all other 
 
 B
 
 2 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 creatures it comes nearest to him in its gregarious instincts and 
 degree of intelligence. From its remarkable sociable qualities, 
 its highly-developed intellect, and its affection for mankind, 
 it is able to follow and live with him, sharing his fortunes, in 
 all the various conditions and occupations of life. 
 
 This very companionship invests the disease with greater 
 danger and alarm ; for the animal which is the solace of many 
 a lonely hour, our friend in countless emergencies, which is 
 never more pleased than when we are happy, and never so 
 sad as when we are absent, which would willingly sacrifice its 
 life for us, and would certainly be the last to cause us pain 
 or anxiety — may, at any moment, when seized with the dis- 
 order, unwittingly and unwillingly become directly instru- 
 mental in bringing upon us a cruel death. Noxious creatures 
 we may either avoid or exterminate, and their being generally 
 in a wild state greatly diminishes the chances of receiving 
 injury from them ; but with the dog — and also the cat — it may 
 be said that we are always incurring the risk of becoming aflfected 
 with a disease which is more painful and agonising, and as 
 certainly fatal, as that due to the most poisonous wound inflicted 
 by any other creature. The pet that in an apparently playful 
 mood has licked our face or accidentally scratched our hand 
 while fondling it, may have inoculated us with a more torment- 
 ing venom than that of the cobra, and whose effects, if less 
 prompt, are no less destructive to life. 
 
 The mystery that attends the action of the inoculated virus 
 is another cause for the dread which attaches to the very name 
 of the disease. A man is bitten by a dog which is to all 
 appearance quite healthy. The injury is so trifling as to be 
 left unheeded, or treated like an ordinary wound. After a 
 certain period — sometimes even after several months, and 
 when the accident had been almost or quite forgotten — 
 strange and distressing symptoms of illness suddenly become 
 manifest, and in a brief space the victim expires in a terrible 
 agony, which remedial measures can scarcely alleviate.
 
 Thiir Cliaracters. 3 
 
 And man is not the only victim to tin's mysterious infection ; 
 for there is every reason to believe that all creatures are 
 susceptible of its influence, though all are not alike capable 
 of disseminating the virus vs^hen they themselves have become 
 inoculated and offer evidences of its presence. This tendency 
 of the disease to become panzootic — i.e., to affect every species 
 of animal (Trai/, all, ^wov, an animal) — renders it a still more 
 dangerous and destructive malady ; for in addition to the loss 
 it occasions by causing the death of valuable domestic creatures 
 • — such as the horse, ox, and sheep — it exposes our own species 
 to the attacks of animals which do not generate the infecting 
 element, and these attacks may bring about results as serious 
 as if they had been due to inoculation from the dog or cat. 
 
 Owing to the transmissibility of the disease in this manner, we 
 often have it widely spread and of long duration ; as though it is 
 rapidly fatal, yet a contaminated animal may live long enough 
 to inoculate several others, and some of these may again become 
 as active agents in the propagation of the poison, and, wander- 
 ing into different localities, extend the malady to a great 
 distance from the place where it first appeared. In this way 
 is destruction and alarm greatly augmented. 
 
 Unlike all other animal diseases, this is usually — in fact, 
 almost invariably — propagated by the bite of a beast already 
 suffering from it; and however harmless and inoffensive the 
 creature may be while in health, yet no sooner do the more 
 marked symptoms show themselves than it appears to be 
 irresistibly impelled to attack all other animals with which it 
 may happen to come into contact, and inflict those wounds 
 with its teeth by which the saliva, the infecting medium, 
 obtains access to the blood of the creatures so injured. 
 
 We have said that the disease is popularly, but erroneously, 
 designated Hydrophobia. This term, which literally means 
 "dread of water" {vcuip, water, and (po^o^, fear), is only applicable 
 to what is sometimes a symptom of the malady in mankind — 
 the aversion to water or other liquids being but seldom, i{ ever, 
 
 n2
 
 4 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 observed in any of the animals affected, and it is even rare 
 in man ; besides, it is not a special or characteristic symptom 
 when present, as a repugnance to fluids is occasionally witnessed 
 in various affections, such as phrenitis, hysteria, gastritis, and 
 other disorders of the human species. 
 
 The apparent dread of liquids in general is merely the result 
 of an instinctive dislike induced by difficult and painful attempts 
 to swallow, and this dislike is exaggerated in man — in which 
 the symptom is most marked — by the imagination when fluids 
 are attempted to be swallowed, or at the sight or even thought 
 of these, which causes spasms of the pharynx, oesophagus, and 
 adjacent organs. The designation is, therefore, and particularly 
 with regard to the lower animals, inappropriate, and is liable 
 to mislead and prove most dangerous if its literal meaning be 
 alone relied upon to distinguish the disease from other maladies. 
 And even the dread, when present, is not confined to water, but 
 to all fluids indiscriminately — a circumstance which has led to 
 the term hygrophohia being proposed, instead of hydrophobia. 
 The condition of intense terror and the fear of everything — 
 animate as well as inanimate — which so painfully marks the 
 course of the disease, has induced others to name it pardephohia ; 
 X while the peculiar nervous excitability which is developed, even 
 by a current of cold air passing over the patient, caused the 
 ancient medical writers to particularise it as aerophobia. 
 
 From a morbid supposition sometimes present in the mind 
 of the suffering individual that he was personally identified 
 with the dog, the malady was at one time named cijnanthropia, 
 and at another period cynolyssa, from the fact that the bite of a 
 venomous animal tormented or harassed. By others it has 
 "^ been proposed to name it dyscataposis — a difficulty in swallowing 
 with symptoms of choking ; also phohodipsia, erethismus hydro- 
 phobia, clonos hydrophobia, and lyssa canina. 
 
 The ancient Greeks termed it lyssa {Kvaaa), or lytta {Xvrra), 
 and the Romans rabies. Pliny speaks of it as the rabidus canis ; 
 Cicero says, " Hecubampatant propter animi acerbitatem et
 
 Desio-?iatioiis. 
 
 is 
 
 rabiem in canem esse conversam;" and elsewhere, "Iracundie 
 et rabie se facere aliquid." Horace alludes to it as the canis 
 rahiosa, and the "dog-days" as the rahiosa tempora signi ; and 
 Ovid has the expression "rabiem collegit dolor." The term 
 "rabies" strictly implies fury, madness, fierceness, &c., but 
 it has also been employed to denote poison. Thus Seneca says, 
 "Sparge intentam rabiem draconis." Other authors at this 
 early period employed the term "rabies" to designate this 
 particular disease of dogs and other creatures, and in recent 
 years it has been generally adopted by veterinary writers. It 
 is certainly a much better appellation than that of "hydro- 
 phobia," inasmuch as, if not absolutely correct in its definition 
 of the nature or character of the affection, it does not mislead, 
 nor is it likely to give rise to serious blunders. Besides, it 
 most closely corresponds with the term "mad" we usually 
 apply to the animal suffering from the malady, and which finds 
 its equivalent in the French rage ; the German hundstouth, 
 toUwuth, wuthh'anhheit, hundtoUheit ; the arrahiato or rahhia of 
 the Italians ; the Spanish rahioso, or mal de rahia ; and the 
 turbarea of the Roumanians. 
 
 Linnaeus divided the disease into two distinct genera, if we 
 may use the expression : viz., " rabies " and " hydrophobia." 
 The first he defined in these words : Desiderium mordendi 
 lacerandique innocuos ; and the second : Aversatio ijotulentorum 
 cum rigore et sardam, adding scepius liroecedenti maritaia. 
 
 Hydrophobia may, without risk, be applied to the disease in 
 mankind, and serve to distinguish it ; but it would be most 
 injudicious to retain it as a designation for the madness or 
 rabies of the lower animals. 
 
 The term " rabies " should be applied to the disease when 
 transmitted to man. " Hydrophobia " is not even a proper 
 designation for the malady in him, inasmuch as authors have 
 desci^ibed a spontaneous hydrophobia in the human species, 
 or certain symptoms resembling those of hydrophobia, which 
 certainly were not the same as those produced by the bite of
 
 6 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 a rabid animal, neither was the presence of a transmissible virus 
 proved to exist. 
 
 We shall, however, when not applying to the disease the 
 common designation of '' madness," use the term ** rabies " 
 with respect to the lower animals, not only because it is 
 almost the oldest and the ordinary technical term, but also 
 because it is the most correct, the simplest, and the safest, 
 '' Hydrophobia " we shall generally employ, in conformity with 
 medical custom, when speaking of the disease in mankind. 
 
 The dog is not the only animal in which the malady is believed 
 to be primarily manifested, for the cat, fox, jackal, hyaena, and 
 wolf are each supposed to be capable of developing it ; and 
 hence, in addition to "canine," we have "feline," "vulpine," 
 " lupine," and other kinds of rabies. The disease can also be 
 transferred from these creatures to all other warm-blooded 
 animals, by means of the virus generated during its development 
 or progress.
 
 History. 
 
 HISTOEY. 
 
 Canine rabies can lay claim to a long and an interesting 
 history, for among the ancient peoples who were cognisant 
 of the disease, it appears to have been held in no less dread 
 than among ourselves at the present day. Its great antiquity 
 is undoubted. Plutarch asserts that, according to Athenodorus, 
 it was first observed in mankind in the days of the Asclepiadae, 
 the descendants of the god of medicine, ^sculapius, by his 
 sons Podalirius and Machaon, who spread through Greece and 
 Asia Minor as an order of priests, prophets, and physicians, 
 preserving the results of the medical experience acquired in 
 the temples as a hereditary secret. They were the earliest 
 physicians known to us, and it is not unlikely that they may 
 have been the first to observe the madness of dogs transmitted 
 to mankind. And Pausanias, in his " Travels in Greece " 
 (book ix. 2), alluding to the story of Actason, the son of 
 Aristaeus and Autonoe, who was torn to pieces by his own 
 fifty hounds because he had surprised Diana and her attend- 
 ants at the bath, was of opinion that the only foundation for 
 the myth arose from the circumstance that the famous hunter 
 was destroyed by the dogs when they were rabid.* In the 
 " Iliad," Homer is thought to refer to it when he mentions the 
 dog-star, or Orion's dog, as exerting a malignant influence 
 upon the health of mankind ; and the epithets he makes Teucer 
 apply to Hector, in which the latter is compared to a raging 
 or enraged dog, have led some writers to imagine that Homer 
 was acquainted with the malady, which I think is more than 
 
 * See also Euripides, Bacch., v. 33d. Apollodoi-., lih. iii. cap. 4.
 
 8 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 probable, from the terms he employs.* Aristotle, in the fourth 
 century before our era, alludes to it, and, strangely enough, 
 asserts that the human species is exempted from its attacks : 
 " Dogs suffer from these diseases, which have received different 
 names : lytta, cynanche, iwdagra. The ' lytta ' produces mad- 
 ness, and they infect every creature which they bite, except 
 mankind, with the disease. This disease is fatal to dogs and 
 to any other animal they may bite, except man. . . . Camels 
 also are seized with lytta." f Hippocrates is supposed to refer 
 to it when he says that persons in a frenzy drink very little, 
 are disturbed and frightened, tremble at the least noise, or are 
 seized with convulsions. % He appears to have recommended 
 the tree-box as a preventive. 
 
 Andreas of Caryste, a physician of the Alexandrian School, has 
 left a work on this disease, which he designated kvvoKvggo^. 
 
 Artemidorus of Sida, another physician of this school, in 
 describing the malady, located it in the stomach, as it was 
 accompanied by sighs and vomiting. Herophilus Gajus, who 
 lived about the same period and belonged to the same sect, 
 believed hydrophul:^'^ to be seated in the membranes of the 
 brain. 
 
 Celsus, three centuries after Aristotle, appears to have made 
 the malady his particular study, though he was of opinion that 
 the bites of all animals were dangerous, from the presence of 
 a virus. Indeed, it was fvilly recognised by this celebrated 
 physician, and seems to have been generally known in ancient 
 times, that the saliva alone contained the morbific principle. 
 In his description of wounds, he says : " I have spoken con- 
 cerning those wounds which are mostly inflicted by weapons ; 
 so it follows that I may speak concerning those which are 
 made by the bite, sometimes of a man, sometimes of an ape, 
 
 * Kvi/a Xva(n]Tr)pa. — Iliad, viii. 299. Kpartpt] St i Xvaaa SiSv^iv. — Idid., ix. 
 239. O XvacTwdrje, — Idid., xiii. 53 Auffua de oi ■x^ijp. — Ikid., xxi. 542. 
 
 t " Historia Animalium," lib. viii. cap. 22. 
 
 t Hippocrates a Faesio, lib. i. Prsedict., p. 68. Coacarum prsenotioniun, 98. 
 "Van Swieten, Commentar., vol. iii. p. 536. " Phicnitici pariim bibunt, ex 
 evibus strepitibus facile irritantur, tremuli sunt, aut convulsionibus tentantur."'
 
 History. Q 
 
 often of a dog, and sometimes of wild animals or of serpents. 
 But every bite has mostly some venom " [aiitem omnis morsus 
 hahetfere quoddam virus). 
 
 Of the malady itself, he writes : " The Grreeks call it 
 vhpo(f)o[iiav (hudrophobian) — a most wretched disease, in which 
 the sick person is tormented at the same time with thirst and 
 the fear of water, and in which there is but little hope." 
 
 He earnestly recommends the practice of resorting to 
 caustics, burning, cupping, and also sucking the wounds of 
 those bitten by rabid dogs, and endeavours to show that there 
 is no danger attending the latter operation, by referring to 
 the family of Psylli, who, with the Marii, another African 
 tribe or family practising at Rome, enjoyed the special privilege 
 of abstracting the poison by suction with the mouth.* In suck- 
 ing the wound, it appears to have been recognised tha,t it was 
 most essential for the safety of the operator that no sores or 
 abrasions should be on his lips or in his mouth. " If the wound 
 is violent, the cupping instrument {cucurhitula) is to be applied ; 
 if very slight, a plaster is to be immediately put on, and parti- 
 cularly that of Diogenes. ... If the dog was rabid [si canis 
 fuit rahiosus), the venom of it is especially to be drawn out 
 with the cupping instrument. Afterwards, if the part is neither 
 nervy nor muscular [neque nervosus, neque nmsculoms), the 
 wound is to be cauterized ; if it cannot be burnt, it is not 
 unfit for blood-letting. Then those applications suitable for 
 other wounds are to be put over the burnt wound ; but if not 
 burnt, then those medicines which violently corrode. After 
 which the ulcer will be healed in the usual way." 
 
 * "De Medicina," book v. chap. 27. " Venenum nou gustu, sed vulnere noccnt 
 . . . Ergo quisquis exeaiplum Psylii secutus, id vulnus exsuxerit, et ipse tutus 
 erit, et tutum hoQunem prasstabit." Lucan, in his " Pharsalia " (book ix. 891), 
 speaks of the Mannarian Psylli, inhabitants of Libya, as being " unhurt by the 
 cruel sting of the sei-pents ; their tongues are equal to powerful drugs, their very 
 blood is safe, and can admit no venom." He describes one of these people 
 abstracting the poison from a bitten individual, after incantations and other 
 formulas. " Lpng down upon the pallid wounds, he licks them, sucking the 
 poison wath his mouth, and squeezes the limbs with his teeth, and holding the 
 deadly poison drawn forth from the cold body, spits it out."
 
 lo Rabies and Hydropliobia. 
 
 These sagacious precautions not only show that the disease 
 was well understood, but that it must have been more or less 
 prevalent in those early times, and that the skill of the fathers 
 of medicine was severely tested in devising preventive measures. 
 Hot, and also cold, bathing, especially in the sea, was another 
 measure recomimended by Celsus,* though he must have been 
 convinced that it was far less efficacious than suction. As a 
 curative measure, however, he appears to have had confidence 
 in it, and gives instances of its success when the disease had 
 appeared. "The only remedy is to throw the patient unex- 
 pectedly into a pond, and if he has not a knowledge of swim- 
 ming, to allow him to sink, in order that he may drink, and 
 to raise and again depress him, so that, though unwillingly, he 
 may be satiated with water ; for thus at the same time both 
 the thirst and the dread of water is removed. f But another 
 
 * " De Medicina," book v. chap. 47. " Protinus in Balneum immittunt, eumque 
 ibi desudare, dum vires corporis sinant, vulnere aperto quo magis ex eo quoque 
 virus distillet." 
 
 t This formidable treatment has been continued up to a recent period, and Van 
 Hehnont gives us a curious illustration of its application and success in his day. 
 " There is a castle situated by the sea-side, four leagues from Ghent, which they 
 call Cataracta. I saw a ship passing by it, and therein an old man, naked, bound 
 with cords, having a weight on his feet ; under his arm-pits he was encompassed 
 with a girdle, wherewith he was bound to the sail-yard. I asked what they 
 meant by that spectacle ? One of the mariners said that the old man was an 
 hydrophobid, or had the disease causing the fear of water, and had lately been 
 bitten by a mad dog. I asked toward what part of the sea they wished to 
 carry him ? Did they intend his death ? ' Nay, rather,' said the mariner, ' he 
 shall presently return whole : and such is the blessing of the sea, that such a 
 kind of madness it will presently cure.' I offered them some money to take me 
 along with them, as a companion and witness. When we had sailed about an 
 Italian mile, the mariners did open a hole in the bottom, whereby the whole 
 ship was almost sunk, even to the brim : indeed, they used the brine to recoct 
 Spanish salt. And when as that hole was now again exactly shut, two men 
 withdrawing the end of the sail-yard, lifted up the top thereof, and bore the old 
 man on high ; but thence they let him down headlong into the sea : and he was 
 under the water about the space of a miserere, whom afterwards they twice more 
 plunged, about the space of an anrjelical salutation. But they then placed him 
 on a smooth vessel, with his back upwards, covered with a short cloak. I did 
 think that he was dead ; but the mariners derided my fear, for his bonds being 
 loosened, he began to cast up all the brine which he had breathed in, and pre- 
 sently he revived. He was a cooper of Ghent, who being thenceforth freed from 
 his matbiess, lived safe and sound. Also the mariners did relate that the Dutch,
 
 History 
 
 1 1 
 
 danger arises, lest distention of the nerves may destroy the 
 enfeebled body, being harassed in cold water; should this 
 happen, the patient is to be taken from the pond immediately, 
 and put into hot oil." " Some, after the bite of a rabid dog, 
 immediately send the patient into a bath, and suffer him to 
 sweat there while the strength of the body permits. In doing 
 this, the wound is also opened, and the poison distils all the 
 more out of it. They afterwards follow the bath up with large 
 quantities of pure wine, which is antagonistic to all poisons ; 
 and when this has been done for three days, the man appears 
 to be free from danger. But fear of water usually arises from 
 that wound which has not been properly attended to." Celsus 
 also recommends salt as an application to wounds caused by the 
 bites of dogs. Euripides, the Greek tragic poet, who lived in 
 the fifth century before our era, is reported to have been 
 cured by bathing. Virgil, in his " Georgics," classes rabies 
 among the diseases of cattle and sheep, induced by a pestilential 
 state of the air.* Scribonius-Largus, a Roman physician 
 in the time of Claudius (early in the first century), briefly 
 notices the disease, and asserts that no person was ever cured 
 of it. t 
 
 Gratius Faliscus, a poet and contemporary of Ovid, who 
 lived in the first century of our era, in a work entitled, " The 
 Cynegeticon," has described some diseases of dogs, and among 
 them he mentions rabies. He knew the fable of the worm in 
 the dog's tongue as the cause of the malady, a myth rendered 
 popular by Pliny, and which is commonly believed by ignorant 
 people even in our own time. Indeed, the belief in the pre- 
 sence of an abnormal condition of the tongue, and the deve- 
 
 >iy a raw hemng salted, applied to the bite of a mad dog for three days' space 
 aud renewed, do take away all fear of madness. \\'heu this has been neglected, 
 at least by the beheld manner of plunging they are all cured." — HelmoHtii, Ad 
 Not. (Jper. Phys., p. fi'i. 
 
 * " Oeorgics," book iii. 496. " Hinc eanibus blandis rabies venit.' 
 t "De Comp. Med.," book c. ib, "Xemo adhuc, correptum hoc malo €xf>e- 
 ditus est."
 
 1 2 Raliics and Hydrophobia. 
 
 lopment of what have been designated the " sublingual lyssi " 
 in connection with that organ, as influencing the production 
 of madness in the dog, is very ancient, and no doubt may be 
 referred to a period long anterior to Faliscus. Pliny but 
 re-echoed this belief when, in a passage of his famous work, 
 he says that there is situated beneath the dog's tongue a worm, 
 which the Greeks named " lytta." * Elsewhere this writer 
 speaks of a sediment from the saliva being found beneath the 
 tongue. t And he mentions Belladonna as a remedy for the 
 disease. There is so much that is curious and interesting in 
 Pliny's references to the malady, as well as so much truth 
 derived from observation, though mixed up with superstition 
 diid siiiy herrssay, that we will reproduce his remarks : " There 
 is a small worm in a dog's tongue known as * lytta ' {rage or 
 madness) of the Greeks. If this is removed from the animal 
 while a pup, it will never become mad or lose its appetite. J 
 This worm, after being carried thrice round a fire, is given 
 to persons who have been bitten by a mad dog, to prevent 
 
 * "Historia Naturalis," book xxix. chajD. 32. "Est vermiculus in lingua 
 canum qui vocatur a Grascis lytta." 
 
 t Ibid. "Est limus- salivas sub lingiia rabiosi canis." 
 
 X Tbis removal of the worm from the dog's tongue, or "worming" as it is 
 popularly termed, has been practised from the days of Pliny to our own time, and 
 is, as might be expected, a perfectly useless, nay, injurious and painful opera- 
 tion. Beneath the organ, in the middle, is a somewhat loose, tendinous looking 
 fold of membrane, which constitutes what in technical language is called the 
 " fraenum," or bridle of the tongue, and is designed to assist the animal in 
 lapping. When in its ordinary relaxed condition, this fi-93num looks like a 
 small worm, and the resemblance is perhaps even more complete when it has 
 been torn out ; hence the name of the operation, which is a cruel one, and gives 
 the poor dog a very sore mouth for several days, in addition to rendering the 
 tongue less capable of performing its important functions. The supposition that 
 this procedure will prevent a dog from becoming spontaneously rabid, or liable 
 to infection if bitten, is excessively absurd, as the presence of the imaginary 
 worm has no influence whatever in the production of the malady, while its 
 absence must be a source of inconvenience to the dog, and far more likely to 
 induce rabies than to prevent its occurrence. The operators justly deserve the 
 punishment which will be awarded them, should they come within the cogni- 
 zance of the Eoyal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Dr. Samuel 
 Johnson, who was never at a loss for a definition, when alluding to the opinion 
 prevalent in his time with regard to this worm, called it " a substance, nobody 
 knows what, extracted nobody knows why."
 
 History. 1 3 
 
 their becoming mad. This madness, too, is prevented by 
 eating a cock's brains ; but the virtue of these brains lasts 
 for one year only and no more. They say, too, that a cock's 
 comb, pounded, is highly efficacious as an application to the 
 wound ; as also goose-grease mixed with honey, The flesh 
 also of a mad dog is sometimes salted, and taken with the 
 food, as a remedy for this disease. In addition to this, young 
 puppies of the same sex as the dog that has inflicted the injury, 
 are drowned in water, and the person who has been bitten eats 
 their liver raw," &c. " So virulent is the poison of the mad 
 dog, that its very urine even, if trod upon, is injurious, more 
 particularly if the person has any ulcerous sores about him. 
 The proper remedy to apply in such a case is horse -dung, 
 sprinkled with vinegar, and warmed in a fig. These mar- 
 vellous properties of the poison will occasion the less surprise 
 when we remember that ' a stone bitten by a dog ' has become 
 a proverbial expression for discord and variance." * The dog, 
 in Pliny's time, must have been looked upon as a more curious 
 animal than we are accustomed to regard it nowadays, and 
 to have been possessed of some mysterious influences which we 
 cannot now perceive ; for he remarks, " Whoever makes water 
 where a dog has previously watered, will be sensible of numb- 
 ness in the loins, they say." Some of his preventive measures 
 are on a par with those of a later age. " When a person has 
 been bitten by a mad dog, he may be preserved from hydro- 
 phobia by applying the ashes of a dog's head to the wound. 
 These ashes are very good, too, taken in drink, and hence some 
 recommend the head itself to be eaten in such cases. Others, 
 again, attach to the body of the patient a maggot taken from 
 the carcase of a dead dog ; or else place the menstruous blood 
 of a bitch, in a linen cloth, beneath his cup, or insert in the 
 wound ashes of hairs from the tail of the dog that inflicted the 
 
 * " For the manner of a dog is to bee angrie with the stone that is thrown at 
 him, without regard to the partie that flung it, whereupon grew the proverb in 
 Greek, kwwv lie rov XiSov d yavaKTovaa (a dog venting his rage upon a stone)." 
 — Holland's Plinie.
 
 14 Rabies a7id Hydrophobia. 
 
 bite.* Dogs will fly from any one who has a dog's heart about 
 him, and they will never bark at a person who carries a dog's 
 tongue in his shoe, beneath the great toe, or the tail of a weasel 
 which has been set at liberty after being deprived of it. There 
 is beneath the tongue of a mad dog a certain slimy saliva 
 which, taken in drink, is a preventive of hydrophobia. But 
 much the most useful plan, is to take the liver of the dog that 
 has inflicted the injury, and eat it raw, if possible. Should that 
 not be the case, it must be cooked in some way or other, or else 
 a broth must be taken prepared from the flesh. When a 
 person has been bitten by a mad dog, it is the practice to make 
 an incision round the wound to the quick, and then to apply 
 raw veal to it, and to make the patient take either veal broth or 
 hog's lard, mixed with lime, internally. Some persons recom- 
 mend a he-goat's liver, and maintain that if it is applied to the 
 wound the patient will never be attacked with hydrophobia." f 
 Cauterization is lauded as a cure. " Some affections are cured 
 by cauterization with red-hot iron, the bite of the mad dog 
 more particularly ; for even if the malady has been fully 
 developed, and hydrophobia has made its appearance, the 
 patient is instantly relieved on the wound being cauterized," f 
 The root of horse-parsley taken in drink and applied topically, 
 he vaunts as a remedy for the disease ; but he particularly 
 recommends the dog-rose or eglantine, the supposed virtues 
 of which had only been discovered in his own time, and of 
 course in a remarkable way. "Down to our own times, the 
 bite of a mad dog, the symptoms of which are a dread of water 
 and an aversion to every kind of beverage, was incurable ; and 
 it was only recently that the mother of a soldier who was 
 serving in the praetorian guard received a warning in a dream 
 
 * This recommendation may have given rise to the advice so frequently 
 tendered by the bacchanals of modern days to those suffering from the effects of 
 unpleasant potations, that " they should take a hair of the dog that had bitten 
 them;" meaning that to set themselves right again they ought to become 
 homoeopaths, and resort to the tipple that had made them so uncomfortable. 
 
 t Book xxvi. chap. 43. \ Book xxxiv. chap. 44.
 
 History. \ z 
 
 to send her son the root of the wild rose, known as the cynorr- 
 hodos, a plant the beauty of which had attracted her attention 
 in a shrubbery the day before, and to request him to drink the 
 extract of it. The army was then serving in Lacetania, the 
 part of Spain which lies nearest to Italy ; and it so happened 
 that the soldier, having been bitten by a dog, was just 
 beginning to manifest a horror of water when his mother's 
 letter reached him, in which she entreated him to obey the 
 words of this divine warning. He accordingly complied with 
 her request, and, against all hope or expectation, his life was 
 saved, a result which has been experienced by all who have 
 since availed themselves of the same resource." * " Canine 
 madness," he also says, " is fatal to man during the heat of 
 Sirius, and proves so in consequence of those who are bitten 
 having a deadly horror of water. For this reason, during the 
 thirty days that this star exerts its influence, we try to prevent 
 the disease by mixing dung from the poultry-yard with the 
 dog's food, or else if they are already attacked with the disease, 
 by giving them hellebore." t 
 
 M. Artorius, an Asclepiade of Bithynia, and the friend and 
 physician of Augustus, has left a treatise on the disease, in 
 which he seeks to prove that it is seated in the stomach, as 
 evidenced by the hiccoughs and biKous vomiting usually 
 accompanying it. 
 
 Eumedes, celebrated for his amours with Sivilla, the daughter- 
 in-law of Tiberius, and a physician of the Methodic School, 
 makes some interesting observations on hydrophobia; among 
 others, that even the shedding of tears is sufficient to excite 
 the spasms of the pharynx, and also that it is rare that those 
 attacked are saved. 
 
 Ovid states that hydrophobia and gout were in his day 
 reckoned among the incurable maladies. + 
 
 * Book XXV. chap. 6. t Book viii. chap. 63. 
 
 + " Ep. ex Ponto.," lib. i. el. iii. 23, 24. 
 
 " ToUere nodosam nescit medicina podagram, 
 Xec fonnidatis auxiliatur aquis."
 
 1 6 Rabies and Hydi-opJiobia. 
 
 Magnus of Ephesus, who lived in the time of Galen, located 
 the disease in the stomach and diaphragm. 
 
 Columella, whose writings were well known to Pliny, and 
 who lived about the same period as that distinguished natural- 
 ist, notices rabies, and informs us it was believed among the 
 shepherds that if, on the fortieth day after the birth of a pup, 
 the last bone of the tail is hitten off the sinew will follow 
 with it ; after which the tail will not grow {fcedum incre- 
 mentum — foul increase), and, as many shepherds say, this opera- 
 tion secures the dog from the disease.^' * 
 
 One of the best of the ancient authorities on the disease was 
 Caelius Aurelianus, a physician, who was born at Sicca Venerea, 
 in Numidia, but at what period he flourished is not established, 
 some writers contending it was during the reigns of Trajan 
 and Adrian, and others in the fifth century. His knowledge 
 of the malady appears to have been chiefly obtained from the 
 writings of Eudemius, Soranus, and others, of whom but little 
 or nothing is How known. He appears to have studied the 
 history of the disease with much attention, as he has appro- 
 priated an entire chapter to the discussion then carried on 
 among physicians as to whether hydrophobia was a new disease, 
 which he, of course, answers in the negative. Of the places 
 where it most prevailed he mentions Caria and Crete. The 
 latter island, he says, was particularly free from poisonous 
 animals, but the canine disease was very common. " The hydro- 
 phobia in man," he adds, " is preceded by extreme irritability, 
 unusual motions of the body, disturbed sleep, or absolute wake- 
 fulness, indigestion, stretchings, yawning, nausea, imaginary 
 notions of bad weather, and no appetite for drink. To these 
 symptoms succeed, when the hydrophobia begins, a desire to 
 
 * " De Re Rustica." It is curious to find this barbarous, useless, and disfiguring 
 operation carried down to oiir own day and practised by the ignorant and brutal, 
 frequently for the same reason that was given by Columella's shepherds ; and it 
 is also satisfactory to know that the disgusting performance is recognised in our 
 courts of justice as cruelty to the dog, convictions having been obtained against 
 perpetrators by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
 
 History. 
 
 I 
 
 / 
 
 drink [appetentia bihcndl — a violent thirst), with terror at the 
 sight, sound, or name of water. The patient is even afraid 
 of fomentations with oil ; his pulse is dense (hard), small, and 
 irregular ; there is sometimes a small degree of fever, con- 
 vulsive motions of the stomach, spasms in the precordia, numb- 
 ness of the joints, and torpor of the bowels ; frequent incli- 
 nation to micturate ; trembling and catching of the limbs ; 
 voice hoarse, resembling the barking of a dog ; spiral posture 
 of the body, like that of a dog lying on the ground ; anxiet}'- 
 when any person enters the room, as if apprehensive that he 
 should bring water ; redness of the face and eyes ; body 
 emaciated, the upper parts pale and perspiring ; veretrifrequens 
 tensio cum seminis ini'ohintario jactu." He speaks of hydrophobia 
 being also spontaneous, or rather a symptom in other diseases.* 
 In the chapter devoted to the remedies (Quomodo ciirandi sunt 
 hydropJwbi), he details the measures adopted by his prede- 
 cessors ; how Artorius advised his patient to be plunged into 
 cold water ; while Niger and Eudemius bled their patients and 
 gave hellebore ; that some gave castor, some oil of roses, others 
 scammony, and others again snow instead of water, thinking 
 the patient might gratify his thirst in that form when he could 
 not do so with water ; some made use of stratagems to induce 
 
 * " Acutis Mortis," book iii. chap. 9. " Est praeterea poasibile, sine manifesta 
 causa, banc paswionem corporibus imasci, cum talis fuerit strictio, sponte gene- 
 rata qualis a veneno." It is curious to note that the Greeks suffered greatly from 
 rabies, if we are to judge by the frequent mention of the disease by medical 
 and other writers, and also by the number of superstitions, remedies, and 
 antidotes it gave rise to. These are too numerous to allude to here ; but we may 
 notice that Pausanias, in his accoimt of ancient Greece, speaks of a fountain of 
 very cold water, which being drunk, insfautly cured persons bitten by a rabid 
 dog. — Arcadic sive, book viii. p. 637. Edit. Kuhnii. Leipsic, 1696. And Scri- 
 bonius, a pupil of Apideius Celsus, referring to the antidote prepared against 
 hydrophobia by his master every year, and sent into Sicily, where rabies was 
 very common, mentions an amidet used in Crete, by Zopyrus, even when the 
 disease became manifest ; this was a piece of a hyjena's skin bound on the left 
 arm of the person bitten.— 7)e Comp. Med., chap. 45. Galen also speaks of the 
 antidote which Mithridates is said to have received from this Zopyrus the 
 Cretan ; and he gives a multitude of preparations and antidotes recommended 
 by Cratippus, Hiras, Belchionius, Zeno Laodicsni, Claudius Apollonius, 
 Menippus, and Menelaus. 
 
 C
 
 1 8 Rabies and Hydi'ophobia. 
 
 the victim to drink, which would make the most serious smile ; 
 but after all it was found that the disease was a deadly one. 
 The treatment prescribed was as follows : " Let the patient's 
 chamber be tolerably warm and light, and have the part that was 
 bitten covered with a piece of clean warm flannel. If it be 
 necessary to bleed him, let the blood be received in the hand 
 of the assistant, lest the noise of its falling into the basin 
 should affect the patient. Talk to him about washing and 
 drinking, and if he hears this without alarm, you may then 
 give him something to drink ; if not, you may let him suck 
 through the spout of a pot, covering his eyes or darkening 
 the room. Let his nurses be discreet and not loquacious, and 
 have him exercised in a stretcher or sedan chair. If he refuses 
 to take any liquid by the mouth give it him by enema," &c. 
 
 Pedanius Dioscorides of Anazarbeus, Cilicia, about this 
 period alludes to the disease in his work on Materia Medica. 
 He gives an exact description of it, mentions its transmissibility 
 to mankind, and its fatality when once it really manifests itself; 
 and adds that it is possible to prevent it by cauterising the 
 bitten part. 
 
 Apuleius Celsus follows Pliny in recommending Belladonna 
 as a remedy. 
 
 In the third century Claudius ^lianus of Prseneste, and 
 Claudius Galenus of Pergamus, give a fair description of the 
 malady ; and in the same century Olympius Nemesianus, a 
 poet of Carthage, among some other diseases of dogs, describes 
 rabies. In the fourth century Oribasius of Pergamus, phy- 
 sician to Julian the Apostate, describes hydrophobia, and 
 alludes to its being generally fatal ; * but he also speaks of 
 a curable form of the disease as due to other causes than the 
 bite of a dog. Vegetius Renatus also enumerates rabies among 
 the other maladies to which the lower animals are disposed, 
 and recommends, as an antidote for cattle that have been 
 
 * "Synopsis," book viii. chap. 13. "Ex is vero qui a cane rabioso morso 
 fuissent, servatum esse neminem."
 
 History. jg 
 
 wounded by a mad dog, " to give them the boiled liver of 
 the dog to eat ; or to make it into balls, and force it down 
 as a medicine." * In the sixth century Theomnestus, in his 
 " Geoponica," devotes some attention to it. ^tius, a ph3'sician 
 of Mesopotamia, who flourished in this century, has left us 
 a more accurate account of the disease in the dog than 
 any of the ancient writers. He says that " dogs are naturally 
 hot and dry. That the increase of temperature which the aiv 
 acquires in the summer months causes them to go mad, and 
 that this madness is called rabies." He also attributes the 
 disease to sudden, mutations and variations of the atmosphere, 
 such as take place when the summer and winter are extreme. 
 Dogs also become mad, he adds, from thirst when deprived of 
 water, and that then the malignity of the venom is greatest. 
 The symptoms of the malady were first manifested by the dogs 
 becoming mute, then delirious, and incapable of knowing those 
 to whom they have been most accustomed — not even recognising 
 their masters. They refuse food, are thirsty, but do not drink, 
 and usually pant. They breathe with difficulty, keep the mouth 
 open with the tongue hanging out, and discharge abundance of 
 frothy saliva. Their ears and tail hang down, they move 
 slowly, and are dull and sleepy. When they run, it is faster 
 than usual, and in an irregular and uncommon manner, f A 
 century later Paulus ^gineta, a physician, offers a good 
 account of hydrophobia. He follows previous authors in 
 enumerating the symptoms, and distinguishes between the 
 disease as due to the bite of a dog, and that remediable, simply 
 nervous hydrophobia arising from other causes. The inocu- 
 lated hydrophobia was always mortal. + It may be here noted, 
 that though we have no mention of any general outbreaks of 
 rabies, such as have occurred in more recent times, yet the 
 
 * " Artis Veterinarise," book iii. chap. 48. Vide Scriptores Rei Rusticae, vol. 
 ii. p. llo2. 
 
 t Aetii Tetr., ii. serm. 2, chap. 24. 
 
 X " De Re Medicina?," book v. chap. ,'5. " C.-eterum corum qui in banc affec- 
 tionem iuciderunt, milium sanatum esse." 
 
 c2
 
 20 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 literature of fhe subject is by no means scanty, and we generally 
 have much truth mixed up with a great quantity of fiction and 
 superstition, due to imperfect observation and credulity. 
 
 In our own country, it is probable that the disease was present 
 from the earliest times, though it is not until two or three 
 centuries subsequent to Paulus ^gineta that we find any 
 special indication of its presence. The first mention of it in 
 our early records would tend to show that it at times prevailed 
 as an epizooty,* and in such a formidable manner as to become 
 memorable. For instance, the earliest mention I can find of 
 the disease is in the laws of Howel the Good, of Wales, which 
 were revised about a.d. 1026. In them an outbreak is alluded 
 to as a most noteworthy event. Speaking of the legal worth 
 of a brock of badger, it is stated that " during the year there tvas 
 a madness among the dogs, it obtained the privilege of a sow." t 
 
 That the malady was a frequent and a serious one in Eng- 
 land, we have also conclusive evidence in certain Anglo-Saxon 
 manuscripts which have been preserved to us, and which con- 
 tain remedies and incantations wherewith to cure or exorcise 
 the disease. In one of these — a Saxon " Herbarium," supposed 
 to belong to the tenth century — are the following recipes : 
 " For bite of dog, take galli crus (Panicum crus galli), pound 
 it with grease, and with a hearth-baked loaf lay it to the 
 wound, and soon it will be healed." "For bite of mad dog, 
 bishopwort {Betonia officinalis)." "The plant 'way bread' 
 [Plantago major) for rend of mad dog." " The herb vermenaca 
 or ashthroat {Verbena officinalis) for bite of mad dog." "The 
 
 * The term epizooty, or epizotia, is that employed in veterinary science to desig- 
 nate a disease which, ahout the same time and over a wide extent of country, 
 attacks a large number of animals of the same species. Though usually applied 
 to maladies which depend upon, or owe their origin to, general and, most fre- 
 quently, obscure causes, yet it has also been given to those whose extension is 
 due to the presence of an infecting element. It is derived from tni, upon, and 
 Z,wov, an animal. A malady of this kind is also sometimes termed an epizootic, 
 but this is not commendable ; still less is epidemic, which is frequently applied, 
 even by medical writers, to diseases in the lower animals, whereas it refers only 
 to those of mankind (being derived from nri, upon, and Sij^og, the people). 
 
 t " Gwentian Code," book ii. chap. 23.
 
 History. 2 1 
 
 herb personacia beet, or beeta, for tear by mad dog." The 
 herb ' millefolium ' or ' yarrow ' {Achillea millefolium) is lauded 
 for bite of mad hound. " The herb * spreritis' {Anagallin arcensis) - 
 against bite of wood hound " (mad dog). " The herb eryngium 
 for bite of mad dog." * 
 
 In another manuscript — a Lsece or Leech Book of about the 
 same date — there is a remedy for " rending of hound." " Pound 
 ribwort, lay it on the wound, and boil rue in butter ; tend the 
 wound therewith," &c. The same book has other equally 
 simple remedies for "bite of mad dog." But the most inter- 
 esting fact in connection with rabies in England at this early 
 date is to be found in another Anglo-Saxon manuscript on 
 medicine, entitled the "Medicina de Quadrupedibus" of Sextus 
 Placitus (in all probability a fictitious name), written, it is 
 presumed, at the commencement of the eleventh century. 
 Amongst a farrago of fantastic recipes for all kinds' of 
 maladies — real or imaginary — is one for " tear of mad hound," 
 which contains a notice of the ancient superstition of the worm 
 in the dog's tongue. " Take the worms {tJtymas) which be 
 under a mad hound's tongue [under thede hundes cunzan), 
 snip them away, lead them round about a fig-tree, give them 
 to him who hath been rent ; he will soon be whole."! 
 
 * " Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England," vol. i. pp. 3, 
 7, 21, 37, 53, 65, 149. 
 
 ■t It is remarkable to find Pliny 's prescriptions, particularly the one just referred 
 to, almost word for word, in this Anglo-Saxon leech-book, the fig-tree only being 
 substituted for the fire ; and it is still more remarkable to find the tradition of tin; 
 worm beneath the dog's tongue, and the supposed benefit attending its removal, 
 yet existing, and in countries far beyond the limits of Ancient Greece or Eomc. 
 In the first-named country, according to Dr. Xanthos {Archives General dc 
 Medecine, 1824), the lyases, or worm, has been believed in from time immemorial, 
 and an operation has been resorted to similar to that mentioned by Plinj- and 
 recommended in the Leech-book. Armand has reported to the Paris Academy of 
 Sciences that such a tradition and practice is yet prevalent in Thrace. Auzias- 
 Turenne asserts that a similar tradition is popular in Turkey and Moldo- 
 Wallachia {Eecueil de Med. VitSriiiaire, January, 18G9). It is common in 
 Roumania. According to Ramon de Sagra, it is also popular in Galicia, in 
 Spain. Even in the Brazils, the existence of the sublingual worm is docp- 
 rooted in the public mind. In 1819, Karamsin informed the Medical Society of 
 Moscow that he knew of a man who pretended to euro people who had been
 
 o 9 
 
 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 Elsewhere in tlie same medical treatise is a recipe " for 
 a laceration by a mad dog." " A hound's head burnt to ashes 
 and thereon applied, casteth out all the venom and the foulness, 
 and healeth the maddening bites." Again, "A mad dog's 
 head and his liver sodden, and given to be eaten to him who 
 has been torn, wonderfully healeth him." 
 
 But the mad dog was employed, it would appear, to cure 
 other maladies of the human species. For instance, we find as 
 a cure for the " kingly disease " or jaundice, " the head of a mad 
 dog pounded and mingled for a drink with wine, healeth." 
 And for cancer, " the head of a mad dog burnt to ashes and 
 spread on, healeth the cancer wounds." 
 
 However much we may feel inclined to smile at the absurdi- 
 ties of our forefathers, particularly with regard to this malady, 
 we must not forget that many almost as absurd ideas yet 
 prevail respecting the diseases of the lower animals, and that it 
 is not so very long ago that, according to Lipscomb, charms, 
 consisting of a number of words written with ink on paper or 
 
 bitten by mad animals, by opening -with the point of a knife small abscesses 
 which formed beneath the tongue, and thoroughly removing the matter from 
 them. In 1819, Salvatori, a physician at St. Petersburg, stated that during his 
 residence in Pultawa, he discovered that the people of Galicia knew of the 
 existence, about the frasnum of the tongue of a man or animal which had been 
 bitten by a rabid creatm-e, of some pustules which opened spontaneously about 
 the fourteenth day after the accident. So early as 1813, a peasant of the Ukraine 
 had called the attention of Dr. Marochetti to the presence of pustules beneath 
 the tongue of persons who had been bitten by rabid animals, and assured him 
 that if these were not evacuated within twenty-four hours after their appearance 
 the matter would be absorbed, and the disease would soon manifest itself. It 
 was therefore necessary to examine carefully, for at least six weeks, the lower 
 part of the tongue of any one who had been so injured, and if these pustules 
 appeared they were to be at once opened and cauterized. If they did not appear 
 the individual would not suffer from hydrophobia. Marochetti imagined he had 
 verified the correctness of this description five years afterwards in Podolia, and 
 his published account caused a considerable amount of interest and curiosity in 
 the medical and scientific world of that day. The pretended pustules were 
 named the " lysses of Marochetti."— See Marochetti, "Observations smr I'Hy- 
 drophobie," St. Petersburg, 1821 ; GarMte de St. Petersburg, August, 1823 ; 
 Journal de Physiologie, 1825 ; Nouveau ' Journal de Medecwe, 1821 ; Journal 
 Universal des Sciences Medicaks, vol. xxiv. ; Bccxcil de Med. Veicrinaire, 5th series, 
 vol. vi. p. P.
 
 History. 23 
 
 parchment, were thrust down the throats of mad dogs to cure 
 them, 
 
 Jahiah-Ebn-Serapion, a native of Syria, who lived at the 
 commencement of the ninth century, believed the disease 
 produced b}^ the bite of a mad dog to be incurable ; though he 
 proposed that the patient should be made to swallow water by 
 enclosing it in a globule of concrete honey, which was to be 
 put in the mouth.* 
 
 Rhazes, a celebrated Arab physician, mentions hydrophobia, 
 and says that a certain man barked by night like a dog and 
 died ; and that there was one who, when he beheld water, was 
 seized with trembling, horripilatio, and rigors, but when the 
 water was removed from him these symptoms ceased. 
 
 The Arab physician, Avicenna, at the commencement of the 
 eleventh century, speaks of rabies. He directs the wound to be 
 dilated and kept open for forty days, and recommends, as an 
 infallible remedy, the ordinary blistering fly {meloe vesicatories). 
 He states that he saw the body of a mad dog covered with 
 pustules (quandoque pustulis scatet seu ajjostematur) , and the 
 skin of which had an ashy tint (colore cinerifo).f He alludes 
 to the urinary organs being affected, states that hydrophobous 
 persons barked like dogs ; that they had a desire of biting 
 people ; that there were instances of patients being sufibcated 
 in attempting to drink, and that the malady sometimes ter- 
 minated in apoplexy.+ Altogether his treatise is very com- 
 plete, and certainly marks a step in advance of his predecessors. 
 Six hundred years afterwards. Baptist Codrondius, in an 
 excellent description of the symptoms of rabies, confirms Avi- 
 cenna's observation with regard to the skin in hydrophobia.^ 
 
 * Serapion, "Breviarium," tr. v. cap. 17. 
 
 t In mankind, this tint of the skin during an attack of hydrophobia is repre- 
 sented by a dull redness or erythema, which has been designated by the term 
 " rabic roseola." There have also been noted other cutaneous symptoms in man, 
 which have received the names of " rabic pleiads," " rabic bubo," tSrc. 
 
 X Canon, book v. 
 
 ^ " De Rabie Hydrophobia Communiter dicta." Francibrti, IfilO.
 
 24 Rabies and Hydrophobia, 
 
 A work entitled the " KynosopLion " {]s.vvog6^iov) , supposed 
 by some to have been written by Phasmon, while others imagine 
 it to have been composed by Demetrius Pepagomenos, a Greek 
 writer who lived at Constantinople in the twelfth century, 
 contains the names of some diseases the dog is liable to, and 
 their remedies, but no symptoms are given. It is marked by 
 the grossest superstition and absurdities. For example, to 
 discover the part in which a dog is suffering, the following 
 singular advice is offered: "Adversus solem constitue canem, et 
 in locum laesum muscse convolabunt, atque sic locum dolentum 
 deprehendes." Allusion is made to the lysses under the 
 tongue, it is to be presumed ; for it is stated that there is 
 a little body beneath the tongue of the dog, which is compared 
 to a u-Jiite tcorm — or rather, when the sentence is literally 
 translated, to a hole similar to that of a tvorm. It is neces- 
 sary, continues the writer, to destroy it quickly before it 
 increases and invades the whole throat. "Priusquam augeatur 
 totumque occupet guttur," says a translator.* 
 
 Fracastor, or Fracastorius, in the sixteenth century, in a 
 poem entitled " Alcon, sive de Cura Canum Venaticorum," 
 appropriated this idea of the " worm " in the tongue, which he 
 had probably obtained from Pliny ; or he may even have seen 
 it in the original Greek manuscript of Pepagomena, which by 
 some chance might have found its way into the library of the 
 Medici. The particular words of the poem are — 
 
 "Vulnificus vermis suffunditque ora veneno." 
 
 Albertus Magnus, Bishop of Patisbon, in the thirteenth 
 century, alludes to the malady and its appearance in horses ; 
 and Laurentius Pusius, a century later, takes cognisance of it. 
 
 From this period the literature of rabies gradually expands ; 
 observers and writers wonderfully increase; and, with the 
 progress of medicine, their remarks become more valuable and 
 
 * Brogiani, " De Veneno Animantium Natural! et Acquisito Tractatus." 
 Florence, 1752.
 
 History. 
 
 2S 
 
 comprehensive, though so far as the successful prevention or 
 attempts at curing the malady are concerned, but little proo-ress 
 appears to have been made ; and the disease, terrible and fatal 
 as in the old times, was, to the popular mind, shrouded in 
 mystery, and obscured by the superstitious rites and ideas 
 devised by ignorance, priestcraft, and fear,* 
 
 For instance, in Belgium, the custom is still practised of 
 going to the shrine of St. Hubert, in the Ardennes, for the 
 cure of hydrophobia, as in the early ages. The anonymous 
 author of the " Life of St. Lambert," written about the end 
 of the eleventh century, makes mention of several people who 
 were there cured in a.d. 825. The legend relates that the 
 stole of St. Hubert, which works the miracle, was brought 
 from heaven by an angel, who gave it to the saint while he 
 was praying at the tomb of St. Peter in Eome. The last- 
 named saint also brought him a golden key, assuring him that 
 God would grant him a special power over evil spirits. 
 
 The following is the rubric of the regulations to be observed 
 by those who are taken to be cured, in order that the miracle 
 may stand some chance of succeeding ; it was printed in 
 1671 :— 
 
 " The person, who is attired with the stole in honour of 
 St. Hubert, must begin by confessing and communicating for 
 nine successive days ; must sleep alone either in white sheets 
 newly- washed, or else entirely dressed ; must drink alone, and not 
 bend the head down in drinking at fountains or rivers. Item, 
 may drink red and white wine, and * clairet,' mixed with 
 water, or water only ; may eat white and other bread ; pork of 
 a male pig not more than a year old ; capon or pullets of the 
 same age ; fish having scales, such as smoked herrings and 
 
 * I have made but little reference to the literature of rabies and hydrophobia 
 beyond what was absolutely necessary for my purpose. Commencing with 
 iSpackmann's "Declaration," published in 1613— the first English work, I think, 
 on the subject — the writers who have written on these maladies in this country art- 
 very numerous, while on the Continent they arc legion. A tolerably complete 
 bibliography will be found appended to the article "Rabies" in Copeland's 
 " Dictionary of Practical Medicine."'
 
 2 6 Rabies mid Hydrophobia. 
 
 carp, and hard-boiled eggs ; all of which must be eaten cold, 
 and in no other manner. Item, the head must not be combed 
 for forty days, and if the person receives a wound, or the bite 
 of any animal drawing blood, he must practise the same 
 abstinence for the space of three days without returning here. 
 Item, on the tenth day he must have his bandage taken off by 
 a priest, and cause it to be burnt, and the ashes cast into the 
 piscina. Item, he must keep the feast of St. Hubert every 
 year, viz., on the third day of November. Item, he may grant 
 reprieve to all persons bitten by any mad animal from forty to 
 fifty days." * 
 
 The Sorbonne, it may be remarked, condemned all these 
 practices as superstitious by a declaration of the 10th of June, 
 1671, and as early as the fifteenth century the celebrated 
 theologian, Gerson, had pronounced against them. The clergy 
 of St. Hubert, in defending the practices against the attacks of 
 the Sorbonne, drew up an explanation of all the means employed 
 in the cure of people who had been bitten, and caused it to be 
 approved by the Bishop of Liege and the faculty of theology of 
 Louvain. This explanation did not, however, prevent a canon 
 of Rheims, in 1709, from undertaking to refute and attack the 
 
 * Van Hclmont appears to have been a believer in the virtues of this musty 
 saint's vestment, and the silly practices imposed by the priests. " Our good 
 Catholics, despairing of relief from the faculty, repair to St. Hubert, at whoso 
 shrine, by vii-tue of certain ceremonies, they are cured ; but it is worthy of 
 remark, if these ceremonies are not strictly observed, the latent rabies imme- 
 diately breaks out, and they become irrecoverably hydrophobic. There is a 
 vestment of St. Hubert's, which is preserved in a chest secured by six locks, the 
 keys of which are kept by the six different vergers. For these fourscore years 
 past they have been continually cutting off pieces from this holy vestment ; 
 nevertheless it remains to this day perfectly entire. Now it is impossible that 
 there should be any impostui-e in the case ; for they have never been able to dis- 
 cover whether this miraculous robe be of linen, woollen, or of silk ; consequently 
 it cannot be annually renewed. They cut off a piece of the robe, and incarnate 
 a thread between the skin of the patient's forehead. Hence another miracle— 
 for a person thus cured becomes possessed of a power to postpone the hydro- 
 phobia during forty days, in any of his acquaintance, who, after being bitten, 
 may not have leisure immediately to visit St. Hubert ; on the condition, how- 
 over, that if they exceed the forty days ever so little, without applying for a pro- 
 rogation of the term, they go mad irrecoverably."
 
 History. -> 
 
 -/ 
 
 miracles of St. Hubert in a letter which he wrote to M. Hennebel, 
 a theological doctor of Louvain. It is reprinted in the "Critical 
 History of Superstitious Customs," by Father Le Brun. In it 
 the author attacks the vulgar opinion of the non- diminution of 
 the saint's stole, and maintains that the greater part of the 
 afflicted who go to the shrine of St. Hubert become mad, and 
 cites several instances derived, for the most part, from the 
 " Treatise on Superstitions," by Thiers. " Those who are 
 cured," he observes, "have either not been bitten by dogs 
 really mad, or have had other ailments distinct from hydro- 
 phobia ; or it has been the strength of their constitutions, or 
 the physical remedies which have cured them, and not the 
 miracle denied by the most skilful theologians and medical 
 men." He treats the practice of the nenvaine as eminently 
 suj)erstitious, and finally refutes the system adopted. 
 
 Of course, the clergy of St. Hubert replied to this attack, but 
 by arguments which failed to meet the objections raised ; and the 
 question appears since to have rested where all such questions 
 remain — the world of common sense denies the miracle, the 
 superstitious and priest-led affirm it. 
 
 What are called " the keys of St. Hubert " consist of an iron, 
 heated red-hot, and applied to the animals bitten by mad dogs. 
 It appears never to have borne the form of a key ; for in the 
 town of St. Hubert itself the amulet was an iron ring inserted 
 in the wall of one of the houses in the principal street. It no 
 longer exists, though the belief in the potency of St. Hubert 
 is, among the peasantry, as strong as ever. In other places 
 where this saint is especially venerated, the form of the exor- 
 cising instrument in no way resembles the key given by St. 
 Peter. At Liege it is also an iron ring, and at Utrecht an 
 iron cross.* 
 
 * Dudley Costello, "A Tour through the Valley of the Meuse," p. 297. 
 For very intex'esting details of this saint and the ordeal for the prevention of 
 hydrophobia, with its supposed marvellous results, see the " Vie do Saint 
 Hubert," by Stauislaus Prioux, Paris, 1853. Also " Pelegrinage dc Saint- 
 Hubert- en- Ai'dennes," by Bertrand. Namur, 18o5,
 
 28 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to say that, up to tlie eighteenth 
 century, little progress was made in ascertaining the nature 
 of the disease, or devising measures for its prevention. Absurd 
 remedies only were prescribed for those who chanced to be 
 threatened with an attack, or were really affected ; and though 
 the writers who allude to the malady are numerous, yet they 
 offer nothing of sufficient importance to necessitate our refer- 
 ring to them in this place. 
 
 As already mentioned, the notices of general outbreaks of 
 rabies in the early ages of our era are extremely few, though 
 there can scarcely be a doubt as to their occurrence. Occasion- 
 ally we meet with allusions to people having been bitten by 
 wolves, foxes, badgers, and even bears,* and afterwards dying 
 of madness ; indeed, in the middle ages, notices of these occur- 
 rences are frequent. For instance, in 1271, it is stated that 
 in Franconia rabid wolves invaded the towns and villages, 
 attacking the herds and flocks, and that no fewer than thirty 
 persons died in consequence of the bites inflicted on them.f 
 In 1500, Spain was reported to have been ravaged by rabies 
 canina. + 
 
 According to Forster, § there was an epizooty of rabies among 
 dogs during the epidemic plague in Flanders, Turkey, Hungary, 
 and Austria in 1586. In 1590, this disease also appeared in 
 
 * In mywork on " Animal Plagues " (London, 1871), I have given detailed 
 notices of these occurrences. A curious case of rabies in a bear is recorded for 
 A.D. 900, as happening at Lyons. " About the year 900, immense forests covered 
 Burgundy, Maconnais, Brescia, and part of Lyonnais. These forests were 
 tenanted by wolves, wild boars, bears, and other ferocious animals. One daj", a 
 rabid bear, following the course of the river ISaone, at last reached the quay at 
 Lyons. Everybody fled at its approach except some boatmen, who, armed with 
 heavy sticks, attempted to kill it. The bear, however, little intimidated by their 
 number, rushed among them and bit many — about twenty. Of this party, six 
 were smothered in about twenty-seven days, in consequence of fearful madness. 
 ■ The other foiirteen, however, had thiown themselves into the river to escape the 
 animal's attacks, and, having to swim to the opposite bank, were thus preserved 
 from the effects of the poison, as the water of the river, in beating against their 
 wounds, washed away the venom, and thus saved them." (Page 61.) 
 
 t "Pistor. Scrip, rerum German.," vol. i. p. 433. 
 
 X "Animal Plagues," p. 127. § Ibid., p. 137. ■
 
 History. 29 
 
 an epizootic form among wolves at Moutbeliard.* In 1604, 
 rabies canina was wide-spread in Paris, and caused great 
 alarm.f In 1708, it was also epizootic among dogs in Suabia.J 
 In Hungary, in 1712, wild beasts of all kinds perished in large 
 numbers at Somogy, and in the woods the country people found 
 dogs which, had been driven there by madness. Men bitten by 
 them were quickly seized with frenzy and hydrophobia, imitat- 
 ing the barking and the madness of dogs, and attacking those 
 near by biting at them.§ From 1719 until 1721, rabies was 
 uncommonly frequent in different countries, but especially in 
 France and Silesia. || In 1722, it prevailed in the last-named 
 country, and had appeared in Hungary.^ In 1725, it still 
 continued in Silesia, where it was also discovered that wolves 
 were affected. An observer of this fact says : " The principal 
 reason for this appears to be in the atmosphere and the weather, 
 as well as in the constitution of the animal. Such madness 
 seems to be quite common in some other places."** In the 
 following year complaints continued to be made of the madness 
 of dogs in Silesia and Lusatia.ff In England the disease pre- 
 vailed in 1734, and in 1735 Huxham speaks of " many mad 
 dogs running up and down " in August. In October he writes 
 that "many were bit by mad dogs;" and in November, that 
 "several mad dogs run about." ^+ 
 
 Hughes states that in 1741 many dogs went mad in Bar^ 
 badoe8.§§ 
 
 * "Animal Plagues," p. 138. t Ibid., p. 139. % Ibid., p. 179. 
 
 § Ibid., p. 190. II Ibid., p. 231. U Ibid., p. 236. 
 
 ** Ibid., p. 238. tt Ibid., p. 239. +; Ibid., p. 259. 
 
 §§ Ibid., p. 266. Mr. Hughes, in his "History of Barbadoes," mentions the 
 cure of a rabid cow during this outbreak : " When found to be mad, she was 
 confined ; but as the usual symptoms attending that terrible distemper appeared 
 more and more, and she growing to extreme madness, the owner determined to 
 destroy her ; but as she was a favourite beast, her doom was respited until he 
 had tried the following experiment. Having thrown lier down upon a dunghill, 
 he directed his slaves to keep her mouth open by force, whilst he gradually 
 poured down her throat a large pailful of cold water. In a short time after she 
 began to feed, and in about twenty-four hours after drank water as usual, fully 
 recovered, and remained so."
 
 30 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 The county of Fife, Scotland, suffered much from mad dogs 
 in 1748. Cows and swine were the animals most injured. 
 
 A correspondent, writing from Charles Town, South America, 
 under date of November 10th, 1750, says: "Since the com- 
 mencement of this year, a kind of madness hath appeared 
 among the dogs in the country, so that most of them have been 
 killed; and lately some have been mad in this town. It is not 
 remembered that there ever was a mad dog seen before in this 
 province. I do not hear that they have yet bitten any person ; 
 but as soon as their madness appears, they attack every dog 
 they see, which are, within a few hours after being bit, in the 
 same condition. As it began in the country, some suppose 
 this madness to proceed from these creatures feeding on the 
 infected carcases of dead cattle, as no other cause appears. The 
 mad dogs, if not killed, die in two or three days ; and some 
 hogs have been seized in like manner." * 
 
 In 1752, several mad dogs were reported about St. James's, 
 London, and orders were issued to shoot all which appeared 
 there. In some country towns the justices gave similar 
 orders, t 
 
 According to Layard, " in the years 1759 and 1760, madness 
 raged among dogs in London and its neighbourhood, in con- 
 sequence of the mild winter and early spring." 
 
 "It first appeared in the borough of Southwark, and the 
 consternation diffused itself all over the cities of London and 
 Westminster. The magistrates immediately issued a very 
 prudent and judicious order for every person who kept dogs 
 to confine them during a month within doors ; and ordered 
 their beadles and other officers to destroy all dogs found at 
 large, with a reward of two shillings for each dog which should 
 be killed." % 
 
 Great cruelty was the result of this bribe to slay the 
 
 * The Gentleman's Maijazme, January, 1751. 
 
 t Ibid., August, 1752. ; "Animal Plagues," p. 409.
 
 History. 3 1 
 
 unfortunate dogs, and the most barbarous scenes were enacted 
 by the brutal rabble, wbicb bad a premium put upon tbeir savage 
 propensities. Moorfields was the burial-place of all the animals so 
 murdered. "No less than the bodies of thirty dead dogs were told 
 in one day in Tower Ditch, by a person of undoubted veracity, 
 who was only casually passing by that way. ... Of the dogs 
 that will be massacred on this occasion, not one in a thousand 
 will be mad ; and of those that are mad, not one, perhaps, will 
 be killed. Those who make it a revenue to kill the dogs will 
 carefully avoid meddling with any that have bad symptoms, 
 from the dread of the consequences." " The outbreak appears 
 to have lasted until 1762. 
 
 In 1763 a disease appeared among dogs in France, Italy, 
 and Spain, which, it is recorded, terminated sooner or later in 
 madness. In Asti, Alexandria, and other places, all dogs, no 
 matter who their owners might chance to be, were slaughtered 
 by the authorities. In Madrid, nine hundred were killed in 
 one day.f 
 
 In 1768 rabies was alarmingly frequent in Boston and 
 other towns in North America ; J and again in 1770 and 1771 ^ 
 it was extremely prevalent among dogs and foxes in Boston 
 and its neighbourhood ; swine were the principal victims of 
 these animals' fury. The malady appears to have been looked 
 upon as novel in that part of the world at this period. 
 
 In the early part of 1774, it was causing much alarm in 
 Lancashire, and we find that at a general meeting of the 
 parishioners of Eccles, near Manchester, it was unanimously 
 agreed to strike off from the poor's-rates all paupers who should 
 keep dogs. They also agreed to pay five shillings for every 
 mad dog killed in their parish. § Lipscomb says the disease 
 was very general in England. || 
 
 * The Gentleman' s Magazine, August, 1760. 
 
 t " Animal Plagues," p. 420. % Ibid., p. 429. 
 
 § The Gentleman's Magazine, June, 1774. 
 
 II " The History of Canine Madness." London, 1809, p. 41.
 
 3 2 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 From 1776 to 1778, the French "West Indies was visited for 
 the first time by rabies, and in an epizootic form. " It was 
 believed for a long time that the Antilles were exempted from 
 rabies, because until now no mad animals had been seen ; but 
 from 1776 to 1778 it has reigned almost continually. At 
 Guadaloupe, the dogs were at first attacked with dumb mad- 
 ness, such as we had observed many years before, but without 
 any other consequences. To this dumb madness succeeded that 
 of a furious character ; many cattle have been bitten and have 
 died of rabies ; we have also seen many human beings perish 
 from this malady, negroes as well as white people. Numbers 
 of dogs which have been bitten, died only with symptoms of dumb 
 madness {rage mud) ; but others have become really mad, and 
 bit whoever and whatever came in their way."* 
 
 In 1779, in the district of Belluno, Italy, it was reported 
 that a number of people and domesticated animals had been 
 bitten by a mad wolf in March, and that many of these died 
 of hydrophobia.! At Bourges, France, in the same year and 
 month, a mad wolf bit a child, which afterwards became afiected 
 with rabies. + In this year, also, rabies canina was very common 
 at Philadelphia and in Maryland, America.§ In 1783, the 
 malady was epizootic in Hispaniola and Jamaica, and this 
 appears to have been its advent in these regions. " During 
 my residence in the "West Indies," says Moseley, " I never 
 heard anything of this disease ; and from the most particular 
 inquiries I have made, I am fully convinced that before 1783 
 rabies had not appeared upon many, if any, of the islands." 
 It appeared in spring in Hispaniola, and in June in Jamaica, 
 where it continued until March, 1784. It was supposed to 
 have originated spontaneously, and it soon became general. 
 Many negroes were bitten, and died; and swine, goats, and 
 horses were also injured, and perished with symptoms of hj'dro- 
 
 * " De Moyens de Conserver la Sant'e des Blance et des Negres." St. Domingo, 
 1786. " Animal Plagues," p. 486. 
 
 t " Animal Plagues," p. 490. ; Ibid., loc. cit. 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 490.
 
 \ 
 
 History. 3^ 
 
 phobia.* " It was said at first that it was brought to Jamaica 
 from Hispaniola ; but experience proved the fact to be other- 
 wise. The common notion that this disease among dogs can 
 only proceed from the poison of an external bite, or that it 
 originates in some particular dog from internal disease, and 
 from thence is disseminated, has excluded the idea of spon- 
 taneous madness, arising from some peculiar influence in the 
 air. But this influence of the air generated the canine madness 
 in the year 1783, in the West Indies ; for it was general, and 
 many dogs were seized with it that had no communication with 
 others ; and some dogs which were brought from Europe and 
 North America, and that were not on shore, went mad on their 
 arrival in the hai'bours of the islands. ... In 1783 this disease 
 was general in Jamaica. Many negroes were bitten, and died 
 hydrophobous. A boy belonging to Mrs. Inglis, in Kingston, 
 was bitten by a little dog supposed to be mad. . . . An 
 attorney-at-law in Kingston was bitten by his own dog. . . . 
 One of his negroes was also bitten. Many dogs and goats were 
 bitten, and died mad. A horse belonging to Mr, Edward 
 East, in Liguanea, was bitten, and, being seized with mad- 
 ness, was shot. Another horse, belonging to a merchant in 
 Kingston, was bitten. He broke out of the stable and ran 
 about mad, until by beating his head against a wall he killed 
 himself." 
 
 The outbreak of the disease in Hispaniola appears to have 
 been very serious, if we may credit the information conveyed 
 in a letter dated October 29th, 1783, from Kingston, Jamaica. 
 " By the arrival of a brig from Port-au-Prince, we learn that 
 
 • " Animal Plagues,' ' p. 520. In the Gentleman's Magazine for August, 1760, it is 
 mentioned tliat Mr. Ingram stated that " in one season of the year the dogs in the 
 West Indies are particularly subject to madness. In this season I have known a 
 great numher of negroes Lit by them." Speaking of the efficacy of the actual cau- 
 tery, he adds : " The first ten negroes were all cauterifeed, and every one was cured. 
 One year, near twenty negroes were bit ia one day ; nineteen were cured, the 
 other negro would not submit to the cautery, the hydrophobia came on, and he 
 died mad." He knew of more than two hundred who had been so treated success' 
 fully, showing how prevalent the disease must have been at that early period. 
 
 D
 
 34 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 the madness among the dogs was almost universal throughout 
 the island of Hispaniola, and that orders had been issued by 
 the Government to destroy the whole race of them in that 
 country, which had been so effectually carried into execution 
 by the military, that the surface of the water in the harbour of 
 Port-au-Prince was covered with their dead bodies. The said 
 disorder is said to rage among the dogs at Kingston." * 
 
 Canine madness was raging all over the Northern States of 
 — America in 1785, and the Gazettes of that year abound with 
 accounts of its dreadful effects. It continued during the follow- 
 ing year. Many cases of hydrophobia were observed in the 
 Southern States of America;! and in 1789 it was again 
 ""-^ prevalent in that country. In the State of New York a man 
 died of hydrophobia, induced, it was supposed, from his having 
 ~7 skinned a cow that had died of that malady.J According to 
 Moseley,! canine madness raged in England in 1788, and the 
 disease was epizootic at Miinster, in Westphalia, in 1789. || In 
 " 1797 it was also epizootic in Rhode Island, North America." If 
 In the nineteenth century rabies appears to have become 
 much more frequent than in the previous eras, especially in 
 France, Germany, and England, and also to have extended its 
 geographical limits very considerably. In 1803 it appeared for 
 the first time in Peru. " This disease appears to have been 
 unknown on the shores of Peru, until in the excessively hot 
 — -summers of 1803 and 1804, when it broke out in the scorched 
 valleys along the northern part of the coasts, from whence it 
 proceeded, with an epidemic course, southward to lea and 
 Arequipa. It is stated that of forty-two individuals bitten by 
 rabid dogs, and who died in the town of lea, the greater 
 
 * The Gentleman's Magazine, February, 1784. The disease does not appear 
 to have been seen in Hispaniola (St. Domingo) until the latter half of the 
 eighteenth century, as Pouppe Desportes, who practised medicine there from 1732 
 until 1 748, says it was unknown in the island. *' A Saint Dominique on a I'avantage 
 de ne pas connoitre la rage." — Histoire des Maladies de S. Dominique, vol. ii. p. 157. 
 
 t "Animal Plagues," p. 524. + Ibid., p. 528. 
 
 § " On Hydrophobia " (London, 1808), p. 32. 
 
 II "Animal Plagues," p. 528. H Ibid., p. 540.
 
 History. 3 ^ 
 
 number died in from twelve to ninety days after being bitten. 
 It appears that the foresight of the Viceroy, Abascal, had saved 
 Lima from the ravages of this furious epidemic, for he ordered 
 a general slaughter of the dogs in the city. During my long 
 residence in Peru, I never witnessed a single case of declared 
 hydrophobia." * Another more detailed and interesting account 
 is as follows : " Neither in Peru, nor in the neighbouring- 
 sections of South America, were dogs ever known to be attacked 
 by hydrophobia prior to 1803 ; but about this time the malady 
 broke out, during the heat of summer, in the valleys of the 
 northern coast, from whence it extended southward along the 
 maritime plains, having arrived at the city of Arequipa in the 
 spring of 1807, while in Lima it was observed between the 
 summer and autumn of the same year. . . . This disease arose 
 spontaneously from the increased atmospherical temperature of 
 the years 1803 and 1804. It commenced on the northern 
 coast, commonly called Costa Abajo, where the air' was so 
 heated that Reaumur's thermometer indicated the temperature 
 of 30 degrees in some of the valleys. The calms were extreme, 
 without the lightest breeze that could ripple the surface of the 
 ocean. Animals rushed into lakes and pools of still water to 
 
 * A. Smith. "Diseases in Peru," Edinburgh Med. and Surgical Journal, 1841. 
 See also Unanue, " Observaciones sobre el Clima de Lim*," p. 76. The slaughter 
 thus commenced has passed into a custom of annually destroying these con- 
 fiding companions of man, when the howl or piteous death-cry of the poor animal 
 rings upon" the ear, on fine summer mornings, as the watermen are employed in 
 knocking them down with their iron-pointed sticks in all the streets, and even at 
 the very doois or gates where the persecuted creatures seek protection in vain. 
 To see them di-agged along the streets, botmd together by the waterman's lasso, 
 leaving a bloody track behind them, and then heaped up in the public squares, 
 where they are often allowed to lie for days, is truly one of the most painful and 
 disgusting sights which Lima presents, and to which the bloody scenes of the 
 bull- ring are comparatively nothing.— Translator. 
 
 The same dismal proceedings used to be enacted at Kertch, according to Prince 
 Demidoff ("Travels in the Crimea"). Tennent, in his work on Ceylon, 
 describes a similar disgusting performance, dogs being pursued and destroyed 
 by clubs in the streets, and a premium given for each unfortunate animal so 
 butchered. Since his book was published, however, I am glad to be assured that 
 the hideous practice has been discontinued, owing to the remonstrances of the 
 Eoj'al Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. 
 
 d2
 
 36 Rabies mid Hydrophobia. 
 
 relieve themselves from the sensation of excessive heat. This 
 disorder affected every sort of quadruped without distinction, 
 and such was the degree of frenzy excited by it, that some 
 animals, in their fury, bit and tore themselves to pieces ; and 
 in situations where the heat was extreme, several men fell ill 
 with all the symptoms of hydrophobia without having been bit. 
 .... The malady attached itself more especially to dogs, and 
 some of them suffered so mild an attack that their bite was not 
 mortal ; but the greater number were severely affected, and 
 propagated the infection to their kind, to other quadrupeds, 
 and to man. . . . The mean and niggardly overseer of a sugar 
 estate had distributed among his negroes, though advised not 
 to do so, some head of cattle that died rabid; which he did 
 under the impression that they were only tocado, or touched 
 with that disease which in hot weather usually affects cattle 
 from the mountains ; and the result was, that of the poor 
 negroes who had partaken of this meat, many died with 
 
 symptoms of hydrophobia In the towns of lea and 
 
 Arequipa the number of individuals who died, after having 
 
 been bit by mad dogs, was greater, and their cases less 
 
 equivocal than the preceding. In lea a single rabid bitch 
 
 bit fourteen persons in one night, and all died with the 
 
 exception of two men, who agreed to be placed under medical 
 
 treatment. ... In the city of Arequipa it was much disputed 
 
 whether or not the malady was a legitimate hydrophobia, and 
 
 learned papers pro and con were written by the Drs. Rosas 
 
 and Salvani. In this paper-war much time was lost. . . . 
 
 Immediately upon being made acquainted that the epidemic 
 
 hydrophobia approached the capital, the Viceroy of Peru, 
 
 Abascal, ordered all the dogs in the place to be killed, by 
 
 means of which he liberated Lima from the impending scourge; 
 
 for though a few hydrophobia patients entered at this period 
 
 into the hospitals, they were not inhabitants of the city, but 
 
 some individuals who had come in from the neighbouring 
 
 farms and valleys. When this calamitous epidemic commenced
 
 History. ^ y 
 
 in tlie valleys of Costa Abajo, Done Jose Figuero^ wrote me to 
 say, that the dogs went about with their tails between their 
 feet ; they slavered much, hid themselves from human sight, 
 howled lustily, and presently they fell down and moved no 
 more. The cats, with their hair on end, ran about the house- 
 tops. Horses and asses got enraged the one against the other ; 
 they threw themselves on the ground, rolled about, and in- 
 stantly, on being dead, they swelled and putrefied. Black 
 cattle, roaring and lowing, bounded about, fought with each 
 other, in the contest even broke their horns, and they died 
 quickly. . . . Professor Estrada confidently stated, that of 
 forty-two individuals who died in the city of lea, after having 
 been bit by mad dogs, the greater number were cut ofi" in from 
 twelve to ninety days after the accident. The symptoms which 
 followed the ingraftment of the poison disclosed themselves in 
 the form of convulsions, oppression at the breast, sighs, sadness, 
 laborious breathing, horror at liquids and shining objects, fury, 
 vomiting of dark bilious matter, and an incessant, urgent call 
 on the part of the patients that the assistants should depart 
 from them, because they felt themselves impelled to attack, 
 bite, and tear them to pieces. None in this state survived 
 beyond the term of five days. . . . Since the year 1808 this 
 terrible epidemic has been disappearing. From time to time, 
 however, a dog may be seen running violently hither and 
 thither, and biting all whom he may happen to meet, in the 
 same way as is done by the really mad dog." * 
 
 According to the statements of competent authorities, rabies 
 was imported into La Plata in 1806, by sporting dogs belonging 
 to English ofl&cers, and since that time it has continued there. 
 
 In 1803 also commenced one of the most remarkable epi- 
 zooties of vulpine rabies on record. It began in December, in 
 the districts of Aubonne, Cossonay, Orbe, and Yverdon, at the 
 foot of the Jura Alps, where dead foxes were observed, and 
 people, dogs, pigs, and other animals were bitten. The epizooty 
 * Smith, ■' Peru a& it is,' vol. ii. p. 248.
 
 38 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 continued with more or less intensity until 1835, and in the 
 interval spread over nearly the whole of Switzerland. In 1804 
 it appeared in the Kingdom of Wurtemburg and the Grand 
 Duchy of Baden. In 1819 it had considerably increased in 
 intensity and extent, having extended into the circle of the 
 Upper Danube and Bavaria, and up to 1825 it raged with much 
 fierceness in the Black Forest. In 1821 and 1822, it reigned 
 in the forest of Thuringia, and at Jena a young captive fox 
 became rabid on the chain and bit its owner. In the Yoralberg, 
 between May and September, 1821, seventeen goats and cows 
 had perished from the effects of bites inflicted by rabid foxes. 
 In 1824 it was very common among the foxes in Upper Hesse, 
 and it was observed that it spread like any other contagious 
 malady, generally from district to district, and from south to 
 north. It reached Lower Hesse and the frontiers of Hanover 
 at a later period. In Southern Germany the malady continued 
 for several years. In 1834 it was very frequent in the Prin- 
 cipality of Hohenzollern ; and in August, 1836, a man and a 
 girl were bitten by a fox in the district of Eottenburg. The 
 girl died of hydrophobia. In the winter and spring of 1837 
 mad foxes were killed at Ulm. It appears that this vulpine 
 epizooty did not reach so far as North Germany, The 
 symptoms observed in these animals were undoubtedly those 
 of rabies. They attacked people in the woods or on the public 
 highways, even entering villages ; and during the continuance 
 of the outbreak every kind of domestic animal suffered from 
 the transmission of the virus by wounds occasioned by these 
 creatures ; even fowls were not exempt. Badgers were observed 
 to be infected. In some places all the foxes died, and so many 
 people suffered that there was a regular panic among the 
 villagers.* 
 
 * I regret I cannot in this place afford further details of this most remarkable 
 and interesting epizooty. In another volume, on "Animal Plagues," which I trust 
 ■will be published before long, I have given full particulars of the progress, 
 symptoms, and other noteworthy features of the outbreak.
 
 History. 3g 
 
 At Crema, in Italy, in 1804, a mad wolf descended from the 
 mountains in November and bit thirteen persons, of whom nine 
 died of hydrophobia.* In 1806 rabies was very common in 
 England, according to Blaine, and abounded in the vicinity of 
 London. In the two succeeding years it continued to rage, 
 after which, for several subsequent years, it was less prevalent, 
 "but it never became apparently extinct or rare as before. "f 
 In the winter of 1807 it raged as an epizooty at Dover, and in 
 some of the neighbouring towns. Many cases of hydrophobia 
 occurred in the human species. + Until 1823 it was more or 
 less prevalent in the City of London and suburbs every year. 
 It was frequent in North America in 1810,§ but in Ohio it 
 appears to have assumed an epizootic character, affecting dogs, 
 wolves, and foxes. || 
 
 Rabies was very common in the Ukraine in 1813. Marochetti 
 witnessed it in fourteen persons.^f A rabid wolf appeared at 
 Bar-sur-Ornain, France, and wounded many persons, some of 
 whom afterwards died.** 
 
 According to Unienville, it appeared for the first time in the 
 island of Mauritius in 1813, and was supposed to have been 
 introduced by an English ship from the Bay of Bengal, which 
 had English-bred dogs on board.ft In 1815 the malady was 
 much more frequent than usual in Austria, and particularly in 
 Vienna. . According to the most reliable accounts, there did 
 not occur, annually, more than four or five cases of sporadic 
 madness among dogs in Vienna and its neighbourhood between 
 
 * Brera, " Prospetto della Cliiiica Med. di Padova." 1819-20, 
 
 t " Canine Pathology," p. 97. 
 
 X Lipscomb, "The History of Canine Madness," p. 30. Moseley, "On 
 Hydrophobia," p. 1. 
 
 \ Thacker, American Med. and Philosophical Register, vol. i. p. 457. 
 
 II Jiildieth, American Journal of Medical Science, 1830. 
 
 H " Observations sur I'Hydrophobie." 
 
 ** Champion, "Relation Historique des Accidens cause par un Loup Em-age." 
 Paris, 1813. 
 
 tt " Statist, de I'lle Maurice," vol. ii. p. 322. Pridham (" The Mauritius and 
 its Dependencies," London, 1846, vol. i. p. 237) asserts that dogs "have never 
 been known to go mad in this island."
 
 40 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 ^[808 and 1814. The disease broke out as an epizooty in the 
 latter year, when it commenced in the month of October with 
 five, and terminated in December with fifteen cases. In 1815 
 the disease increased in virulence, seven cases occurring in 
 January ; the number increased during the year to forty- six 
 cases. There could be no doubt as to the epizootic character of 
 the malady, according to the veterinary professor, Waldinger, 
 who watched its progress and described its characteristics, as 
 in by far the larger proportion of cases — viz., forty-three — the 
 dogs attacked by it had not been bitten. Peculiar atmospheric 
 conditions preceded and accompanied the epizooty, and at last 
 diseases dependent upon the weather, with disturbance of the 
 
 ^^unctions of the skin, as, for example, rheumatism, arthritis, 
 and mange {schdhe) appeared.* In 1815 it prevailed in an 
 epizootic form at Copenhagen, according to Yiborg.f 
 
 In May, 1817, a rabid wolf attacked and wounded several 
 people in the department of Isere, France. Hydrophobia 
 afiected several of the injured.:}: In Podolia, in 1818, Marochetti 
 had no fewer than twenty-six persons in his care affected with 
 hydrophobia. 
 
 "^ In 1819 the Duke of Richmond, then Governor- General of 
 Canada, was bitten by a captive fox, and afterwards perished of 
 hydrophobia. In 1822 Forster states that rabies was common 
 in Holland ; § and in 1824 it was epizootic in Sweden, extend- 
 ing also to the foxes, wolves, cats, and even to the reindeer. || It 
 was likewise general in England, Norway, and Russia.H From 
 1823 to 1828, Hertwig reports that it was more than usually 
 common at Berlin.** 
 
 * Waldinger, " CEsterriche Jahrbuch," ]816. Also " Abhandlung iiber die 
 gewohnlichen Krankheiten der Hunde." Vienna and Trieste, 1818. 
 
 t " Conspect. Prascip. mom. quss Comm. de Enzootia Canina atque Hydro- 
 phobia." Hafniensa, 1817. 
 
 j Troillet, "Nouveau Traite de la Rage." Lyons, 1820. 
 
 ^ " The Disorders of Health," p. 179. || " Suenska Lak. Sellsk. Arb.," 1824. 
 
 H Gerson und Julius, " Magazin," vol. viii. p. 273. 
 
 ** "Magazin fur Thierheilkunde," "Beitrage zm- nahern Kenntniss der 
 Wuthki-ankkeit." Berlin, 1829.
 
 History. 4 1 
 
 In 1825 two children, a horse, and an ox were bitten by a 
 mad badger at Langenaufnach, Bavaria. It may have been 
 infected by a rabid fox, as the malady was then raging among 
 these creatures in Germany. Indeed, Count Sponek appears to 
 have been of this opinion when he wrote : " Had it not been 
 madness {toll), the great dread of mankind, which Urian Berg- 
 mann mentions as peculiar to these animals, would have deterred 
 it from attacking human beings in broad daylight ; this is 
 sufficient to stamp the disease as rabies, which was probably 
 due to the badger having had a combat with a mad fox." * In 
 1828, according to the Registrar-General's Report, no fewer 
 than twenty-eight persons died of hydrophobia in England and 
 "Wales. The veterinary professor, Prinz, reports its destruc- 
 tiveness in Dresden in 1829. f 
 
 In 1828 to 1830 Bohme asserts that rabies was frequent in 
 Saxony; and in the latter year it was also prevalent in Eng- 
 land and Vienna. In the latter city thirty-nine cases were 
 reported. In 1831 and 1832 it was wide-spread in the 
 Grand Duchy of Posen ; and in 1833 it prevailed to an alarm- 
 ing extent at Barbadoes.J In 1834 it was general in Saxony, 
 and in 1835 it was unusually frequent in Pomerania. On the 
 15th of February of this year, the government of the canton of 
 Thurgau ordered the destruction of all the foxes, as rabies yet 
 reigned among these creatures. In the canton of Zurich, in 
 this year, a cat and a horse were affected with rabies, and 
 in Lausanne sheep were attacked with it.§ Fitzroy says that, in 
 1835, hydrophobia was very prevalent in Chile ; and men were 
 bitten and succumbed to the malady. The valley of Copiapo, 
 it is incidentally mentioned, is more particularly visited by the 
 scourge. II 
 
 In 1836 the disease was still more common in Pomerania 
 
 * " Sammlung Naturhist. Jagerbeobachten." Heidelberg, 1826. 
 
 t " De Wuth der Hunde als Seuche." Leipsic, 1832. 
 
 X Schomburgh, " History of Barbadoes." 
 
 $ " Archiv fiir Thierheilkunde. Schwek. Thierarzte," vol. vii. pp. 268, 320, 329. 
 
 II " Narrative of the Beagle."
 
 42 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 than in the previous year, and it was also present in Branden- 
 burg and Saxony. In Brandenburg, horses, cattle, and sheep, 
 as well as people, were bitten, and suffered from the effects of 
 the malady.* At Paris it was also seriously prevalent.f In 
 the following year its presence in Austria is reported by Knolz; 
 and in 1838 commenced an epizooty at Vienna, which con- 
 tinued until 1841. Between the years 1830 and 1840, only a 
 very few cases were observed in that city. During the very 
 hot summer of 1834, it was particularly noted that only one 
 case of rabies occurred in Vienna and its immediate neighbour- 
 hood. In 1838 it appeared in an epizootic form, and 17 cases 
 were recorded ; in 183^ there were 63 ; in 1840 only 42 ; 
 but in 1841 no fewer than 141 cases were reported % — an un- 
 precedented number, and which caused the greatest alarm to 
 prevail. The following year there were 42 cases, and in 
 1843 only 2. It is also frequently mentioned in the annual 
 report of the Dresden Veterinary School, by Professor Prinz, 
 for 1838.§ In Wurtemburg the malady was epizootic from 
 September, 1839, to the end of 1842 ; and the veterinary 
 professor, Hering, believed it to have been transmitted from 
 the foxes. II From the 1st of January, 1840, until the end of 
 February, 1842, rabies was observed to affect 230 dogs and 21 
 bitches.^ 
 
 For 1839-40, the compte-rendu of the Veterinary School of 
 Lyons reports but few cases of rabies ; but in the next report 
 — that for 1840-41 — Professor Rey states that " during the 
 year cases of rabies occurred in great numbers in the dog 
 species ; out of sixty-four cases under observation as suspected, 
 thirty-three showed symptoms of the disease and died. It is 
 to the sudden diminution of temperature after great warmth, 
 
 * " Sanitatsbericlit der Provinz. Brandenburg," 1836. 
 t "Eecueil de Med. Vet.," vol. xiv. p. 473. 
 % " Mittheilungen Osterr. Veter.," vol. i. p. 55. 
 § " Magazin fiir die Gesammte Thierbeilkunde," 1838. 
 
 li "Eepertorium fiir Thierheilkunde," vol. ii. "Wurtemberger Correspondenz- 
 blat," vols. X., xii., xiii. 
 
 ^ "Kepertorium," vol. iii. Faber, " Wuthkrankheit," vol. i. p. 2i8.
 
 History. 43 
 
 and to the consequent chilling of the skin, that the so frequent 
 and spontaneous outbreaks of this redoubtable malady should 
 be attributed. The autopsies did not furnish anything remark- 
 able. We had occasion to observe four new cases of rabies 
 transmitted accidentally by dogs to solipeds — two horses, an 
 ass, and a mule. Two dogs were inoculated with the saliva 
 
 of the mule, but without any result "We are already in 
 
 possession of some facts which only too clearly prove that the 
 virus preserves its virulency in passing through several animals. 
 In two instances dogs attacked with communicated rabies have 
 produced the malady in others animal of the same species. 
 A ram, fifteen months old, bitten in the lip by a dog sufiering 
 from spontaneous rabies, was affected eleven days after. By 
 inoculation with the lancet, the virus of this ruminant induced 
 the disease in about thirty-five days in another ram of the 
 same age. Here is an example of the transmission from one 
 herbivore to another of rabies communicated by a carnivore. 
 In three experiments, we have noted that of two dogs bitten at 
 the same time, the first alone has contracted rabies. Might we 
 from this infer, as Dr. Marochetti has done, that after the first 
 bites the virus is expended ? " * 
 
 The same talented veterinarian, in the compte-rendu of this 
 school for the succeeding twelve months, 1841-1842, again 
 alludes to the uncommon prevalence of the plague : — 
 
 " During this year the city of Lyons has been alarmed 
 by the frequent occurrence of rabies i^rarje) ; eight people have 
 perished in consequence of bites from dogs affected with this 
 disease. Energetic measures have been adopted by the autho- 
 rities, and three thousand wandering dogs have been sacrificed. 
 Never at any period has the school received so large a number 
 of hydrophobic animals : out of one hundred and four dogs 
 which have died in the hospital from various diseases, sixty- 
 two perished from rabies. It is not easy to assign any cause 
 for the frequency of so redoubtable a malady; and it is in 
 * " Recueil de M6d. V^terinake," vol. xviii. p. 760.
 
 44 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 this respect that we are forced to confess how difficult it often 
 is to fix upon the etiology of a disease. In 1842 rabies showed 
 itself in an enzootic manner, not only in this city, but also at 
 Aix, Nismes, and at Rouen — in difierent climates, under oppo- 
 site atmospherical conditions, and at various epochs. Never- 
 theless, it was during the month of June last, in the hot 
 weather, that the cases were most numerous. 
 
 " Up to the present time we have foimd that it is necessary 
 to seek for one of the most active causes in the production 
 of rabies in the vicissitudes of the weather, and especially in 
 the sudden transition from an elevated temperature to the 
 cold rains which are so frequent in the vicinity of the moun- 
 tains. But, above all, it is necessary, with regard to sanitary 
 policy, to point out the facility with which the malady may be 
 transmitted by stray dogs, which, subjected to no surveillance, 
 and exposed in large numbers to the attacks of the hydro- 
 phobic, in their turn may contract rabies, and thus spread it in 
 a frightfully progressive manner. In support of this assertion, 
 we may state that the instances of communicated rabies have 
 been much more frequent than the spontaneous cases, and that 
 the scourge has soon disappeared after the destructive measures 
 instituted by the authorities have been carried into effect. In 
 comparing our registers of mortality for the canine species, we 
 find that since 1811, a period of thirty years, 779 dogs afiected 
 with rabies have died in the hospital. They have been admitted 
 at all seasons of the year, but in difierent proportions ; June 
 has most, April comes next; then in decreasing proportions 
 come May, July, August, March, and September, February 
 and October, January and November, until in December the 
 number is reduced to one- half." * 
 
 In the following year, 1843, only fourteen cases were admitted 
 to the hospital of the school. f 
 
 Sir W. Maxwell, Bart., of Monreith, Wigtonshire, Scotland, 
 informs me that in January, 1841, the disease was introduced 
 
 * "Eecueil de Med. Vet.," vol. xx. p. 121. f Ibid., p. 756.
 
 History. 45 
 
 into his kennels by a strange, mud-covered dog, and caused tlie 
 destruction of the foxhounds and other dogs. Rabies was not 
 known in the county at that time. 
 
 Dr. Adolphi, Imperial Veterinary Superintendent of Mitau, 
 reports, in 1844, an epizooty among cattle so closely resembling 
 rabies that he believed it to be this disease, though no mad 
 dog had been seen in the district of Heyden, Reinland — the 
 place where the outbreak first occurred. It commenced in 
 June, 1843, and prevailed until the end of July, 1844. The 
 affected animals ran with tossed-up heads and wild looks madly 
 round the pastures, goring and striking at all other animals 
 with their horns. Every now and again the upper lip was 
 drawn upwards in that peculiar manner in which vicious 
 animals are apt to twitch it, and they kept up a continuous 
 bellowing, which struck all hearers with terror, and which was 
 not excited by the sight of a dog or any other creature, though 
 it increased it. They foamed at the mouth ; the hind parts 
 were weak, and the weakness increased so rapidly that on the 
 third day the animals were usually stretched on the ground, 
 and could not be raised but with great difficulty. The muscles 
 of the thighs, shoulders, and face were contracted at intervals 
 as by spasms ; and if the cattle chanced to be tied up they were 
 restless, gazed wildly about, and bellowed frequently ; if free, 
 they rushed straight onwards over everything until some 
 obstacle impeded their progress, and then they fell heels- over- 
 head and lay still, apparently exhausted. There was no 
 unusual thirst, and the power to swallow remained unimpaired. 
 Any fluids poured in the mouth, as water, bran gruel, &c., 
 were sucked down, and the only peculiarity observable was a 
 motion as of choking, and a twitching of the muscles of the 
 face. The disease was very fatal, most of the affected dying 
 about the end of the fourth day. Adolphi believed it to be 
 spontaneous rabies, as he could not discover that the animals 
 had been wounded by any mad dog.* 
 
 * " Magazin fur die Gesammte Thierheilkimde," 1844.
 
 46 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 In 1847 great numbers of mad dogs were seen, in May, in 
 Roscommon, Ireland.* My friend, Deputy- Controller Rogers, 
 informs me that rabies also appeared at Malta this year, and, it 
 was supposed, for the first time. It was very serious in its 
 consequences, as several people bitten by dogs and cats 
 perished. From 1843 to this date, only a few cases occurred 
 annually in Vienna and neighbourhood, but in this year the 
 number commenced to increase, there being 14 mad dogs ; 
 next year, 19 ; 1849, 17 ; 1850, 20. 
 
 Rabies canina raged epizootically in 1851 in Northern Ger- 
 many. At Hamburg alone no fewer than 267 cases were observed 
 among dogs.f At this place, according to Schrader, it appeared 
 after an interval of twenty-three years, in October, 1851. In Sep- 
 tember of the following year the number of ascertained cases 
 had already reached 203 : in August alone there were 44 cases. 
 Active measures were then taken — all stray dogs killed, and 
 orders given to keep others tied up. The total number killed 
 at this time was 1,400, in addition to some 300 or 400 killed bv 
 their owners. In October the number of cases had diminished 
 to 17 ; November, 11 ; December, 9 ; and January, 4. But on 
 the restrictions being relaxed, the cases again increased, until 
 in June, 1853, they were 14, and July, 17. Vigorous action 
 was again resorted to, and a reduction once more took place. This 
 was succeeded by another increase, until at last it was subdued, or 
 wore itself out, in 1856. The total number of cases reported 
 during this epizooty, by the veterinary authorities at Hamburg, 
 was nearly 600. Schrader states, that though the epizooty 
 prevailed on both banks of the Elbe, yet it was not observed 
 on any of the islands in that river, probably because it was 
 not carried to them by contagion. J A rabid wolf also caused 
 much damage in France in 1851. "A mad wolf in the 
 vicinity of Hue-au-Gal, in France, has, during a single day, 
 bitten no less than forty-six persons and eighty-two head 
 
 * Freeman's Journal. f The Lancet and Medical Times, March, 1862. 
 
 X Hertwig, " Jahresbericht fiir 1853," p. 30.
 
 History. 47 
 
 of cattle. The accounts are very afflicting. The con- 
 sequences have begun to show themselves. One person is 
 dying after another in the most frightful agonies. All the 
 cattle were purposely destroyed. The treatment recommended 
 in similar cases — namely, that t he wound should be kept in a 
 state_of ^suppuration for fifty days — has not been adopted, so 
 that probably none of those bitten can be saved."* 
 
 In the Turkish territories, in 1852, a similar occurrence was 
 noted. " The small town of Adalia, in the Turkish territories, 
 has just been the scene of a sad catastrophe. On the 7th July 
 a mad wolf rushed into the place, attacked and severely bit 
 several individuals in the street; but becoming at length 
 alarmed at the cries of the people, he made for the gardens at 
 the skirts of the town. In consequence of this being the time 
 of the silkworm harvest, several hundred individuals slept in 
 one and the same garden, and 128 of them were severely wounded. 
 Owing to the governor having recently taken from the inhabit- 
 ants every kind of weapon, the unhappy people found them- 
 selves without any means of defence. The wolf was at length 
 driven thence also ; but the same night he attacked a flock of 
 sheep, and killed eighty-five of them. It was not until the 
 following day that the people, to whom the governor had 
 returned their arms, succeeded in destroying the beast. The 
 report of a medical man resident in the town, in regard to the 
 wounded, is frightful. The most shocking part of the afiair is, 
 that several of those bitten have already died raving mad, and 
 the population of the place are in a state of the most terrible 
 consternation. ' ' f 
 
 * L. Lloyd, "Scandinavian Adventures," vol. i. p. 451. This author, when 
 describing the Northern wolf, says: "The Scandinavian wolf, though subject 
 to several diseases, is happily, I believe, exempt from rabies. This is well ; for 
 were they liable to that hon-id infliction, the consequences would be dreadful 
 from their numbers, and their being so generally distributed throughout the 
 peninsula. In warmer climates, as is known, the destruction caused by this 
 animal when the fatal malady is at work within him, is awful to contemplate." 
 — Ihid., p. 451. 
 
 t Ibid., p. 452.
 
 48 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 M. Stanislaus Prioux, in his " Vie de Saint Hubert," refers to 
 the dread rabies was causing on the Continent in 1861 : "At the 
 time when rabies had spread the utmost terror over the greater 
 portion of the northern countries (about two years ago, in 
 1851), I knew an old man at Brussels who, in his youth, had 
 undergone the ordeal prescribed by St. Hubert, and who yet 
 carried on his forehead the precious cicatrix ; he assured me he 
 had saved the lives of several people by granting them delays, 
 while others bitten at the same time by the mad animals died." 
 
 In England, in 1856, rabies showed itself among dogs and 
 in a herd of deer to a serious extent. " Rabies, or hydrophobia, 
 has shown itself to such an extent at Stainbrough, near Barns- 
 ley, as to excite the alarm of the inhabitants of that locality, 
 and to attract the attention of medical men. The disease began 
 to exhibit itself on a small scale in a herd of deer in the latter 
 part of last or early in the present year, immediately after one 
 or more mad dogs had been seen roaming about the locality, 
 one of which is supposed to have communicated the contagion. 
 Nearly one hundred deer have already fallen victims to its 
 effects. While in a state of disease, these otherwise innocent 
 and playful animals foam at the mouth, worry each other like 
 dogs, and tear off each other's hair and flesh, and, when placed 
 in a state of confinement, bite at whatever comes within their 
 reach. With these symptoms the above number have already 
 died, and others are continually being affected by the disease. 
 Five or six dogs have also died at the same place, exhibiting 
 the same symptoms. Until recently the disease was not sus- 
 pected to be rabies ; but attention has been drawn particularly 
 to the matter, through a child belonging to one of the work- 
 men having been bitten by one of the dogs. This caused an 
 alarm, which led to a medical gentleman being called in ; and, 
 on investigating the circumstances, he has pronounced the 
 disease to be rabies. In his official capacity of medical officer 
 of the Barnsley Local Board of Health, he has issued a timely 
 notice or caution to the inhabitants, in which he states that
 
 Histoiy. 4.Q 
 
 there cannot be any reasonable doubt that hydrophobia has 
 manifested itself to a serious extent in the neighbourhood, and 
 he calls upon all persons to be on their guard to protect them- 
 selves and their families from the infliction of this terrible 
 malady."* 
 
 In Berkshire, likewise, in this year, rabies was reported in 
 a flock of sheep belonging to a farmer at Nuffield. On the 
 morning of February 17th, in a fold containing seventy-two 
 very fine ewes heavy in lamb, a strange dog was found by the 
 farmer's son, and beside it two of the ewes dead, and two others 
 so seriously injured that they were afterwards killed. The dog 
 growled at the boy, but, being pelted with stones, it ran away 
 towards the village. It was then discovered that about twenty 
 more sheep were wounded, more or less, about the nose and 
 ears. The wounds were dressed, and these sheep were put in 
 a fold by themselves ; but two or three weeks afterwards 
 several of them began to exhibit symptoms of madness, and 
 fifteen of them lambed, the lambs being brought up by hand. 
 The ewes that became rabid trotted backwards and forwards by 
 the sides of the fold, and repeatedly bit at the hurdles, tearing 
 mouthfuls of wool out of each other, foamed at the mouth, &c. 
 " Twenty-two are since dead, and there are five more that were 
 slightly bitten, which no doubt will also die before many days. 
 The mad lurcher afterwards attacked two dogs, which were 
 soon shot. It next ran to Mr. Corderer's farm at Lashbrook, 
 and fell on his dogs ; but that gentleman, suspecting the dog to 
 be mad, shot him, and then his own dogs, and consigned their 
 bodies to the Thames." f 
 
 My friend, Mr. Michie of Shanghai, China, informs me that 
 while he was in Hong Kong, in 1857, an English bloodhound 
 suddenly became rabid and bit several people ; one man died of 
 hydrophobia. It was remarked that this was the first case 
 which had occurred on the island, and none have been reported 
 since that time. 
 * The Yetcrinaria-n, vol. xxix. p. 341. t The Beading -Mercury, May, 1856.
 
 50 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 From 1855 to 1860 rabies was extensively prevalent over a 
 large portion of Northern Germany, France, and Spain ; but, 
 strangely enough, the cases in Vienna were very few, except in 
 1855, when there were sixteen. In 1858, the disease was so 
 serious in Algeria that the Governor- General issued a circular 
 relative to preventive measures.* 
 
 In 1860 rabies was prevalent in America, especially in the 
 west, " attributable to the large number of idle dogs every- 
 where kept, or, rather, allowed to prowl about without much 
 keeping." f In this year there were several cases of canine 
 madness in various towns of France.+ Captain Malcom, Royal 
 Engineers, informs me that while stationed at Canton, South 
 China, a man died near that town, in 1860 or 1861, of hydro- 
 phobia. In 1861, while I was quartered with the British army 
 of occupation at Tientsin, near Peking, North China, cases of 
 hydrophobia, caused by bites from rabid dogs, occurred among 
 the native Chinese. § 
 
 About this time, and for a few years subsequently, the 
 presence of rabies was more than usually noted in Rhenish 
 Prussia, and it appeared in an epizootic form at Vienna. In 
 reality it began in 1860 with 12 cases, in 1861 there were 
 10, and in 1862, 32. In 1863 there were 29 cases, and in 1864, 
 24. As in 1841, when this dreaded malady was epizootic 
 in the same city, the dogs which were generally aflPected 
 belonged to people who were in tolerable circumstances ; the 
 animals had been well fed and carefully preserved from the 
 vicissitudes of the weather ; but did not get sufficient exercise, 
 and were seldom, if ever, allowed to gratify their animal pas- 
 sions. As in 1841 also, the majority of the dogs affected were 
 mongrels, or belonged to irritable and nervous breeds ; or they 
 
 * " Annales d'Hygiene Publique," 1866, p. 97. 
 
 t The Veterinarian, vol. xxxiii. p. 393. j Ibid., loc. cit. 
 
 § The grotesqueness of the Chinese mind in general matters is perhaps most 
 conspicuous in those relating to medicine, and more particularly to diseases. I 
 am assured on the best autliority that, in some parts of the Flowery Land, it is 
 the universal belief that a man affected with hydrophobia is enceinte, and that he 
 is so distressed and ultimately perishes because he cannot be delivered.
 
 History, c ^ 
 
 were dogs which, having been kept all their lives chained up, 
 had become very vicious. The males appeared to be more 
 frequently attacked than the females ; but this mio-ht have 
 been accounted for by the fact, that in Vienna dogs are more 
 numerous than bitches. The adult age, as in 1841, seemed to 
 be the most favourable for the development of the malady. 
 Thirty-two animals were admitted to the Imperial Veterinary 
 Institute ; eight of these were dead on their arrival, and of the 
 others only seven showed symptoms of furious rabies, the other 
 seventeen being affected with that form which is known as 
 " dumb madness." 
 
 Professor Pillwax, of the Veterinary Institute, has given an 
 excellent description of the outbreak, to which we shall have 
 occasion to refer again. In the meantime it may be mentioned 
 that in one of the thirty-two dogs which, during life, presented 
 all the symptoms of rabies, the most characteristic lesions of 
 tyj^hus were found ; also, that nine of the mad dogs sent to the 
 Institute had bitten twelve people, and only one of these, a young- 
 lad, contracted the malady. He had been bitten by the dog 
 which, on a necroscopic examination, had offered such evident 
 lesions of typhus. Four weeks after being wounded the first 
 symptoms of hydrophobia appeared, and he soon succumbed. 
 Three other persons bitten by this dog had their wounds 
 immediately cauterised (the boy's wounds had not been so 
 treated, because of their number and extent), and they 
 escaped.* 
 
 In Saxony the disease appears to have been prevalent at this 
 time. Haubner says that, previous to 1860, only a small 
 number of mad dogs had been observed in that kingdom ; but 
 in that year a few isolated outbreaks were reported. In Dres- 
 den, however, for more than ten years, not a mad dog had been 
 seen. In 1863 it began to spread gradually, and at length it 
 prevailed over the whole kingdom. In this year 10 cases were 
 
 * " CEsterreicliisclieVierteljahresschrift furWissenschaftlicheThierhcilkunde," 
 1863. 
 
 E 2
 
 5 2 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 reported ; in the following year, 33 ; in 1865, 227 ; in 1866, 
 287 ; and in 1867, 250.* 
 
 About 1862 Sir Samuel Baker, exploring the Nile tributaries 
 of Abyssinia, informs us not only of the existence of hydro- 
 phobia — or, rather, rabies — in that part of Africa, but also of 
 its appearance in an epizootic form. " One night we were 
 sitting at dinner, when we suddenly heard a great noise, and 
 the air was illumined by the blaze of a hut on fire. In the 
 midst of the tumult I heard the unmistakable cries of dogs, 
 and thinking that they were unable to escape from the fire, 
 I ran towards the spot. As I approached, first one and then 
 another dog ran screaming from the flames, until a regular 
 pack of about twenty scorched animals appeared in quick 
 succession, all half mad with fright and fire. I was informed 
 that hydrophobia was very prevalent in the country, and that 
 the certain preventive from that frightful malady was to make 
 all the dogs of the village pass through the fire. Accordingly 
 an old hut had been filled with straw and fired, after which 
 each dog was brought by its owner and thrown into the 
 flames." t 
 
 In 1864 great apprehensions were entertained in Lancashire 
 as to a severe outbreak of the disease ; and to such an extremxe 
 degree had the alarm attained, that in June of this year it was 
 calculated that upwards of one thousand dogs had been de- 
 stroyed in Liverpool alone — seven hundred by the police, and 
 three hundred by private individuals. The number of deaths 
 from hydrophobia registered in England was twelve. In Ire- 
 land seven persons died of hydrophobia (six males, one female). 
 No deaths are reported from Scotland. 
 
 For two or three months in the middle of 1865, rabies 
 prevailed to a very unusual extent among dogs in and around 
 London. In the neighbourhood of Enfield, several sheep were 
 bitten, some of which fell victims to the dreadful malady, and 
 
 * "Handbuch der Veterinar-Polizei." Dresden, 1870, p. 308. 
 t " The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia," p. 164.
 
 History. c-i 
 
 others were killed. Many persons were bitten, and two or 
 three deaths occurred from hydrophobia.* The total number 
 of deaths registered in the human species In England was 
 nineteen. 
 
 At Lyons, France, in 1865, the malady also appears to have 
 been largely on the increase, as Professor Saint- Cyr, of the 
 Veterinary School in that town, reports the admission of no 
 fewer than 159 dogs into its canine infirmary, being an excess 
 of 62 over the number admitted in the previous year. Some of 
 these (78) were actually rabid, and others (81) only suspected. 
 Altogether 87 were afiected, and all these perlshed.f 
 
 But in 1866 the disease appears to have assumed a formidable 
 extension and virulency in England, and especially in Lan- 
 cashire, as no fewer than thirty-six' deaths from hydrophobia 
 are reported by the Registrar-General. Eleven of these were of 
 persons residing In London, thirteen in Lancashire, three in 
 Northumberland, two in Buckinghamshire, two in Durham, 
 one each in Kent, Hampshire, Stafibrdshire, Leicestershire, and 
 Cheshire. In 1867 a " Metropolitan Streets Act " was passed 
 which enabled the police to seize all vagrant dogs. In June, 
 1868, it was put in force, and the number of cases of hydro- 
 phobia immediately became greatly diminished in and around 
 London. 
 
 At Shanghai, North China, according to the testimony of my 
 friend Mr. Michie, merchant of that town, rabies showed itself 
 among English dogs during the summer of 1867, and several 
 persons were wounded. Two Europeans, bitten by their own 
 dogs, perished soon after from hydrophobia. At this time a cat 
 had also evinced symptoms of the disease and was destroyed. 
 Dr. Michie informs me that in the two fatal cases, the disease 
 followed within a few weeks of the injury, and that within the 
 two months succeeding the death of these persons, rabies 
 became extraordinarily common amongst the dogs of the 
 
 * The Vetcriiinrifin, July, 1865, p. 439. 
 
 t Joanidl de Mi''l. Vclnijinivc <lc Lijoii, 1866.
 
 54 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 European residents of the settlement, and several persons were 
 bitten. Owing to the alarm occasioned by these events, im- 
 mediately the injuries were inflicted surgical aid was sought, 
 and it was remarked in none of the cases in which precautions 
 were taken did the disease occur. Excision beyond the marks 
 of the teeth on every side, and cauterisation, in all probability 
 were the means of saving several lives. Dr. Michie saw several 
 of the dogs that were suffering from the disease, and by his 
 advice not only were these shot, but also other apparently 
 healthy dogs belonging to the same kennels which had been 
 bitten by the original rabid dogs. 
 
 In 1868 so many cases of rabies were reported in Belgium, 
 where the disease is usually very rare, that the authorities 
 had to issue stringent regulations for its prevention and sup- 
 pression. It appears to have commenced about January, and 
 was reported from several provinces. Up to May no fewer 
 than thirfcy-two dogs, a horse, and a cat, had been admitted 
 to the infirmary of the veterinary school at Cureghem, near 
 Brussels, according to the report on the disease drawn up 
 by order of the government, by Professors Defays and Thier- 
 nesse. In two cases the malady had been transmitted to the 
 human species.* Mr. Michie informs me that in the winter of 
 1869-70, a Scotch terrier became rabid at Chinkiang, China, 
 and bit a buffalo, which subsequently died of the disease, the 
 symptoms being well marked, f 
 
 In 1869 rabies was noted in Paris, and the transmission 
 of the disease from the cat to the human species was reported. + 
 
 * Journal de Med. Veterinaire de Bruxelles, 1868, p. 349. 
 
 t Hydrophobia appears to be well known to the Chinese physicians, and for a 
 long tune it has been the subject of their ingenuity in the matter of remedies. 
 Among these is a preparation which is lauded as an infallible cure. This is 
 composed of musk, half an ounce ; native and artificial cinnabar, of each five 
 drachms. These substances are rubbed down together to an impalpable powder, 
 and then given suspended in a spoouful of rice-spirit. Calm sleep and copious 
 perspiration comes on after two or three hours ; otherwise, a second dose of the 
 powder is given, and a cure, they say, is sure to follow. 
 " Eecucil do Mdd. A'etcrinairc," IStiO. p. 83(i. 
 
 1 ii 
 +
 
 History. cr- 
 
 Early in this year cases of rabies began to be observed in 
 Lancashire, and up to the present time (January, 1872) the 
 epizooty — for the malady really assumed an epizootic form — 
 has continued and extended, reaching as far as Yorkshire, 
 where it caused much damage and destruction of human Kfe, 
 and the borders of Scotland. So early as November, 1868, a 
 young woman was wounded by a mad dog at Preston, and 
 in March, 1869, six rabid animals were destroyed there, two 
 deaths among people having occurred.* In this month all the 
 dogs captured at large in that town were destroyed. In the 
 neighbourhood of Wigan, and at Chorley, rabid dogs were seen, 
 and cows and dogs were wounded by them and died of rabies. 
 Other animals bitten — dogs, pigs, &c. — were destroyed as a 
 preventive measure."]* The cases occurring in Preston and its 
 environs were followed by others some miles further south, and 
 almost simultaneously outbreaks were reported in the counties 
 lying east and north of that town, the disease gradually ex- 
 tending further from this supposed centre. + 
 
 In September several cases were reported as occurring at 
 Huddersfield, Yorkshire, and a boy aged three years died of 
 hydrophobia, § At Newburgh, in the same month, a mad dog 
 bit a man and several other animals ; the man died. A rabid 
 retriever dog attacked and wounded several persons and dogs 
 in and about Derby, Nottingham, and Loughborough, in 
 November. It was supposed this animal had been bitten in 
 the commencement of the month near Wigan. In January, 
 1870, in the neighbourhood of Hebden Bridge, near Halifax, a 
 strange dog prowling about a farmstead bit a cow and a dog. 
 The cow died of rabies. " During the past few months many 
 cases of this kind have occurred in the same neighbourhood. 
 Dogs, pigs, cats, cows, and horses, have been attacked, destroyed. 
 
 * The Standard, March, 1869. 
 
 t The Vetvrinarian, vol. xlii. p. 283. 
 
 X Ibid., vol. xlii. p. 199. 
 
 § British Medical Joxrnal, .Sept. 2.5, 1869.
 
 56 Rabies atid Hydrophobia. 
 
 or died from the effects of hydrophobia. Several human beings 
 have been bitten, and last week a man died from the effects." * 
 
 In February (20th) a man died in the Nottingham general 
 hospital from hydrophobia, having been bitten on the 25th 
 December, 1869. The dog which bit him was traced from a 
 neighbouring village through twenty miles of country and 
 many villages, having in its course wounded many dogs and 
 men.f In March also two men perished from hydrophobia in 
 this town, another in the hospital in May, and a child in 
 September. In February a boy seven years old died of the 
 disease at Carlisle, and in the next month a man succumbed to 
 it.+ In March a fatal case in mankind occurred at Staly bridge, 
 and another at Dundee, Scotland.! In the district of Winder- 
 mere, Cumberland, towards the middle of 1870, the authori- 
 ties were compelled to order all dogs to be confined. In the 
 North Riding of Yorkshire much alarm likewise prevailed in 
 consequence of the frequency and extension of the malady. In 
 Huddersfield Mr. Kirk reports the district around as a centre 
 of infection, and as having had several indisputable cases of 
 rabies in dogs, and one in the horse, in this year.ll 
 
 In Bolton, Lancashire, in December, my friend Mr. Lawson 
 reports rabies in the human species, cows, and sheep ; H and Mr. 
 "Worthington of Wigan, in the same county, states that since 
 
 * The Standard, January, 1870. 
 
 t British Medical Journal, February 26, 1870 ; December 2, 1871. 
 
 X Ibid., April 30, 1870. § Ibid. 
 
 II The Veterinarian, December, 1870. For Huddersfield there is the following 
 proclamation, dated May 30th, 1870 : " This is to certify that we, the under- 
 signed, being two of Her Majesty's Justices of the Peace, do hereby direct that 
 from the date hereof, until the 31st day of August next, all Dogs, within the 
 borough of Huddersfield, shaU be confined on suspicion of canine madness. And 
 notice is hereby given, that every person who, during the period set forth in the 
 foregoing Notice, sufi"ers any dog to be at large, incurs a penalty of any sum not 
 exceeding forty shillings, or, in the discretion of the justices before whom he 
 may be convicted, may be imprisoned for a period not exceeding fourteen days. 
 All dogs found in the streets or highways will be considered to be at large, 
 unless held in check by a string, chain, strap, or other fastening. 
 " (Signed) C. H. Jones, Mayor, J.P. 
 
 Wright Mellok, Deputy Mayor, J.P." 
 H The Veterinarian, May, 1871.
 
 History. c y 
 
 August the disease had assumed most alarming proportions, 
 scarcely a week having passed without three or four animals 
 falling victims to it. He was able to enumerate no fewer than 
 forty-two cases which had occurred within a radius of nine 
 miles during the previous eighteen or twenty months, many of 
 which had come under his own notice. The list comprised four 
 human beings, one horse, eleven cattle, twelve sheep, and four- 
 teen dogs.* Referring to the extension of the disease and the 
 facility with which it could be propagated over a wide expanse of 
 country, he gives the following striking illustrations : A terrier 
 belonging to a gentleman in his neighbourhood was severely 
 bitten in November, 1869, by a dog that had wounded four 
 cows, which subsequently perished of rabies. Soon afterwards 
 the owner of the terrier, who was ignorant of the serious nature 
 of the injury inflicted on the animal, and the danger he was 
 incurring, sold the dog to a dealer in that town, who again 
 sold it shortly after it came into his possession. Immediately 
 this became known inquiries were made by the police for the 
 purpose of having the dog either kept under surveillance or 
 destroyed. The dealer was applied to, but either could not 
 or would not furnish the slightest information as to its where- 
 abouts. As these men are in the habit of trading with dealers 
 in other towns, it is not improbable that this dog may have 
 been sent many miles away, and had become the source of 
 incalculable mischief in its new locality.! 
 
 On the 9th February the inhabitants of Shevington and 
 Mawdesley were thrown into a state of great alarm by a rabid 
 dog which made its appearance in these townships (near 
 Wigan), and after committing an immense amount of mischief, 
 was destroyed the following morning, at the farm of Mr. Henry 
 Alty, Black Moor Hall, Mawdesley. The animal was a small- 
 sized sheep-dog of a light-brown colour, with a broad band of 
 white hair round the neck, white stripe down the face, white 
 fore-legs, and about three inches of white at the extremity of 
 
 * The Vetcrinariioi, May, 1871. f Ibid., Au^'Uft. 1S70.
 
 5 8 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 4 
 
 the tail. This description was given in order to warn people 
 who might have seen the animal in other places than those 
 mentioned, without suspecting it to be mad. From inquiries 
 made at the time, the dog was first seen on the preceding 
 Sunday at E-ufford, from whence it passed through Mawdesley, 
 over Hunter's Hill, through Wrightington, to Welsh "Whittle, 
 in which neighbourhood it seems to have remained during the 
 night. Early next morning it was again seen at Mossy Lee, 
 in Wrightington, and after severely injuring a sheep near 
 Wrightington Hall, passed into the lower part of Shevington, 
 traversing nearly the whole of the township during the day, 
 and attacking indiscriminately every animal with which it 
 came in contact. About four o'clock in the afternoon it again 
 passed through Wrightington, by way of Anderton's Mill, in 
 Mawdesley, and here for the remainder of its brief existence its 
 depredations were indeed fearful, scarcely a farm having 
 escaped its visitation during the night and following morning. 
 In this township alone nearly a score of dogs which had been 
 bitten by it were shot and buried in one week, and many others 
 were probably afterwards destroyed. Among the victims at 
 Shevington were several dogs, a sheep, calf, and a cow. A 
 horse was also ferociously attacked by it whilst at work near 
 Appley Bridge, but being seized by the hairy part of the tail, 
 fortunately sustained no injury. No people were injured, 
 though several had narrow escapes. The whole of the dogs 
 known to have been bitten in Shevington were destroyed, and 
 the other animals, being under the immediate notice of Mr. 
 Worthingtou, were to be destroyed directly the disease mani- 
 fested itself That the strange dog was rabid there was not 
 the shadow of a doubt ; the characteristic symptoms of the 
 disease being well developed during life, and, besides, an 
 examination made after death revealed unmistakable evidence 
 of rabies. " As a rabid dog in the latter stages of the malady," 
 adds Mr. Worthington, '' is invariably irresistibly impelled 
 to ramble and do mischief, and is almost incessantly on the
 
 History, 59 
 
 move, it is probable that many dogs in the above townships 
 have received slight and unsuspected bites." As a means, 
 therefore, of preventing the extension of the disease, it was 
 earnestly suggested that every dog to which even a shadow of 
 suspicion might be attached, should be immediately destroyed, 
 or kept in the most rigorous confinement for a period of at 
 least ten months. *' Those who have once seen this truly 
 horrible disease," he says, "or who entertain the slightest 
 regard for public safety, will not, I am sure, for a moment 
 hesitate to adopt such an easy and effectual precaution."* 
 
 It is afterwards intimated that several dogs and cattle which 
 had been wounded by this errant dog had become rabid. 
 
 During the summer months, rabies in its two forms appeared 
 among the Lyme (Cheshire) harriers, and led to their extermi- 
 nation. 
 
 On the 14th March, 1871, the disease was observed in the 
 vicinity of Disley and Marple, in Cheshire. A bull-terrier dog 
 suddenly appeared in a farmyard at Stanley Hall, Disley, and 
 bit a sheep-dog. It then went through the village of Disley, 
 and bit two other dogs. These were subsequently destroyed, 
 exhibiting all the symptoms of rabies. It then appears to 
 have left this neighbourhood, and gone through Lyne to Wim- 
 blehurst, in Marple, where a flock of twenty sheep were 
 attacked by it, and nearly all were wounded, thirteen show- 
 ing bites about the head and neck. Two were severely torn, 
 one had a large piece bitten from its cheek, and the other had 
 its lips lacerated to a great extent. The dog was killed soon 
 after in Wimblehurst. 
 
 About the 15th April several of the sheep were observed to 
 be strange in their habits, and especially to exhibit pugnacious 
 symptoms, by butting at each other. Four died on the 18th ; 
 on the 19th eight were destroyed ; and in June only five of the 
 flock remained. 
 
 The sheep-dog at Stanley Hall appeared " strange in liis 
 * The Veicriiiarian, Maxx-h, 1871.
 
 6o Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 habits," according to the farmer, about a fortnight after being 
 bitten, and, breaking away from its kennel, it bit another dog 
 in the village. Running afterwards to Cheadle Hulme, it was 
 killed. 
 
 On April 9th a rabid harrier made its appearance at Disley, 
 and, after an exciting chase, it was shot at Strines, but not 
 before biting four other dogs, which were at once destroyed. 
 It also came in contact with two or three dogs which, from 
 their not showing any wounds, were not destroyed. One of 
 these was a large mastiff, which seized the harrier, and shook 
 it. In about three weeks afterwards the mastiff appeared to be 
 quite altered in its usual habits, which caused his owner to 
 give it some laxative medicine. The animal, to all appearance, 
 recovered ; but while it was indisposed another dog, a retriever, 
 began to play with it. This retriever was subsequently de- 
 stroyed for rabies, though there existed a doubt as to whether 
 it was infected by the mastiff or from a black-and-tan dog 
 which bit it a few weeks previously. The black-and-tan was 
 a stranger in the locality, and was seen to chase some hens 
 after biting the retriever. This led to its being shot.* 
 
 Mad dogs were seen in Glossop and Werneth, in Derbyshire. 
 
 Up to the present time the disease has been noted as more 
 or less prevalent among dogs in the North of England, and 
 other animals have become infected with rabies. Many people 
 have also died from hydrophobia, induced by the bites inflicted 
 by rabid dogs and cats, notably in Liverpool and other parts 
 of Lancashire, and in Leeds. For instance, in the Leeds 
 Mercury for June 7th alone we find the following records of 
 bites : — A dog wearing a wire muzzle too large for its head, 
 bit a man in the leg. A female servant playing with a poodle 
 dog, was bitten by it through the lip ; and a valuable dog of the 
 " snap " breed, lying asleep on the sofa in a room where a child 
 belonging to its master was at play on the carpet, suddenly 
 jumped up, and attacked the infant, lacerating its cheek in a 
 * The Veterinarian, vol. xHa-. p. 47S.
 
 History. 6 1 
 
 shocking manner. The animal had never exhibited a savao-e 
 disposition before this occurrence. It was at once destroyed. 
 
 Elsewhere the disease was appearing in a really epizootic 
 and alarming manner. 
 
 In Cleveland the disease showed itself in the commencement 
 of June. " At Skelton, in Cleveland, on Friday, a stray dog 
 visited the village, and bit several others, and also a man and 
 two boys at Hobhill, where it was afterwards shot. Another 
 dog visited Saltburn-by-the-Sea, and bit eight dogs, which 
 were subsequently shot. A third visited Markse-by-the-Sea, 
 where several were bitten ; and a fourth, about a fortnight ago, 
 was shot between Lazenby and Redcar, after having bit a man, 
 a cow, a pig, and several dogs." * 
 
 In Nottinghamshire it was also causing alarm in this month. 
 On June 19th a dog belonging to a person at Gedling went 
 mad, bit one of his children, broke loose, ran away, and was 
 not afterwards heard of in the locality. The following morning 
 it was seen at the Lenton Ford, on the Trent, where it turned 
 into a field in which was a large flock of sheep, one of which 
 was bitten by it, it not having run away with the others. Then 
 the dog ran across the canal to another field, and attacked a 
 youth who was digging up thistles. The boy fought him man- 
 fully with his implement, which the animal seized with great 
 ferocity, indenting the handle with its teeth, and covering it 
 with foam and blood. Beaten ofi", it turned into the public 
 street of Beeston, where it met a flock of sheep, bit many of 
 them, and then wounded the young man who was driving them 
 severely in the nose.f It then tried to attack a dog that was 
 being led by a man, but being outmanoeuvred, it ran miles 
 without any one being able to trace the damage it committed, 
 until at length, biting the policeman on duty at Lockington, 
 it was lost sight of.+ 
 
 * Leeds Mercury, June 7, 1871. 
 
 t This man's wounds were promptly attended to, and up to the present time 
 (January, 1872) he continues in g-ood health at Atherstone. 
 
 X The Nottingham JouruaJ^ June 20, 22, 1871. Tlie following is a ropy ol
 
 62 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 In the Sporting Gazette for July 1, 1871, we read : " Very 
 alarming intelligence has reached us of the outbreak of hydro- 
 phobia in several hunting kennels. The Quorn have lost all 
 their entry, and many of the Albrighton have died ; whilst, 
 still more serious, fears are entertained for the fate of the 
 huntsman and one of his assistants in the latter pack, both of 
 whom were bitten.* We also hear that the disease has 
 
 the magisterial notice placarded in Nottingham in 1871 : — " Borough of Notting- 
 ham.— Dogs. — I, John Manning, Esquire, Blayor of the Town and County of the 
 Town of Nottingham, in pursuance of * The Town Police Clauses Act, 1847,' do 
 hereby direct that on account of Canine Madness existing in this Town, all dogs 
 shall be confined for Four Calendar Months from the day of the date hereof. — 
 John Manning, Mayor, 6th June, 1871. Every person who suffers any Dog to 
 be at large during the time above specified, will be liable to a penalty not exceed- 
 ing 40s., and any Constable may take the Offender into custody without warrant. 
 Every Dog at any time strajnng at large in the Borough wiU be taken charge of 
 by the Police, and if not claimed after the expiration of Six Days will be 
 destroyed." 
 
 * My friend, Mr. Cartright, M.R.C.V.S., of Wolverhampton, has kindly sent 
 me the following interesting description of the outbreak among the Albrighton 
 and Quorn hounds. He writes on August 28th : " I was requested by the 
 Master of the Albrighton Hunt to go on May 19th to the kennels, and make a 
 post-mortem examination of a young hound (of this year's entry), which the 
 huntsman had shot and buried the day before, as he suspected it was affected 
 with ' dumb madness.' The body, after it was exhumed, appeared fresh and in 
 good condition. The abdominal cavity presented nothing remarkable; the 
 stomach contained only a little slimy mucus, and there were a few patches of 
 inflammation on the peritoneal coat of the large intestines. The liver and 
 kidneys were quite healthy, as also were the heart and lungs. There was no 
 enlargement or other abnormal appearance of any of the glands of the throat, 
 and the mucous membrane of the mouth and pharynx appeared quite natural. On 
 removing the bones of the cranium, the dura mater presented a highly injected 
 appearance ; there was an increase of the arachnoideal fluid, and there was a 
 larger quantity of fluid than natural in the lateral ventricles. The substance of 
 the brain was also affected, and the blood vessels at its base were very much con- 
 gested. From the attendants, I learned that this hound had been reared by a 
 butcher at Newport, and had been at the kennels about two months before it 
 began to show symptoms of illness. These symptoms were an altered manner, 
 loss of appetite, and a disposition to snap at men or dogs — more especially dogs — 
 and as it had bitten the huntsman and his dogman, it was at once destroyed. 
 
 '' On the 3rd of June, I was again requested to attend at the kennels. The 
 day previous, the huntsman observed something the matter with the mouth of 
 another of the young hounds. On examination, he saw sevefal small wart-like 
 excrescences on the base of the tongue ; these he at once removed with nippers, 
 and bled and physicked the animal. When I saw it, the glands of the throat 
 were enlarged, the lower jaw dropped, but there was no discharge of saliva, and
 
 History. 63 
 
 spread amongst some of the Scotch packs." Cases continued 
 to occur in the Albrighton pack, of both furious and mad 
 
 the mouth felt slightly warm. It appeared weak, with a peculiar husk, was off 
 its feed, lapped water freely, but was unable to swallow ; it was retired in 
 manner, and had to be dragged out of the kennel into the open : it was quiet 
 with its attendants, but very savage with other dogs ; indeed, it worried a terrier, 
 which was immediately desti'oyed. On the night of the 4th the symptoms 
 became more violent ; the animal continued g-na^dng at the doors and brickwork 
 of the yard, and when I saw it on the morning of the 5th it had become quite 
 exhausted ; the lower jaw and lips were more pendulous— in fact, it appeared 
 sinking, and died during the night. Post-mortem examination on the 6th : the 
 stomach was found to contain a small quantity of straw, hair, grass, and some 
 partly digested food ; its coats were not inflamed, and the intestines and other 
 abdominal viscera were healthy ; the limgs and heart were normal ; the parotid 
 and other salivary glands were larger than natural, and had a pallid appearance. 
 The mucous membrane of the mouth and throat was much inflamed, and peeled 
 off very easily. An abscess had formed on each side of the fauces, from which 
 between two and three teaspoonfuls of thin, greyish matter issued. The brain 
 was not examined. 
 
 " On the 15th, a third hound (same entry) was brought to my establishment to 
 be examined. It had presented symptoms similar to the former cases, but had 
 been lying in an unconscious state for nearly twelve hours before death. The 
 post-mortem appearances were also similar : the abdominal viscera were healthy ; 
 stomach contained some straw, hair, and earth ; a little straw, half-masticated, 
 was in the pharjTix, and its lining membi'ane was inflamed. There was an 
 increased quantity of fluid on the brain and in the lateral ventricles, and the 
 brain itself, as well as its membranes, had a pallid appearance. 
 
 " On the same day, two hounds were sent for post-mortem examination from 
 the Quom kennels. No satisfactory account of the symptoms was forwarded, 
 except that one of them had appeared strange in manner, and showed a disposi- 
 tion to bite other dogs. The body of one was much swollen, and a large quantity 
 of foetid gas escaped when the abdominal cavity was opened ; the stomach and 
 intestines were also distended with gas, and very much inflamed. A small quantity 
 of food, partly digested, was in the stomach; the lungs were black, and filled 
 with blood ; and the membranes of the brain, as well as the blood vessels at its 
 base, were very much congested. The post-mortem appearances of the other hound 
 were similar to those presented by the cases from Albrighton, but the brain 
 could not be examined, as the animal had been shot through the head. I went 
 to Quom next day and examined the bodies of three other hounds ; they had 
 e%'idently been sufl"ering from the same disease as those at the Albrighton 
 kennels, and had shown similar symptoms during life — altogether, they had lost 
 seven hounds by the disease. 
 
 " Another hound was taken ill on the 17th June at the Albrighton kennels, 
 with symptoms similar to the former cases. It was shot, and buried without any 
 post-mortem examination being made ; and as the disease had confined itself to 
 the young hounds, and appeared likely to attack them all in turn, it was decuied 
 advisable to destroy the others. The remaining six couple were accordingly 
 shot. About a month ago an old hound showed symptoms of the first stage of 
 the disease, and it was immediatelj' destroyed. No other cases have occurred
 
 64 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 rabies, until at last in November, 1871, those remaining were 
 destroyed. 
 
 On August 15th, according to the Daily News for the 18th 
 of that month, Mr. Berry, a minister in Mossley, died from 
 hydrophobia, arising from the bite of a cat three months pre- 
 viously. 
 
 Towards the end of 1871, cattle were dying from rabies in 
 Cheshire. Sheep were also bitten by a rabid dog at West 
 Hartlepool, and died of rabies.* 
 
 In Cumberland and Durham the disease was also committing 
 great havoc. Mr. Wilkinson, M.R.C.Y.S., of Newcastle-on- 
 Tyne, informs me, under date of November 30th, that he had 
 seen and heard of more cases of both forms of rabies for the 
 last three years than he could have believed possible, and had 
 pointed out its apparent increase to veterinary surgeons and 
 others. In Durham the most notable occurrence was the 
 outbreak of the malady among the county foxhounds, which 
 necessitated the entire destruction of those still unaffected. A 
 correspondent in the Field for December 2, gives the following 
 interesting relation of the event : — 
 
 " Perhaps no more striking instance of the uncertainty at- 
 tendant on the most promising and best-laid plans in hunting 
 affairs has ever been demonstrated than the destruction of the 
 Durham county hounds, which, from the rapid spread of 
 hydrophobia and dumb madness in the kennels, had become an 
 absolute necessity, in order to obviate the danger of spreading 
 a disease the most dreadful and fatal in its consequences of any 
 to which human or animal life is subject. A short history of 
 the case may be useful as well as interesting, not only to 
 masters of hounds and hunting-men, but, from its peculiar 
 physiological characteristics, to all who take an interest in and 
 
 since, and when I saw the pack a few days ago all were in good health and con- 
 dition." As stated above, the whole pack (a dog one), consisting of twenty-nine 
 couples, was finally destroyed in November, fi-esh cases having occurred. 
 * The Feimwffnaw, December, 1871.
 
 History. 65 
 
 watch those visitations which appear at different times among 
 human beings and animals, 
 
 " For the last seven or eight years the Durham county hounds, 
 under the management of a committee, have had Thomas 
 Dowdswell, from Lord Macclesfield's, as their huntsman ; and 
 it is not too much to say that by careful breeding, with the 
 advantage of some of the best blood, the pack had been brought 
 to a state of perfection never surpassed since the time of Mr. 
 Ralph Lambton, who for so many years hunted the country at 
 present occupied by these unfortunate hounds. The pack of 
 forty- one couples commenced the season under the most 
 promising auspices, with a country well stocked with foxes and 
 every prospect of success ; but, alas for men's calculations ! a 
 check has come, and every hope apparently so well founded 
 has been destroyed by a visitation as sudden as it was 
 unexpected. 
 
 " About five weeks ago, after a very good and severe rim, in 
 breaking up their fox, Dowdswell observed a fine young hound, 
 called Carver, by Lord Macclesfield's Foiler, going from hound 
 to hound in a very unusual manner. Taking alarm, he had 
 the hound led home, and by direction kept confined in a place 
 by himself for a few days in order to prove the nature of the 
 disease, which increased in intensity, and on the third day the 
 dog was perfectly mad, biting and gnawing everything he 
 could reach. Four hounds he had bitten previously were 
 at once put down. On a post-mortem examination the stomach 
 was found in a state of extreme irritation, and full of ex- 
 traneous matter, such as straw, chips of wood, &c. This, of 
 course, was sufficiently alarming, and those in charge of the 
 pack watched anxiously for any unpleasant symptoms among 
 the other hounds. All went well for a fortnight, then two 
 bitches were seized on successive days with a disease in the 
 throat, which prevented them swallowing, and was accom- 
 panied by a loss of the use of the lower jaw. These were 
 treated by blistering the throat with doses of calomel, and
 
 66 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 feeding them as well as could be accomplished with strong 
 broth and stimulants, by means of the horn. Both died. On 
 a post-mortem examination, all the parts appeared in a natural 
 condition except a mucous covering in the throat, the general 
 appearance of the internal organs being similar to that when 
 death is caused by suffocation. A few days elapsed, and other 
 hounds were seized in precisely the same manner, all dying in 
 about three or four days. As a rule the hounds so attacked 
 were quite harmless, following the huntsman, and apparently 
 grateful for anything done for them. The attacks continued, 
 and some few began to show signs of rabies. The general 
 features of the disease were, however, what is usually called 
 dumb madness, which, beyond doubt, is contagious in its cha- 
 racter ; and seeing that no hound once attacked ever recovered, 
 the decision come to was to put them down immediately on the 
 first appearance of the symptoms, in order to avoid infection. 
 Up to last week about nine couples had been attacked and 
 died, the disease still running on. Of course hunting was 
 dropped, and the committee, feeling deeply their responsibility, 
 called a meeting of the subscribers in Durham on Monday last, 
 to take into consideration the proper course to be adopted 
 under these painful circumstances. The question to be decided 
 was, whether, looking at the danger to life and the uncertainty 
 as to any known mode of cure, the pack should be destroyed, or 
 an attempt be made to stamp out the disease by isolating every 
 hound. Up to Saturday it was thought the latter plan might 
 be adopted and tried with safety; but the Monday morning's 
 report showed the attack on several more hounds had assumed 
 unmistakable symptoms of rabies. This fact induced the meeting 
 to come to an unanimous resolution : ' That it was a duty 
 they owed to the country to sacrifice the whole of their 
 gallant pack, and to appeal to masters of hounds for a few 
 hounds to enable them to finish the season so disastrously cut 
 short.' 
 
 " The most singular feature of the matter has been that it
 
 History. 5y 
 
 commenced with a case of decided hydrophobia — successive 
 attacks being clearly the disease called dumb madness — then, 
 again, a case or two of rabies followed by more dumb madness, 
 and lastly, before the fatal order was given, several cases of 
 hydrophobia. Now it is not probable that two diseases would 
 be concomitant in the kennels at the same time ; and, as the 
 premonitory symptoms were to a great extent the same in all 
 the cases, it is but fair to assume that the whole of the attacks 
 were different phases of the same disorder, and that, whatever 
 had been its origin, it eventually took the shape of a contagious 
 epidemic of the most violent character." 
 
 To the kindness of Mr. C. Stephenson, veterinary surgeon 
 of Newcastle-on-Tyne, I am indebted for an important fact, 
 communicated to him by Mr. Harvey of that town. It would 
 appear that Carver, the hound first affected, was bitten before 
 it was sent to the kennels, and that none of the diseased 
 hounds were attacked by dumb madness in the earlier stages 
 of the malady. The remarkable feature in the history of the 
 outbreak, however, consisted in the fact that some drafts of 
 the pack were sent to India towards the end of July, and it 
 was reported in Durham at the commencement of December 
 that many of these had been attacked by a " disease of the 
 throat," as the reporters termed it, and "hanging of the lower 
 jaw," and that " all died." The hound Carver did not exhibit 
 any marked symptoms until long after these drafts were 
 despatched, and it was therefore concluded that there was no 
 probability of its having bitten any of them, and that the 
 rabific poison must have been introduced into the kennels 
 before they were sent away. 
 
 In consequence of the great prevalence of rabies at the com- 
 mencement of 1872, the Duke of Rutland would not allow any 
 bitches to be sent to the stud hounds at Belvoir, and the Hon, 
 Gr. Fitzwilliam issued similar orders with regard to JMilton ; 
 neither would he allow hounds to be sent to other kennels. 
 
 The wide and serious extension of this epizooty over the 
 
 f2
 
 68 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 country appears to have been largely, if not altogether, due to 
 the insuflBciency of the police measures adopted in the different 
 towns and districts, the late period at which they were intro- 
 duced, the want of a proper and uniform sanitary organisation 
 to combat the spread of this and other contagious diseases of 
 animals, and the general ignorance prevailing with regard to 
 its symptoms and nature. 
 
 A writer in Land and Water for September 23rd, 1871, says 
 that "hydrophobia has been very fatal in Barbadoes during 
 the summer." The custos of the public library at Bridgetown, 
 in separating two dogs which were fighting, was severely 
 bitten, and afterwards died of hydrophobia. " In one coloured 
 family three children died of hydrophobia ; in another 
 two."
 
 Geographical Extent of Rabies, 69 
 
 GEOGKAPHICAL EXTENT OF EAEIES. 
 
 Though rabies is undoubtedly most prevalent in tbe temperate 
 regions of the world, and incomparably less frequent in tbe 
 torrid and frigid zones, and tbougb it is altogether unknovsoi 
 in some parts, yet it would appear that the facilities for increased 
 communication with different and hitherto very remote quarters 
 of the globe have, of late years, tended much to diffuse and 
 generalise the malady, and to introduce it to countries where, 
 until recently, its terrible presence had not been felt. In this 
 respect it does not differ from a midtitude of diseases which, 
 like it, are transmissible, and whose geographical limits, 
 apparently well defined and fixed less than a century ago, are 
 now indefinitely extended, and will be further increased just in 
 proportion as the animals liable to them are carried further 
 beyond their present location. The most striking example of 
 this is, perhaps, to be found in the case of bovine pleuro- 
 pneumonia, a contagious disease which was confined to a com- 
 parably small area in Central Europe towards the end of last 
 century, and is now as destructive among the herds in North 
 America, Australia, New Zealand, and even in the interior of 
 South Africa, as it is in the cattle-sheds and pasture lands of 
 our own coimtry. 
 
 Only in this way can we explain why rabies was reported by 
 travellers and others, only a short time ago, as unknown in 
 certain countries where its effects are now most painfidly 
 experienced; unless we admit that their inquiries were not 
 sufiiciently close or skilful, or that their knowledge of the 
 people, their customs and traditions, was too superficial. 
 
 Nevertheless, it is very remarkable that certain regions with
 
 70 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 whicli Western communication has been uninterruptedly and 
 increasingly maintained for a somewhat considerable period, 
 and into which European-bred dogs have been largely in- 
 troduced, should have remained free from the canine scourge up 
 to the present day. I have carefully inquired, and have 
 also examined the writings of every available authority, yet 
 cannot find that the disease has ever been witnessed in either 
 Australia or New Zealand, though the number of dogs imported 
 into these two countries must have been very great. The 
 malady has never been observed in Van Diemen's Land, accord- 
 ing to Darwin ; * nor yet in the Azores or St. Helena. In 
 North America, as we have noticed in the history of the 
 disease, it is well known, and sometimes assumes an epizootic 
 form; but in South America, if we are to form an opinion 
 from various trustworthy sources, it would appear to be only 
 partially distributed. As we have seen, it was present as a wide- 
 spread epizooty in Chile in 1835, and it haunts the valley of 
 Copiapo. The memorable outbreak of 1803 proves that it has 
 been in Peru ; according to Sigaudf it is observed in the Brazils 
 from time to time, and, indeed, on occasions it is somewhat 
 prevalent. This is confirmed by Spix and Martius.+ 
 
 In the time of Azara, it must have either been extremely 
 rare or altogether unknown on the eastern side of the Andes ; 
 for that traveller thought the American continent was exempt 
 from rabies.§ Ulloa never heard of the disease in Quito. || 
 
 In Mexico, according to M. Liguistin, chief veterinary 
 surgeon in the French expedition to that country, rabies, though 
 not often seen, is yet known. " It is observed from time to 
 time in the dog and cat particularly, and it is notorious that it 
 especially attacks European dogs imported into the country. In 
 our own experience, since our arrival in Mexico, we have had 
 
 * " The Journal of a Naturalist." 
 
 t "Travels in the Brazils," p. 424. 
 
 X " Reisen in Brasilien." 
 
 § " Voyages dans rAmerique M^ridionale, depuis 1781 — 1801." 
 
 II " A Voj'age to South America," vol. i. p. 281.
 
 • Geographical Extent of Rabies. 71 
 
 occasion to destroy two European dogs affected with confirmed 
 rabies, within three months of each other. The first belonged to 
 Marshal Bazaine, and presented all the characteristics of 
 primary or spontaneous madness ; the other also belonged to 
 an officer on the staff, and became rabid in consequence of a 
 bite it had received some days before it was destroyed." 
 M. Pernaud, veterinary surgeon in the artillery, has also de- 
 scribed a well-marked case of rabies in an imported dog in 
 Mexico.* M. Liguistin gives the particulars of three cases of 
 hydrophobia in the human species — one from the bite of a cat, 
 and two by dogs. In Mexico the extract of the plant "huaco" 
 is believed to be a specific against the effects of bites from 
 rabid or venomous animals, f 
 
 Rabies is also well known in the West Indies. Hillary says 
 that canine madness " is so frequently seen in most hot countries, 
 and especially in the West Indies, that it may be said to be 
 endeniial."+ We have seen that it was prevalent at Barbadoes 
 so early as 1741, in Hispaniola and Jamaica in 1783, in St. 
 Domingo in 1776, and in Guadaloupe. It is a frequent disease 
 in Hayti, and appears in all seasons. Ceylon has suffered 
 severely from it, and hyaenas frequently become mad.§ Forbes 
 writes of Ceylon as follows : " The native doctors acknow- 
 ledge their inability to cure hydrophobia, saying they can heal - 
 the bites, but the gods must do the rest. Three months is the 
 time after which they consider any one safe who has been bitten 
 
 by a mad dog At one time, when mad dogs were very 
 
 numerous in the Mitale district, mad jackals were also to be 
 met with ; and two men, who had lain down to rest in an open 
 shed, were severely bitten by a jackal, which, from their 
 description, was evidently in a rabid state. As these men were 
 travellers I did not learn their fate ; but I have known an in- 
 stance of a horse dying from the bite of a mad jackal. One 
 
 * "Journal de Med. Veterinaire Militaire," vol. iv. p. 535. 
 
 t Ibid., 1867, p. 456. 
 
 X " On the Diseases of Barbadoes," p. 245. 
 
 § Tennent, "Ceylon."
 
 7 2 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 day, in tliat same season, I discovered tliat three terriers, 
 wliich I had inherited from the commandant who preceded me, 
 were wandering about the house, all of them suffering from 
 hydrophobia, and one of them so far gone as to be unable to 
 
 close his mouth They were destroyed without having 
 
 done any mischief. A few days after this a servant, standing 
 near the door of a room in which my family were sitting, see- 
 ing a strange dog rushing in, snatched up a rice-pounder, 
 which fortunately lay within his reach, and killed the animal 
 at a blow ; soon after a half-armed crowd appeared, and recog- 
 nised this as the mad dog of which they were in pursuit. It 
 was about the same time that, when riding out one evening, 
 I met a moorman who had been severely lacerated by a mad 
 dog, but the wounds healed up in about three weeks." This 
 man died of hydrophobia six weeks afterwards.* The dis- 
 ease has also visited the Mauritius, as noticed in our history, 
 but Marsden never heard of a case at Sumatra, f We have 
 described its appearance in North and South China. The 
 Abbe Vinzot has heard the virtues of a particular species of 
 Polygala much vaunted as a remedy for hydrophobia in China. 
 Pere Legrand states that it is prevalent in the empire of 
 Annam, and says it is cured by the thorn-apple {Stramonium) 
 in such strong doses as to produce phenomena of intoxication 
 simulating the symptoms of furious madness. The once 
 famous Tonquin remedy, consisting of native and artificial 
 cinnabar, was derived from that country more than half a 
 century ago. 
 
 The malady is perfectly known in India, and the Hon. Mount- 
 stuart Elphinstone says that in Afghanistan it affects wolves, 
 jackals, and dogs, and is attributed to the simoon or pestilential 
 
 * " Eleven Years in Ceylon," vol. i. p. 363. 
 
 t " History of Sumatra," p. 115. " Those dogs brought from Eiu-ope lose in 
 a few years their distinctive qualities, and degenerate at length into the cur with 
 erect ears, Kttyu, vulgarly called the pariah dog. An instance did not occur of 
 any one going mad during the period of my residence. Many of them are 
 afi'ected with a kind of gonorrhoea."
 
 Geographical Exteyit of Rabies. 73 
 
 wind.* Choisel, a Jesuit residing at Pondicherry, so early as 
 1756, published a pamphlet in which he relates many examples 
 of rabies being transmitted to the human species at that place. 
 The disease appears to be pretty generally dijSused over the 
 Asiatic continent, though in some regions it is much less frequent 
 than in others. In Syria and the Holy Land I found upon in- 
 quiry when there in 1867, that it is by no means a rare malady, 
 though in scriptural times we can find no mention of its having 
 been noticed. In Syria I was informed that when a person 
 was affected with hydrophobia he was shut in a dark room, the 
 greatest care being taken to keep him tranquil and prevent his 
 seeing any red-coloured object, and that if he lived for a certain 
 period he was thrown from an eminence into the sea, evidently ^ 
 after the manner, and with the same intention as is indicated 
 by Celsus. In Syria and the Levant, according to Dr. Nicora, 
 the malady has been so well known for a long time that certain 
 so-called " specific remedies " are the property of some families, --^ 
 who keep their composition a secret, as they look upon them 
 as heir-looms. And Dr. Camescasse has collected the reports 
 of twenty-five cases observed in the Smyrna hospital and 
 neighbouring localities, f Dr. Suquet, in 1857, communicates 
 three cases of hydrophobia reported to him by Dr. Rerles of 
 Latakia. He also mentions that there are families in Syria 
 who possess secret specifics against the disease. And Dr. 
 Guillar, at Damascus, after alluding to a very conclusive and 
 well- observed case of hydrophobia that occurred there, termi- 
 nates a report he drew up on the 26th September, 1856, by 
 saying that it is impossible to deny the existence of rabies in 
 the East. " Every one knows and dreads it, and in various 
 localities there are empirics who sell preservative remedies, for 
 the Arabs also look upon it as incurable." In Turkey its pre- 
 sence has been noted even in wolves, as in 1852. Dr. Miche], 
 of Salie, Turkey, informed M. Camescasse that a rabid wolf - 
 
 * " Account of the Kingdom of Caubul." 
 
 ; Tardieu, " Dictionnaire d'Hygiene," art. ''Kage."
 
 74 Rabies a7id Hydrophobia. 
 
 had. bitten forty-seven persons, forty-five of whom had died of 
 hydrophobia, the remaining two being preserved by the 
 chloride of antimony having been immediately applied to their 
 wounds. Trustworthy witnesses also certify to the fact that 
 cats have become rabid in Egypt and Turkey, and have pro- 
 duced hydrophobia in human beings. 
 
 Ahmed Effendi, veterinary professor in the Military 
 Academy at Constantinople, stated at the International 
 Veterinary Congress held at Vienna in 1865, that " in the 
 East — that is to say, in Turkey — the disease known as 
 canine madness exists, and it appears, though very seldom, 
 not only in dogs in villages and in the country, but like- 
 wise in those in large towns." In Roumania, situated in 
 the same zone as Turkey, rabies and hydrophobia are frequent, 
 especially in the vicinity of the mountains, where the disease 
 is generally communicated by wolves to the shepherds' dogs, 
 and from these to mankind. Among the peasantry in that 
 country it is commonly believed that birds of prey, such as 
 eagles, hawks, vultures, &c., fall dead from an elevation in the 
 air which is never reached by any other creatures, and are 
 eaten by wolves ; these latter communicate the madness due to 
 this food to the dogs, in their frequent battles with these 
 around the herds or the sheep-folds, and the dogs in their turn 
 transmit it to the cattle and people by the simple fact of 
 inhalation, as when the wind blows towards man or beast from 
 the quarter in which the diseased dog is situated.* In El 
 Hejaz, that part of Arabia bordering on the Red Sea, hydro- 
 phobia is known, though it is rare, according to Burton. The 
 people have many superstitions about it, and imagine that a 
 bit of meat falls from the sky, and that the man who eats it 
 becomes mad. " I was assured by respectable persons that 
 when a man is bitten they shut him up with food in a solitary 
 chamber for four days, and if at the end of that time he still 
 howls like a dog they expel the ghul (devil) from him by 
 * Constantinescu, " De la Eage."
 
 Geographical Extent of Rabies. 75 
 
 pouring over him boiling water mixed with, ashes — a certain 
 cure, I can readily believe," adds Burton.* 
 
 Until a recent period it seems to have been extremely un- 
 frequent in, or altogether absent from Africa. Even in South 
 Africa, up to the present time, it is generally believed that no 
 well-marked case of rabies has occurred. Livingstone certainly 
 heard of a chief who died from the bite of a mad dog ; but he 
 appears to have been doubtful. He says : "In conversation 
 with some of my friends (at Litubaruba) I learned that Maleke, 
 a chief of the Bakwains, who formerly lived on the hill Lituba- 
 ruba, had been killed by the bite of a mad dog. My curiosity 
 was strongly excited by this statement, as rabies is so rare in 
 this comitry. I never heard of another case, and could not 
 satisfy myself that even this was real hydrophobia. While 
 I was at Mabotsa, some dogs became affected by a disease 
 which led them to rim about in an incoherent state ; but I 
 doubt whether it was anything but an affection of the brain, f 
 No individual or animal got the complaint by inoculation from 
 the animals' teeth " (Did the animals attempt to bite ?) ; " and, 
 from all I could hear, the prevailing idea of hydrophobia 
 not existing within the tropics seems to be quite correct." + 
 Numerous travellers and residents have asserted that the disease 
 has not been witnessed at the Cape of Good Hope. 
 
 It is not known on the Gold Coast, according to Clarke ; § 
 and Du Chaillu, from inquiries among the natives of West 
 Africa, during his brief residence there, could learn nothing of 
 its existence in that part of the continent.il Neither have we 
 any proof of its appearing in East Africa, though Burton 
 
 * " Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah," vol. i. p. 372. 
 
 t Rabies is more or less an affection of the brain and its continuation — the 
 upper part of the spinal cord. 
 
 i " Missionary Travels and Researches in South A£i-ica," p. 127. As will be 
 seen from our history and this geographical notice, the prevailing idea that 
 hydrophobia does not exist within the tropics is an erroneous one. 
 
 § " Remarks on the Topography and Diseases of the Gold Coast." 
 
 II " A Journey to Ashango Land, and further penetration into Equatorial 
 Africa."
 
 76 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 informs us that the settled Somal " have a holy horror of dogs, 
 and, Wahabi-like, treat man's faithful slave most cruelly." * 
 Whether this dread is inspired by the liability of the animal to 
 rabies we are left to conjecture. 
 
 But if in South, East, and West Africa the canine pest is 
 either so rare as not to attract attention, or does not visit these 
 regions at all, it is not so in North Africa. Sir W. Baker, as 
 we have observed, speaks of it when he was surveying the Nile 
 tributaries of Abyssinia. Indeed, in Northern Abyssinia 
 rabies would appear to be by no means unfrequent, accord- 
 ing to M. E,ochette d'Hericourt, who says that the Abys- 
 sinians employ the root of a plant of the Cucurhitacce as 
 
 "^ a preventive of hydrophobia, which acts as an emetico- 
 cathartic, and also as a curative agent. " As soon as the 
 dose has produced its effect, the patient suffers from nothing 
 but the results of the medicament. On my arrival at Devra 
 Tabor, a mad dog having attacked and wounded three other 
 dogs and a soldier of Bas-Ali, the king called me, and 
 said, * You will see the efficacy of the remedy of which I have 
 spoken.' All the dogs were then ordered to be shut up in 
 separate compartments ; and next day, while the rabid animal 
 was calm, he caused to be given in our presence a quantity 
 of this root in powder. It produced all the effects indicated, 
 and the dog was saved. Of the three dogs wounded two were 
 also preserved by the same procedure, but the third died, the 
 remedy not having been administered to it, in order to prove 
 its death from rabies. The soldier, who manifested all the 
 symptoms of hydrophobia towards the ninth day, was subjected 
 
 ^ on the tenth day to this treatment, and he was also cured." 
 M. Bouchardat, who alludes to this relation by Hericourt, 
 appears to think some success might be derived from the 
 exhibition of the active drastic principle foimd in this family of 
 plants, especially the Cucumis elathermm.f Larrey, Volney, 
 
 * "First Footsteps in East Africa," p. 143. 
 t " Annuaire de Therapeutie de 1850."
 
 Geog7 'aph ical Extent of Rabies. 7 7 
 
 Brown, and Prosper Alpinus denied the existence of canine 
 rabies in Egypt ; and Professor Prince, late of tlie Veterinary 
 School at Aboozabel, states he had not witnessed a case in 
 ten years ; but in more recent times its occurrence has been 
 repeatedly observed by Pruner.* Dr. Punel reports four un- 
 doubted cases of hydrophobia in Alexandria in 1850, 1855, 1856, 
 and 1857 ; and Dr. Amstein, cited by Tardieu, reports having 
 witnessed no fewer than thirty-nine well-defined cases of rabies 
 in that country, Syria, and Turkey. In 1857 Burguieres-Bey, 
 sanitary physician at Cairo, mentions three cases of hydropho- 
 bia as having occurred there ; the disease had been com- 
 municated by imported dogs living in a state of domesticity. 
 During the first ten years of the French occupation of Algeria, 
 the malady appeared to be so extremely unfrequent as to 
 lead some writers to suppose that the canine race did not 
 suffer from it in that country ; but for many years it has 
 been prevalent, and its transmission to mankind, even among 
 the Arab tribes, is not at all an unusual circumstance. 
 The malady, however, according to some writers, is con- 
 fined principally to the centres of civilisation, such as Bone, 
 Philippeville, Oran, Tlemcen, Tenes, Orleansville, Monsta- 
 ganem, and Novi ; it is in these places, which are chiefly 
 peopled by Europeans, that rabies has been more particularly 
 noted. Yet it is by no means unfrequent in the country. On 
 the 25th December, 1845, at the Hanif bivouac of the French 
 troops under General Bedeau, a fine charger belonging to 
 Commandant Paer, of the 33rd Regiment, died of rabies. It 
 had been bitten by a dog that showed all the symptoms of this 
 disease, and was killed fifteen days before. In 1846, Dr. 
 Lelouis saw an Arab chief die from hydrophobia ; he had been 
 bitten by a dog some time previously ; and in the " Recueil de 
 Memoires de Medecine et de Pharmacie Militaires " for 1856, is 
 to be found a collection of twelve observations extending from 
 1844 to 1855, recording the, at times simultaneous, appearance 
 * "Die Krankheiten des Orientes " (Erlangen, 1847), p. 431.
 
 78 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 of rabies in the most distant parts of the three provinces of 
 Algeria. 
 
 " Contrary to what the majority of writers have advanced," 
 says M. Dussoiirt in 1851, " we may remark that rabaic hydro- 
 phobia is far from being rare in Africa — in our Algerian 
 colony at least. The Arabs know it perfectly well, and even 
 agree in regarding it as very common, especially among 
 animals, which they kill, and, if herbivores, eat their flesh. 
 The name they give to rabies and to the rabid individual 
 [mlxJoub, or changed into a dog) is proof of this, for it is 
 
 derived from helh, dog, and mkelh, mad dog Rabies is 
 
 very common among the Arabs in Africa, who apply the term 
 ' dogified ' {mJiloub) to those who are affected, and they have 
 also their jugglers who pretend to cure it. At a few leagues 
 from Orleansville there is an Arab who is well known in the 
 country as the owner of a secret remedy (for which any one 
 pays very dear), by the aid of which he pretends not only to 
 cure but to prevent the disease. Besides, all the Arabs we 
 have questioned on the subject have uniformly stated that 
 every year they have cases of hydrophobia in their tribes, though 
 they do not appear to be so afraid of it as we are."* These remarks 
 were occasioned by the occurrence of two cases of hydrophobia, 
 and alluding to the frequent appearance of the malady in the 
 lower animals, this writer continues : " Since the death of these 
 two women, in the space of eight days M. Breton, veterinary 
 surgeon to the squadron of Spahis at Orleansville, has seen two 
 horses and a mule die from rabies. The three had been bitten 
 by dogs. M. Rossignol, assistant- surgeon, has just informed 
 me that the disease has been seen in several dogs and horses at 
 Tenes, from which place he has just arrived."! This testimony 
 as to the existence of rabies in Africa comes from Orleans- 
 ville, but similar evidence, and particularly with regard to the 
 antiquity of the disease, is supplied by various medical men 
 
 * " Eecueil des Mem. de M6d. Chirur. et Pharm. Militaire," 1856, p. 139. 
 t Ibid., p. 161.
 
 Geographical Extent of Rabies. 79 
 
 from Douera.* " "We know at present," writes M. Costa in 
 1862, " that rabies is by no means rare in Algeria. In a period 
 of five years, at Muscara only, M. Durand, chief of the hospital, 
 has witnessed among the Europeans four cases of confirmed 
 rabies terminating in death, in a population of less than 4,000." 
 In two years, Veterinary- Surgeon Decroix had knowledge of 
 twenty-four cases in Algiers and its suburbs : four men and a 
 young girl, two cats and seventeen dogs.f 
 
 Dr. Bergot, from inquiries instituted among the Arabs in 
 the neighbourhood of the village of Gastu, learned that they 
 were quite cognizant of the disease ; they had their opinions as 
 to its duration, causes, and treatment. The old men whom he 
 consulted remembered perfectly well that, before the arrival of 
 the French, cases were at least as frequent as subsequently, and 
 they gave the names of seven individuals who had died from 
 hydrophobia in the space of fifteen years.:}: 
 
 The Medical Society of Algiers, after investigating the sub- 
 ject very carefully, came to the conclusion (1) that rabies 
 existed in Algeria before the French conquest, the terms relat- 
 ing to it being found in the oral language, and are in use 
 among the natives ; (2) and that the knowledge of the Arabs 
 with regard to hydrophobia is sufficiently complete to confirm 
 this proposition — their ideas and practices concerning it date 
 from a remote period.§ And Dr. Roucher,!! an excellent autho- 
 rity on the disease in that country, is decidedly of opinion that 
 rabies was not imported, but is indigenous, and was known at 
 a period long anterior to 1830. He accounts for its not being 
 better known during the first ten years of the French occupation 
 by the fact " that the European population was very small ; 
 
 * " Bulletin de la Soci^te de Med. d' Alger," 1861, p. 43. "Bulletin de la 
 Societe de Medecine," 1861, p. 50. 
 
 t " Reflexions sur la Rage." Abeille Medicale, 1863. 
 
 X " Cas d'Hydrophobie rencontre dans les Zerdezas " (" Bulletin de la See. de 
 Med. d' Alger.," 1864, p. 93). 
 
 § " Bulletin des Travaux de la Soc. de M6d. d' Alger.," 1860, p. 78. 
 
 II " Annales d'Hygiene Pnblique," &c., 1866, p. 106.
 
 8o Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 that the army was accompanied by only a few animals suscep- 
 tible of contracting or transmitting the disease ; that observa- 
 tions among the natives were impossible, and the intercourse 
 between them or their domestic animals, and the soldiers or the 
 animals following them, was extremely rare ; that the state of 
 concentration and continual surveillance of the troops prevented 
 the attacks of wild animals ; and, finally, that the extent of 
 territory already conquered and occupied was extremely 
 limited." The Doctor concludes this statement by expressing 
 his belief that " Algeria is the country for which rabies — 
 perhaps even spontaneous rabies — has a special predilection." 
 In Algeria the jackal sufiers from rabies, and takes the place 
 of the wolf in France. 
 
 As we have before observed, it appeared in the island of 
 Malta in an alarming manner in 1847 ; Gibraltar is sometimes 
 severely visited, and I am informed that about two years ago, 
 thirteen persons were bitten by a rabid dog, and of these eleven 
 perished. 
 
 The colder regions of the globe are not exempt from the 
 ravages of rabies, though in the very coldest it may be so 
 seldom witnessed as to lead to the belief that it is not known. 
 In Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Russia, and Lapland it has 
 been frequently seen in an epizootic form, as in 1815 and 1824. 
 The Old Bushman says of Sweden: "Madness is, I fancy, 
 rare ; but the regulations respecting loose dogs in the towns 
 are very stringent during the summer season." * In Russia 
 and Denmark it is always more or less prevalent. But in 
 Greenland and Kamschatka it is said to be quite unknown. 
 Erman, when describing the Ostyaks of Siberia and their dog- 
 sledges, notices this circumstance. " Madness among the dogs 
 would be, in this country, a most formidable scourge, and 
 would infallibly cause the destruction of whole races of men ; 
 but every one here (at Obdorsk) assured us that the disease is 
 wholly unknown to them. Steller has stated the same thing 
 * "Ten Years in Sweden," p. 169.
 
 Geographical Extent of Rabies, 8 1 
 
 respecting the dogs of Kamscliatka ; so that hydrophobia 
 would seem to be one of the European results of living in 
 towns. One essential and unfailing distinction between the 
 dogs of Siberia and those of Europe lies in the very moderate 
 food of the former; whence it might be inferred that it is 
 excess, and not want, which generates the morbid habit." * 
 
 Dr. Kane, when frozen-up in the Arctic regions (latitude 70° 
 41 ) in 1854, alludes to a disease appearing among his dogs, 
 which so closely resembled rabies as to occasion alarm. On 
 October 5th he writes : " Yesterday the mother of one batch 
 (of puppies), a pair of fine white pujjs, showed peculiar sym- 
 toms. We recalled the fact that for some days past she had 
 avoided water, or had drunk with spasm and evident aversion ; 
 but hydrophobia, which is unknown north of 70°, never occurred 
 to us. The animal was noticed this morning walking up and 
 down the deck with a staggering gait, her head depressed, and 
 her mouth foaming and tumid. Finally, she snapped at 
 Petersen, and fell foaming and biting at his feet. He re- 
 luctantly pronoimced it hydrophobia, and advised me to shoot 
 her. The advice was well-timed ; I had hardly cleared the 
 deck before she snapped at Hans, the Esquimaux, and recom- 
 menced her walking trot. It was qtdte an anxious moment to 
 me ; for my Newfoundlanders (dogs) were around the housing, 
 and the hatches were open. We shot her, of course." Speak- 
 ing of the sunless Arctic winter, it is further remarked : " The 
 influence of this long, intense darkness was most depressing. 
 Even our dogs, although the greater part of them were natives 
 of the Arctic circle, were unable to withstand it. Most of 
 them died from an anomalous form of disease, to which, I am 
 satisfied, the absence of light contributed as much as the extreme 
 cold. January 25th. — The mouse-coloured dogs, the leaders of 
 my Newfoundland team, have for the past fortnight been 
 nursed like babies. No one can tell how anxiously I watch 
 them. They are kept below, tended, fed, cleaned, caressed, 
 
 * " Travels in Siberia," vol. ii. p. 34, 
 G
 
 82 Rabies a7id Hydrophobia. 
 
 and doctored, to the infinite discomfort of all hands. To-day I 
 give up the last hope of saving them. Their disease is as 
 clearly mental as in the case of any human being. The 
 material functions of the poor brutes go on without interrup- 
 tion; they eat voraciously, retain their strength, and sleep 
 well. But all the indications beyond this go to prove that the 
 original epilepsy, which was the first manifestation of brain 
 disease among them, has been followed by a true lunacy. They 
 barked frenzically at nothing, and walked in straight and 
 curved lines with anxious and unwearying perseverance. They 
 fawn on you, but without seeming to appreciate the notice you 
 give them in return, pushing their heads against your person, 
 or oscillating with a strange pantomime of fear. Their most 
 intelligent actions seem automatic ; sometimes they remain for 
 hours in moody silence, and then start off howling as if pur- 
 sued, and run up and down for hours. So it was with poor 
 Flora, our * wise dog.' She was seized with the endemic 
 spasms, and after a few wild paroxysms lapsed into a lethargic 
 condition, eating voraciously, but gaining no strength. This 
 passing off, the same crazy wildness took possession of her, and 
 she died of brain disease {arachnoidal effusion) in about six 
 weeks. Generally, they perish with symptoms resembling 
 locked-jaw in less than thirty-six hours after the first attack. 
 .... My dogs that I had counted on so largely, the nine 
 splendid Newfoundlanders and thirty-five Esquimaux of six 
 months before, had perished ; there were only six survivors of 
 the whole pack, and one of these was unfit for draught." 
 " Tiger, our last remaining dog, was seized with a fit ominously 
 resembling the last winter's curse. In the delirium which 
 followed his seizure, he ran into the water and drowned him- 
 self." In a note, it is added : " Hydrophobia. The caption 
 at the head of the page is not intended to afiirm the existence 
 of this disease in this high North. Some of the tetanoid 
 symptoms attendant iipon tonic spasms closely simulated it ; 
 but the disease, strictly speaking, is unknown there." And in
 
 Geographical Extent of Rabies. 83 
 
 the Appendix to Vol. II. (p. 305), this able explorer agaiu 
 observes : " A strong tendency to tonic spasm, probably in- 
 duced by the lengthened cold and darkness, was the chief trial 
 of our party. General disease was readily controlled by a care- 
 ful hygiene but this anomalous form of spasmodic 
 
 disease was encountered with difficulty. It extended to our 
 dogs, assuming the aspect of tetanus ; in spite of every effort, 
 no less than fifty-seven perished, many of them with symptoms 
 not unlike those of hydrophobia. The loss of these animals 
 interfered seriously with my original scheme of search." * 
 
 Mr. McDougall also speaks of the dogs belonging to the 
 Resolute, in the Arctic regions in 1853, having serious fits, 
 none of which, however, terminated fatally ; though evidence 
 of their injvirious efiects could be traced in the very expression 
 of these animals. During one of these fits a bitch ran away, 
 and was no more heard of.f 
 
 It must be admitted that the symptoms described by Kane, 
 especially in the first case he alludes to, bear a most striking 
 resemblance to those noted in rabies, as we shall see hereafter ; 
 the duration of the disease and its fatality were also character- 
 istic of rabies ; while the pathological alterations in the brain, 
 particularly the effiision, are, as will be pointed out in the 
 proper place, very frequently found in this disease. 
 
 But however rare and sometimes disputable the malady may 
 be in tropical or frigid regions, there can be no doubt whatever 
 as to its being always present, to a greater or less extent, in tem- 
 perate countries, and in an unmistakable form. Europe appears 
 to be particularly afflicted with the scourge, which we have 
 reason to believe is increasing in virulency and in frequency. 
 But even in Europe it would appear that certain regions are 
 more tormented with it than others. France and Germany, and 
 Upper Italy and Holland, seem to sufiPer more than other Con- 
 tinental nations. Spain is also sometimes severely visited ; but 
 
 * "Arctic Explorations," vol. i. pp. 106, 123, 156, 163, 459. 
 
 t "Voyage of H.M.S. Reaolute to the Arctic Regions," pp. 369,376. 
 
 G 2
 
 84 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 in Portugal, according to De Souza, althougli there are many 
 stray dogs, cases of canine madness occur very seldom. Though 
 in this country, owing to our very culpable neglect of com- 
 parative pathology, we have nothing to guide us in forming 
 an estimate of the extent of the disease among the lower 
 animals ; yet from the casual notices that appear at intervals, 
 and the number of people who perish from hydrophobia, we are 
 almost justified in asserting that Great Britain is frequently 
 seriously visited by rabies, and while it has always been pre- 
 sent, our history shows that since the commencement of this 
 century, and particularly in later years, it has been largely 
 on the increase ; so that we may soon expect, if no energetic 
 and general measures are adopted, to be as severely punished as 
 France or Germany. Of the three kingdoms, England appears 
 to furnish the majority of cases, Scotland being, apparently, 
 remarkably exempt. For instance, in 1866, while thirty-six 
 cases of death from hydrophobia were reported by the Registrar- 
 General as occurring in England, no person was affected with 
 the disease in Scotland. For the twelve years commencing 
 with 1855 and terminating with 1866, the number of persons 
 who succu.mbed to the malady in England was ninety-five, and 
 in Scotland only twelve. From this we might hazard the opinion 
 that rabies was not nearly so frequent in the northern parts 
 of our island. But it must be confessed that this is a mere 
 inference, as the veterinary schools do not publish any statistics 
 of cases admitted to their hospitals, nor make any report as to 
 the extent of the malady in the respective countries ; and the 
 Government, we believe, does not take any steps to register the 
 prevailing diseases among the domestic animals in the various 
 counties — a grave and inexplicable omission, which has been 
 the cause of immense loss, and has greatly retarded the progress 
 of veterinary medicine and sanitary police, two subjects which 
 have been considered as well deserving the attention of other 
 enlightened governments.
 
 spontaneous Origin. 85 
 
 ETIOLOGY OF RABIES. 
 
 The investigation of the cause or causes of rabies — of the 
 conditions which predispose the organism to the development 
 of the disease, or which act directly in producing it — is, in 
 this instance, as it is generally in other maladies, a study of 
 the greatest importance ; as on it depends, in a large degree, 
 the prevention of the scourge — terrible alike to man, to the 
 dog, and to all animals. And perhaps with no other disorder 
 to which the inferior creatures are liable has the stud}' of 
 causation been more closely pursued, or been more prolific in 
 suggesting hypotheses and furnishing suggestions than the one 
 now under consideration. In the canine and feline species, the 
 origin of the malady is frequently obsciu'e and involved in 
 doubt, and the consideration of this at once opens up the, for a 
 long time warmly contested, question as to the spontaneous 
 origin of contagious diseases. 
 
 Spontaneous Origin. 
 
 For many years, and even now, the spontaneous origin of 
 rabies in the species of animals in which it is most frequently 
 witnessed has been denied by authorities who have ranged 
 themselves on the side of the contagionists, whose belief it is 
 that contagious diseases are propagated and maintained solely 
 by the transmission of a specific virus from the diseased to the 
 healthy, and that no transmissible disease ever arises sponta- 
 neously, but that its infecting element is always in existence. 
 
 Whatever weight this line of argument may have in human 
 medicine, there can be no doubt whatever that in comparative 
 pathology it cannot be entertained as absolutely unassailable.
 
 86 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 In certain maladies which develop a contagiuni capable of 
 producing the same morbid distvirbance that characterises them 
 when transferred to healthy animals, we are almost, if not 
 altogether, compelled by the force of reasoning and the power 
 of indisputable facts to admit their spontaneous origin from a 
 concurrence of circumstances — many of them perhaps obscure 
 — whose operation we are not always able to trace, save in the 
 effects produced in the creatures subjected to their operation. 
 Several virulent and well-known diseases in the lower animals 
 must be placed in this category, and among them we need only 
 now mention those vulgarly designated " glanders," " farcy," 
 and " strangles " in the horse, anthrax in cattle, the so-called 
 " typhus " in pigs, and " distemper " in the dog. Numberless 
 facts, indeed almost every day's veterinary experience, appear 
 to demonstrate in the most unmistakable manner that these 
 affections may be developed directly, without the intervention 
 of any infecting medium. And rabies, we feel we are justified 
 in asserting, must also be included in the list of diseases which, 
 generated under certain favourable conditions, during their 
 course develop a virus that, like a ferment, acts as a leaven in 
 producing morbid and characteristic changes when it obtains 
 admission to a previously healthy body. 
 
 Notwithstanding the arguments of the distinguished veteri- 
 narians and amateurs (among whom, in this country, Blaine, 
 Youatt, and Mejmell were prominent) who have aflSrmed that 
 rabies only owes its origin to a traumatic action — i.e., to a 
 wound inflicted by the teeth of a rabid creature on the body of 
 one hitherto free from every trace of the disease — there are few 
 nowadays who are not convinced that it will occasionally 
 appear in a spontaneous manner, and without any certain 
 assignable cause. No doubt the transmission of the disease by 
 inoculation furnishes by far the largest number of cases, and 
 many of these, from the obscure manner in which the inocula- 
 tion has been effected, appear to be due to other causes than 
 those of a traumatic character ; but, notwithstanding, the
 
 spontaneous Origin. 87 
 
 disease must have had a commencement. Several of the 
 ancient Greek and Roman writers, while admitting that 
 the disease was contagious, nevertheless acknowledge that, in 
 the dog at least, it could appear without the influence of the 
 contagious element being invoked.* Our history shows that, 
 while rabies has frequently followed the introduction of 
 European dogs into new regions, it has also appeared in an 
 epizootic form in countries where it had been previously 
 unknown — as in Peru in 1803 — and its appearance could not 
 be traced to any foreign source. 
 
 There are localities where rabies does not appear except at 
 rare intervals ; years may elapse without a single case being 
 observed, and all at once many cases occur ; indeed, it is a 
 matter of common observation that at various epochs the malady 
 breaks out with exceptional violence and frequency, and may 
 even assume an epizootic form, while at other times it is 
 entirely absent for many years, or isolated cases may only be 
 noted now and again in. districts widely apart. 
 
 Dr. Roucher adduces the appearance of the malady in Algeria 
 as confirmatory, to some extent, of its spontaneous origin. The 
 marked intermittence in its manifestations at different geo- 
 graphical centres ; its regular propagation from each centre ; 
 the multiplicity of cases at certain epochs of very short duration, 
 contrasting strikingly with their rarity at other times ; the 
 intervals between the outbreaks, which are longer than the 
 period of incubation of the virus ; the small number of cases 
 compared with the crowds of wandering dogs ; the difficulty of 
 explaining by contagion alone the maintenance of the disease 
 in every region after long interruptions — all this would lead 
 to the supposition that inoculation is not the sole cause in 
 Algeria, and, we might add, in other countries. A reference 
 to the history of the malady, as it has been noted by French 
 
 * Galen is, I think, the first who positively asserts that dogs are the only 
 animals which become mad without being bitten, or having had the least com* 
 munication with infected creatures (^"De Loc. Affect.," book vi.).
 
 88 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 surgeons and veterinary surgeons since the occupation of thai 
 country, will show, in tracing it by zones at its different irrup- 
 tions, that it proceeds from more or less extensive centres. 
 
 In 1834, for instance, there was only one case in Algiers. 
 In 1844 it broke out at Bone in the month of March, and 
 radiated in July and October as far as Philippeville, Constan- 
 tine, Batna, and that part of the mountain chain of Bou-Taleb 
 adjoining Setif. In 1845 it was seen in December on the 
 Oued-Isser, and in the following month at Dellys. In 1847 
 an isolated case occurred at Blidah. In the period extending 
 from December, 1850, to August, 1851, rabies only occupied two 
 distinct centres — Bone, in the east, where three cases appeared 
 in the first quarter ; and in the west, where it arose at Orleans- 
 ville, and from January to March, 1851, travelled to Tenes and 
 Cherchell, to appear in August of the same year at Tlemcen, 
 on the extreme western limit of the French possessions. 
 
 In November and December, 1854, it was again witnessed 
 at Tenes and OrleansviUe ; then in January, 1855, at Mosta- 
 ganem ; in February, at the village of Damesme, near Arzew. 
 In 1856 there was an isolated case at Mostaganem ; in 1857 
 one at Tlemcen ; and in 1858 two at the first-named place. 
 
 For the first time, in 1860, rabies appeared simultaneously at 
 Oran, Arzew, and Mascara, in February and March, and again 
 in October and December. It afterwards reappeared at Hamma, 
 near Constantino ; and in June of that year, after an absence 
 of sixteen years, it broke out in Algiers, kilKng five persons in 
 four months. From that time it seemed to cling, with a kind 
 of predilection, to that capital, as it exclusively persisted there 
 in 1861, and in April, June, and November, 1862, whence it 
 was propagated to Blidah in December. In May of that year 
 it prevailed at Bone, and in May and June, 1863, it extended 
 to Philippeville, and to the village of Gastu, between Guelma 
 and Jemmapes ; subsequently, deaths from liydrophobia were 
 reported from Henuaya, near Tlemcen, Constantine, Medeah, 
 and Algiers.
 
 Sponta7ieous Origin. 89 
 
 Besides the bearing this historical resume has on the ques- 
 tion with which we are now occupied, there are some other 
 points of interest and importance to be noted, which have not 
 failed to attract the attention of Dr. Roucher. 
 
 The last period, he observes — that from 1860 to 1863 included 
 — does not offer the same order of progression as the first, and 
 there is nothing to show that in the future the periods of inva- 
 sion of rabies are likely to be separated by long intervals of' 
 immiuiity ; indeed, the contrary seems probable, if the increas- 
 ing frequency of the disease in later years is taken into con- 
 sideration — this frequency, by multiplying the cases, having a 
 tendency to efface the intervals of exemption. And in this 
 period, also, it is easy to distinguish the outbreaks at definite 
 geographical centres. There is likewise to be observed a certain 
 regularity in the progress of the disease, which might lead to 
 the suspicion that there was a mode of propagation dependent 
 at once upon time and distance. 
 
 A review of the periods in which the disease was manifested 
 would also go some way to prove the occurrence of rabies from 
 some other cause than contagion alone. Thus, in 1834, there 
 was one case (Roucher does not state whether the cases noted 
 in this resume were those of man or the lower animals ; he only 
 observes that in the total of 65, 47 were of men and animals, 
 and 18 of animals exclusively). In 1844, ten years afterwards, 
 there were seven cases in eight months; and in December, 1845, 
 fourteen months later, there was another case, followed by one 
 in January. In 1847 there was an isolated case, the last for 
 four years ; then, from the month of December, 1850, to 
 August, 1851, there were eleven cases in nine months ; after 
 which three years passed without any being recorded, until, 
 from November, 1854, to February, 1855, there were five cases 
 in four months. From this period to June, 1856, there was 
 another blank of sixteen months, when two isolated outbreaks 
 were reported — one at this date, and another In August, 1857. 
 In May and June, 1858, there occurred two cases very close in
 
 go Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 point of time, and another in an unknown month ; the same 
 may be said for three other cases, which are only reported to 
 have occurred in the interval between 1856 and 1858. During 
 a year and eight months the scourge slept, but only to appear 
 more destructive than ever in 1860, when eleven cases were 
 noted in as many months. It again disappeared until May, 
 
 1861, when, up to September, two cases were observed. In 
 
 1862, from January to December, there were six cases : and in 
 1863 there were three outbreaks in May and three in Decem- 
 ber, in addition to two cases at undetermined periods of the 
 year, making a total of twenty- seven cases. 
 
 Knowing the extreme limit of the incubatory period in the 
 canine species, it is surely unreasonable to pretend that the 
 malady can lurk unobserved in a dog for ten years, or even for 
 one year. The disease is frequently observed attacking dogs 
 which have been isolated for months together on farms, chained 
 up in courtyards, or kept in rooms as lap-dogs, and having no 
 communication with other creatures of the same species. And, 
 besides, experiments undertaken to discover the length of time 
 required for the incubation of rabies have strikingly demon- 
 strated the fact, that this period goes on increasing in propor- 
 tion as the virus is further removed from its origin — i.e.^ the 
 rabid animal from which it was first derived — until at last its 
 virulency becomes extinct. 
 
 Many years ago, M. Rey, the talented professor of the Lyons 
 Veterinary School, anxious to set at rest the question then agi- 
 tating veterinary surgeons as to whether communicated rabies 
 in the canine species was transmissible to ruminant animals, 
 instituted a long series of very remarkable experiments, which 
 proved not only that this contagion exists, but that it can be 
 transmitted to the fifth degree in sheep, and finally disappears, 
 the efiects of the virus being more and more slowly developed 
 as the re-inoculations are multiplied ; * showing that in passing 
 through different bodies it gradually loses its activity and 
 
 * " Recueil de Med. Vetennaire,'' 1814.
 
 spontaneous Origin. gi 
 
 potency. And there are tlie strange outbreaks of rabies among 
 feral creatures — sucb as tbe fox and wolf, jackal and byaena — 
 in wbich we have sometimes only one animal appearing in 
 districts wbere tbe disease does not then exist, and wounding 
 otber beings who afterwards become hydrophobic ; and at other 
 times many instances of the malady are noted among these 
 creatures over a wide region for a number of years, without 
 any assignable cause. The disease must be spontaneous, one 
 would be inclined to assert, in the wolf at least ; for how can 
 this creature, which is not unfrequently affected with rabies, 
 become inoculated with the virus of the malady? The con- 
 ditions in which it lives differ too widely from those of the dog- 
 to enable us to apply the same arguments to both. 
 
 Another point in favour of the view that rabies is due to, 
 some other influence than propagation by rabid animals, is to 
 be found in the circumstance, that at intervals it appears in a 
 general or epizootic form, spreading far and wide in coimtries in 
 which mad dogs are seen every year only here and there. If the 
 malady owed its diffusion solely to rabid animals, surely it must 
 always, in these regions, be more or less general. Making 
 every allowance for the fact that during these epizootics the 
 virus is elaborated on an extensive scale, and the affected 
 animals transmit it freely to all other creatures with which 
 they come into contact, yet, taking into consideration the history 
 of the disease, and the circumstances so frequently attending 
 its advent and progress, we are constrained to agree with those 
 veterinarians who maintain that it is spontaneously developed ; 
 that during its development a contagion or infecting element is 
 generated, which is capable of giving origin to the disease in 
 other animals, when introduced into their bodies ; and that 
 though the spread of the malady among a large number of 
 animals, over a wide extent of country, may be largely or even 
 entirely due to inoculation, yet that in these circumstances 
 some mysterious influence is at work, which wc might desig- 
 nate the epizootic constitution of the disease. Certainly, wc
 
 92 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 cannot directly pi'ove that the disease arises spontaneously, the 
 proofs necessary to establish this with all the necessary rigour 
 and precision fail us. We can only found our belief on col- 
 lateral circumstances, which in themselves, nevertheless, strongly 
 favour our view. 
 
 Vernois* and Tardieu,f among modern observers, believe in 
 its spontaneity in the dog and cat. The former knew of several 
 unmistakable instances, and was of opinion that its occurring 
 in this manner is the principal cause of its appearance in many 
 regions where it could not be ascribed to contagion. Tardieu 
 cites two cases of spontaneous rabies in the cat ; one in which 
 the malady was induced by depriving a cat of its kittens, and 
 another in which it was caused by a severe burn. BlatinJ also 
 affirms that it originates spontaneously in the wolf and fox, as 
 well as in the dog and cat. And Bouley, one of the highest 
 living authorities on the subject, does not deny this, but, on the 
 contrary, favours the supposition. 
 
 An instance which has been quoted as tending to prove the 
 spontaneous generation of rabies in the dog, is alluded to by 
 Roucher as having occurred in Algeria, and reported by 
 Moreau of Bone, A little pug dog was kept tied up in a cellar 
 for fifteen or twenty days without being let loose during that 
 period, at the end of which it bit its mistress, who died of 
 hydrophobia. Nothing is said as to what eventually became of 
 the animal, but it was generally believed that the disease was 
 developed spontaneously in it. It must be remarked, however, 
 that this is not a satisfactory instance to quote, as fifteen or 
 twenty days is not a long period of incubation, and the dog 
 might have been inoculated before it was confined to the cellar. 
 
 Supposed Causes. 
 
 But though we hold the above opinion, we are nevertheless 
 far from having arrived at a knowledge of what occasions the 
 
 * " Etude sur la Prophylaxie Administrative de la Rage." Paris, 1863. 
 
 t " Dictionnaire d'Hygiene Publique," art. " Rage." 
 
 \ "De la Rage chcz le Chien ct devS Mesurcs Preservative." Paris, 1863.
 
 Influence of Climate. 93 
 
 direct or spontaneous development of rabies — knowledge whicli 
 is of the greatest moment mth regard to the prevention of 
 this, the most calamitous of all diseases ; for of the many causes 
 which have been adduced by different authorities, none can be 
 received without hesitation, and some must be rejected as 
 altogether unsatisfactory. Indeed, the etiology of rabies has 
 yet to be elucidated ; as it may be said that we are in complete 
 ignorance of the circumstances on which its spontaneous pro- 
 duction depends. Nevertheless, it is necessary, in a dissertation 
 on the disease, to notice the principal constant or occasional 
 causes which have, in later years, been from time to time fixed 
 upon to account for its appearance, more particularly in an 
 epizootic form. 
 
 Influence or Climate. 
 
 Though the species in which spontaneous rabies becomes 
 developed are to be found in a wild or domestic condition in 
 every inhabited region of the globe, yet, as we have seen, it is the 
 temperate regions which suffer most frequently and extensively 
 from its ravages, while in some of those of extreme tempera- 
 ture it is rare or altogether absent. Indeed, in different climates 
 of the same country a notable diversity has been observed. 
 For instance, in Italy, Dr. Gramegna, after an examination of 
 the statistics of rabies occurring there during 1868 and 1869, 
 shows that the disease is much more rare in the warm parts of 
 that kingdom, such as Sardinia and Sicily.* The reason for its 
 appearing in temperate climates has been said to be owing to 
 the disturbance of the cutaneous transpiration from the vicissi- 
 tudes of the weather. But it must be remembered that in 
 none of the domestic animals is this process less active than in 
 the dog, whose skin is so very rarely seen bedewed with per- 
 spiration ; indeed, the malady is generated in those creatures 
 whose skins are least active in function, and, besides, other 
 creatures are quite as much, if not more exposed to the weather 
 
 * "Siiir Origine e Cura della Rabbia Canina." Florence, 1871.
 
 94 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 than this animal, yet rabies is not spontaneously generated in 
 them. And, in addition, the cat, in which the disease is also 
 supposed to be engendered without any contact from a rabid 
 creature, is not subjected to these intemperatures, neither are 
 the functions of its skin particularly active ; indeed, if func- 
 tional activity of the skin and exposure to sudden changes of 
 temperature were exciting causes of madness, then surely we 
 might expect the horse to suffer from it more than any other 
 creature with which we are acquainted. But this is not the 
 casCj and it has been observed by those veterinary surgeons 
 who have most carefully studied the disease, that it far more 
 frequently appears in dogs belonging to owners who can afford 
 to, and do shelter them from inclement weather, than in those 
 which are never housed. This was particularly noted at Vienna 
 in 1841 and 1862. Besides, in some countries in which the 
 malady is either very rare or altogether imknown, more par- 
 ticularly in equatorial regions, there are sudden alternations of 
 temperature, the day being hot and the night cold. The fact 
 that the malady is known within the tropics militates against 
 the supposition that its generating influence is only to be found 
 in a temperate climate. 
 
 Influence of Season. 
 The influence of certain seasons in inducing the production 
 of rabies has long been a popular notion, which, it would 
 appear, the stern testimony of facts has not been quite potent 
 enough to dispel. During the hot weather — the " dog-days," 
 as a certain portion of the summer has been designated — it 
 has been universally believed that the canine race is particu- 
 larly liable to be attacked by madness, possibly from the 
 apparent distress dogs manifest when exposed to heat, as 
 evidenced by their restlessness, panting, thirst,* &c. ; conse- 
 
 * " When Sirius reigns, and the sun's parching heams 
 Bake the dry gaping surface, visit thou 
 Each ev'n and mom, with quick observant eye, 
 The panting pack. If in dark sullen mood," &c., &e. 
 
 SOMERVILLE.
 
 Influence of Season. 95 
 
 quently muzzles and all kinds of reasonable and unreasonable 
 precautions bave been resorted to for tbe purpose of preventing 
 accidents to tbe buman species. It is scarcely necessary to 
 say tbat some of tbese precautions are as injurious and cruel 
 to tbe poor dog as tbey are futile or even dangerous in tbeir 
 results. Tbe popular notion tbat rabies is more common in 
 summer tban winter appears to bave been mainly founded on 
 tbe autbority of Dioscorides, Paul ^gineta, ^tius, and otbers, 
 tbougb tbese also acknowledge tbat it was seen in tbe latter 
 season ; but tbis opinion is of tbe bigbest antiquity, and seems 
 to bave been connected in some way witb tbe celebration of 
 tbe festum Cynopbontim (or K^vvo(^6vria) of tbe Argives.* 
 
 But is it tbe case tbat rabies is more frequent in bot tban 
 in cold or temperate weatber ? or, in otber words, tbat beat 
 induces tbe disease ? Tbe evidence furnisbed by statistics 
 compiled in France and Germany, wnere great attention bas 
 been devoted to tbis subject, incontestably prove tbat it is 
 not during bot weatber tbat rabies is most prevalent, but in 
 tbe cold and mild seasons. True, we bave, in tbe bistory of 
 tbe disease, an example of a remarkable outbreak occurring 
 in Peru during tbe excessively bot summers of 1803 and 1804 ; 
 but tbis instance stands somewbat isolated from tbe large mass 
 of statistics accumulated in Europe for many years. Tbe 
 spring time and autumn bave furnisbed, as a rule, tbe greatest 
 number of cases in France and Germany, and temperate 
 svimmers more tban bot ones. Indeed, Dr. Roll, of tbe 
 Veterinary Institute of Vienna, asserts that tbe disease is 
 more frequent in mild tban in bot summers.! Tbe only 
 exceptions bave been wben tbe seasons were irregular and 
 uncertain. 
 
 So long ago as 1780, Andry observed tbat January, tbe 
 coldest, and August, tbe bottest montbs, furnisbed tbe least 
 number of cases ; and at a later period, Hurtrel d'Arboral 
 
 * Casaubon, " Animadvers. in Athenjei Deipnos," book iii. p. 127. 
 
 t " Manuel de Pathologie, etc., des Animaux Domestiquos," vol. i. p. 463.
 
 96 
 
 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 stated tliat in France the disease was most frequent in May 
 and September among dogs, and that the greatest number of 
 rabid wolves was noticed in March and April. In Roumania, 
 mad wolves are frequent in winter, and transmit their disease 
 to the people and animals they attack. 
 
 During a year when the summer months were excessively 
 hot in France, M. Rey, clinical professor at the Lyons Veteri- 
 nary School, registered in February 6 cases. May, 7 ; July, 2 j 
 August, 1 ; and September, 3 ; in a total of 19. 
 
 M. Bourrel,* who was director of a dog infirmary at Paris, 
 registered out of a total of twenty-one cases, in 
 
 December, January, and February 6 cases. 
 
 March, April, and May . . . . . . . 4 „ 
 
 June, July, and August . . . . . . . 2 „ 
 
 September, October, and November . . . . 9 „ 
 
 And his analysis of 393 cases gives the following proportions 
 for each month : — 
 
 Months. 1 
 
 Males . . 
 Females . 
 
 Totals... 
 
 Jan. Feb. Mar. 
 31 28 22 
 5 3 4 
 
 Apr. May June 
 
 31 27 35 
 
 1 5 7 
 
 July Aug. Sept. 
 
 30 26 29 
 
 2 4 6 
 
 Oct. Nov. Dec. 
 
 38 21 26 
 
 3 3 6 
 
 Totals. 
 344 
 49 
 
 393 
 
 36 31 26 
 
 32 32 42 
 
 32 30 35 
 
 41 24 32 
 
 1st Quarter. 
 93 
 
 2nd Quarter. 
 106 
 
 3rd Quarter. 
 97 
 
 4tb Quarter. 
 97 
 
 393 
 
 An abstract of Professor Lafosse's registers kept at the 
 Toulouse Veterinary Schools, from 1843 to 1858, containing 
 thirty-three cases of rabies, has furnished the following 
 result : — 
 
 In December, January, and February 
 „ March, April, and May 
 „ June, July, and August 
 „ September, October, and November 
 
 4 cases. 
 16 „ 
 
 2 „ 
 11 » t 
 
 At the Vienna Veterinary School in 1862, during the 
 epizooty, thirty-two rabid dogs were admitted, the first in 
 
 * "DelaRage." Paris, 1867. 
 
 t " Traite de Pathologie Veterinaire," vol. iii. p. 832.
 
 Influence of Seasoji. 
 
 97 
 
 March ; eiglit were dead on arrival, seven became furiously mad, 
 while the other seventeen were aflfected with that form known 
 as " dumb madness." The largest number of cases in a month 
 was noted in October, when there were 10. September had 
 9 ; August, 4 ; Jime, 2 ; November, 2 ; March, 4 ; April, 1 ; 
 July, 1.* 
 
 Professor Saint-Cyr's report of the Lyons Yeterinarj* School 
 for 1865 is very instructive. From October in the previous 
 year the cases of rabies admitted began to increase, and during 
 the early part of 1865 they became so numerous that the city 
 authorities, taking warning, resorted to severe measures against 
 stray dogs. For this reason the report is not so satisfactory 
 in showing us the influence of the seasons in this year, as it is 
 in testifying to the value of repressive measures. The admissions 
 are allotted as follows : — 
 
 January- 
 February 
 March 
 April . 
 May . 
 June 
 July . 
 August 
 September 
 October 
 November 
 December 
 
 
 
 Rabid. 
 
 Sus- 
 pected. 
 
 Became 
 rabid in the 
 Infirmary. 
 
 Total 
 ad- 
 mitted. 
 
 12 . 
 
 2 
 
 . 
 
 . 14 .. 
 
 
 
 14 . 
 
 4 
 
 1 . 
 
 18 .. 
 
 
 
 6 . 
 
 . 11 
 
 . . 
 
 17 .. 
 
 
 
 U . 
 
 . 20 
 
 1 . 
 
 34 .. 
 
 
 
 12 . 
 
 . 14 
 
 1 . 
 
 26 ., 
 
 
 
 6 . 
 
 . 14 
 
 1 . 
 
 20 ., 
 
 
 
 2 . 
 
 . 8 
 
 . 2 . 
 
 10 .. 
 
 
 
 7 . 
 
 . 3 
 
 2 
 
 10 .. 
 
 
 
 1 , 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 . 
 
 4 .. 
 
 
 
 3 . 
 
 1 
 
 . 
 
 4 .. 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 .. 
 
 
 
 1 . 
 
 1 . 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 Total 
 rabid. 
 
 12 
 15 
 
 G 
 15 
 13 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 78 
 
 81 
 
 15^ 
 
 87t 
 
 In 1868 the summary of admissions of rabid dogs into the 
 Lyons Veterinary School, twenty-seven in number, were tabu- 
 lated as follows : — 
 
 January . 
 
 February 
 March 
 April 
 May 
 
 2 cases. 
 4 „ 
 
 9 
 
 " >> 
 
 4 „ 
 4 „ 
 
 * " Oesterreichische Vierteljahresschrift," <S:c., 1864. 
 t Journal de Med. Vet. deLyon, 1866. 
 
 H
 
 98 
 
 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 June 
 
 July 
 
 August 
 
 September 
 
 October 
 
 November 
 
 December 
 
 1 case. 
 
 1 „ 
 
 1 „ 
 
 2 „ 
 2 „ 
 2 „ 
 
 2 .. * 
 
 Sometimes the annual statistics show a predominance of 
 cases iif the summer months, as for instance in Professor Key's 
 compte rendu for 1841-42, alluded to in our history. More 
 recently, the talented veterinarian, Professor Bouley, in a most 
 interesting communication made to the French Academy of 
 Sciences on the 4th April, 1870, gives the results of an analysis 
 of departmental repoi-ts for the six years from 1863 to 1868. 
 The reports, though it would appear they were far from 
 complete, give for the spring months, March, April, and 
 May, 89 cases ; for the siimmer, June, July, and August, 74 
 cases ; for autumn, September, October, and November, 64 
 cases ; and for the three winter months, December, January, 
 and February, 75 cases. From these figures it might be 
 inferred, as was suggested by M. Bouley, that there is not a 
 very great difference in the seasons with regard to the preva- 
 lence of rabies ; that the winter season is, in this respect, 
 about the same as the summer ; that the cases are most nu- 
 merous in the spring, and least so in the autumn ; therefore, 
 that the opinion which exempts the winter months from 
 outbreaks of the disease, and attributes them to the summer 
 season, is not in harmony with the facts displayed by these 
 returns. 
 
 According to M. Boudin, in 97 cases of hydrophobia in the 
 human subject, and which, of course, terminated in death, 25 
 occurred in March, April, and May ; 42 in June, July, and 
 August ; 13 in September, October, and November ; and 17 in 
 December, January, and February, "j* But as these were cases 
 in which the malady had been produced by inoculation, and as 
 
 * Journal de M'ed. Vet. de Lyon, 1869. 
 
 t "Traite de Geographie et de Statistique Medicales," vol. ii. p. 683.
 
 hifluence of Season. gg 
 
 the incubation of the disease would, in all probability, be 
 different in each case, we cannot place any great reliance on 
 these figures. It may be observed, however, that, allowing for 
 the incubatory period, this would carry back the infliction of 
 the injuries sustained by the forty-two summer cases to an 
 earlier period, possibly the spring, and thus support M. Bouley's 
 conclusion with regard to the preponderance of cases occurring 
 in that season. But knowing that cases of communicated rabies 
 are more common than those which may be regarded as arising 
 spontaneously, it is evident that the former cannot be looked 
 upon as influenced by the seasons ; or, at any rate, it might be 
 asked if the cases occurring in extreme seasons have not really 
 received the infection in the temperate ones, or vice versa. 
 
 However the question might be answered, it is a fact beyond 
 all dispute that hot weather does not exert any marked 
 influence in the genesis or prevalence of rabies ; for, apart 
 from the striking evidence afforded by European statistics, if 
 the disease was due to a high temperature, then we should 
 expect to find the malady much more prevalent in warm than 
 in temperate regions — to find it in South Africa and Australia, 
 for instance, countries in which its presence has not yet been 
 positively attested. 
 
 In Algeria, the disease, although occurring in every season, 
 yet appears to be most prevalent in the months when the 
 temperature is not high, as in the autumn ; and it is in the 
 winter season that* man has most to fear from suspected 
 animals, a greater number of persons being bitten by rabid 
 dogs at that season than any other. 
 
 So far, then, as observation has extended, we are led to the 
 conclusion that meteorological conditions and the different 
 seasons have but little effect in exciting or determining the 
 evolution of spontaneous rabies ; and that it is a disease which 
 may appear in any season or in any kind of weather. As 
 remarked by Professor Roll, the meteorological characters of 
 the years 1814, 1815, 1830, 1838 to 1842, and 1862 were 
 
 h2
 
 lOO Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 very different at Vienna, and yet canine rabies prevailed at 
 these periods in an epizootic form. And Professor Saint-Cyr, 
 who has devoted many years to an attentive study of the 
 malady, does not hesitate to assert that cold, heat, drought, 
 or humidity — ^in a word, all the meteorological influences, 
 whatever they may be, are absolutely without action, or at 
 least without any known and perceptible influence, on the 
 development of rabies. What confirms this opinion, he adds, is 
 the very irregular manner in which the cases observed during 
 several consecutive years are distributed. The two months of 
 1865, April and September, which are usually wet months at 
 Lyons, were in 1865 remarkably dry and warm ; so that if the 
 hygrometrical state of the atmosphere had any influence in the 
 production of the disease, these two months ought to resemble 
 each other in the number of cases they afforded. But in 
 April there were fifteen mad dogs, and in 8eptcmher only one. 
 
 The majority of veterinary observers appear to be of opinion 
 that damp, relatively warm weather seems to be the most 
 favourable to the evolution of rabies. 
 
 Influence of Hunger, Thirst, and Food. 
 
 Hunger and thirst,* and putrified food and bad water, have 
 at times been assigned as the cause of madness in dogs, but 
 with no more show of probability than attends the belief in the 
 influence of seasons and weather. In countries where the 
 disease is unfrequently seen, or quite uiiknown, dogs suffer 
 more from abstinence from food and water, and are therefore 
 much more likely to greedily ingest both, no matter how 
 putrified or unhealthy, than the canine race of milder climates. 
 "We might cite Turkey, Syria, Egypt, and Africa generally, 
 
 * " In Venice, I found the common opinion to be, that the disease is often 
 occasioned by thirst ; for which reason all barbers, shoemakers, and coffee-house 
 keepers, are obliged to have a small tub or pan of water before their doors, par- 
 ticularly in hot weather, that the dogs running about the streets may drink 
 when they want, as there are no places in that city where they can otherwise 
 supply themselves with fresh water." — Moseleij, " On Hydrophobia," p. 26.
 
 Influence of Sex. lOi 
 
 and India and Australia, as countries in which these animals 
 are much exposed to the torments of thirst and huno-er, and 
 frequently compelled, in their capacity of scavengers, to eat 
 garbage in a state of putrefaction, and imbibe water at rare 
 intervals the very opposite of pure; yet we have seen that 
 these regions do not suffer from this canine pest like those in 
 which the dog is better cared for. 
 
 Besides, unfortunate dogs have been subjected to these 
 influences experimentally, with a view to the production of 
 the disease, but without any other result than death from 
 inanition and exhaustion. Bourgelat, the celebrated founder 
 of the French Veterinary Schools, confined six dogs together, 
 and kept them without food and water until they began to 
 devour each other, and finally perished, but none of them 
 presented symptoms of rabies. This cruel experiment has 
 since been performed on an extensive scale by Dupuytren, 
 Magendie, Breschet, and others, but with negative results, so 
 far as the production of the disease was concerned. For 
 instance, at the Alfort Veterinary School, three dogs were 
 chained apart, but fully exposed to the heat and glare of the 
 sun. Salted flesh alone was given to one, only water to 
 another, and neither food nor water to the third. As might 
 have been foretold, these poor creatures died, but did not 
 exhibit any symptoms of rabies. 
 
 It should be mentioned, however, that Rossi, of Turin, 
 according to Constaatinescu, caused cats to become mad by 
 shutting them up in a room without food or water ; though 
 whether virulent rabies was produced is a matter for doubt. 
 
 K'FLUENCE OF SeX AND GENERATIVE FUNCTIONS. 
 
 The sex of the animals in which the disease has been sup- 
 posed to appear spontaneously has, according to the celebrated 
 veterinarian and inspector of the French Veterinary Schools, 
 the late M, Renault, and others of perhaps less authority, a 
 powerful influence in the production of rabies ; and it has
 
 102 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 been asserted that it is only spontaneous in the males. Nothing 
 is more unlikely, nor yet more difficult to prove. In the 
 first place, the proportion of male to female dogs is, at least in 
 this country, very great, and for the simple reason that dogs 
 are generally considered more valuable than bitches, and the 
 latter are more frequently destroyed in litters of puppies. And 
 in the next place, because it is by no means an easy matter to 
 determine between a case of spontaneous and a case of com- 
 municated rabies. 
 
 Professor Lafosse gives two instances of female dogs in 
 which rabies appeared spontaneously, to all appearance at 
 least, for they were always kept indoors, and never went out 
 except under the surveillance of their owners ; and another of 
 a female cat which never left the house of its mistress. And 
 M. Tardieu cites the case of a female cat which became mad 
 in consequence of its kittens being taken away from it ; and 
 another that was rabid from the pain caused by a large wound. 
 Besides, bitches do become rabid, though whether spon- 
 taneously or from contagion is, as we have said, difficult indeed 
 to prove ; but their number is much less than that of dogs ; and 
 if we could only arrive at the relative proportions usually 
 existing between the two sexes, we could then determine how 
 far the supposition that the disease is only generated in the 
 male is likely to be correct. 
 
 Professor Eckel, of Vienna, whose report we have already 
 alluded to, noted, in 1841, that in 141 cases of canine rabies, 
 126 were males and only 15 females, or about 8 to 1. Accord- 
 ing to the registers of the Toulovise Veterinary School from 
 1843 to 1858, 13 dogs and 2 bitches affected with rabies were 
 admitted, or 6 to 1 ; while from 1852 to 1862, the total number 
 of dogs brought to the school for examination w^as 7,806, of 
 which 5,855 were dogs, and 1,951 bitches, or a proportion of 
 about 3 to 1. 
 
 In 1863, during the epizooty at Vienna, Professor Pillwax 
 remarked that the males were more frequently affected than
 
 I7ifluence of Sex. 103 
 
 tlie females ; but lie observes that this might be accounted for 
 by the fact that in Vienna dogs are more numerous, propor- 
 tionately, than bitches. 
 
 In 1865, Professor Saint-Cyr reported, out of the 87 cases 
 admitted to the Lyons School that year, 15 bitches against 72 
 dogs, or 24 per cent. But, he asks, Does not this number 
 nearly represent the normal proportion of bitches, compared 
 with the total number of the canine population ? He refers 
 to a case of rabies occurring in an emasculated dog at the 
 school in May of the same year, as a proof that the absence of 
 viriKty does not afford exemption. 
 
 In 1868, Professor Peuch, of the same school, carefully 
 noted the sex of all dogs admitted to the hospital. From his 
 report it appears that 251 dogs and 88 bitches were treated 
 for various diseases ; while for rabies there were 20 males and 
 7 females. From this comparison, he says, it must be con- 
 cluded that the sex of the animal does not exercise any action 
 on the development of rabies 
 
 Of 8,649 dogs treated for different maladies at M. Bourrel's 
 hospital in eight years, there were 6,597 males and 2,052 • 
 females, or a proportion of 3 to 1 in males. The 6,597 males 
 furnished 344 cases of rabies, or a trifle more than 4 per 
 cent., while of thq 2,052 females, there were only 49 cases, or 
 slightly over 2 per cent. 
 
 From this it would be inferred that bitches are less liable to 
 become afiected than dogs. In Algiers, in 47 cases of rabies 
 in the dog, 37 were males and 10 females. 
 
 Professor Bouley, in the report already referred to, mentions 
 that in 320 cases of wounds inflicted on people, 284 were by 
 dogs and 26 by bitches ; and at an earlier period he foimd that 
 the registers of the Alfort school gave a list of 175 dogs and 
 only 15 bitches afiected with rabies. 
 
 There can scarcely be a doubt that bitches are as susceptible 
 to the contagion by inoculation as dogs. This is well exem- 
 plified in what occurred a few years ago to a bitch pack of
 
 I04 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 fox-hounds belonging to Mr. Standish, South Shoreham, 
 Southampton. This pack was nearly exterminated by rabies, 
 through the disease having been introduced to the kennels by 
 a hound which had strayed away for several days, and on its 
 return was discovered to have been bitten.* 
 
 It would appear, then, that the influence exercised by the 
 sex of the animal is at least doubtful, though it must be 
 admitted that more males than females suffer from the disease, 
 a fact which might be taken to support the opinion that it is 
 only spontaneous in the former. But, as we have said, this 
 disproportion may coincide with that existing between the 
 sexes ; and in any case it is most difficult to arrive at any 
 other solution of the question from the statistics already 
 furnished. To ascertain with certainty the influence of sex, 
 it would be necessary to discover the proportion existing 
 between the number of cases occurring spontaneously and 
 those due to contagion in the male and female ; as observation 
 has demonstrated that dogs in health very rarely bite the 
 opposite sex, while they are frequently wounded by the latter. 
 Perhaps, as Lafosse remarks, the physiological instincts are 
 preserved in the diseased state ; and if this be so, and if the 
 proportion of infected or transmitted cases continues to remain 
 greater with the males than the females, then we have an expla- 
 nation of the diflference in frequency between the two sexes. 
 
 In connection with this question of sex comes another which 
 has been in existence and warmly discussed for some years ; 
 this is the influence of the generative acts in producing or 
 preventing the disease. Several veterinarians and medical 
 men have held to the opinion that a predisposing cause of 
 rabies was to be found in the torments dogs experienced 
 through the abeyance in which the gratification of their 
 sexual desires was usually maintained, or the excitement and 
 irritability so frequently attendant upon attempts to satisfy 
 these desires. 
 
 * The Vcicri/iariai/, vol. xliv. p. 549.
 
 Injluence of Sex. 105 
 
 Those who hold this opinion invoke in its favour the greater 
 frequency of rabies in the civilised countries of the West than 
 in the regions where dogs have their liberty and lead a 
 vagabond life, and where the sexes are allowed to remain in 
 their natural proportion, as among the Bedouins in the desert, 
 and with the pariah dogs of the East generally. M. Desjardins, 
 for instance, has recently announced that heat and the depri- 
 vation of food and water are not likely causes in the production 
 of rabies in the dog, for in hot countries, as in Algeria and the 
 East generally, the disease is unknown among the dogs living 
 in a state of liberty without any restraint. The cause he 
 believes to be the restriction as to intercourse between the 
 sexes, and also the barbarous and ridiculous use of the muzzle. 
 ** Leave the dog at Kberty," he says, " to lead a wandering or 
 vagabond life, no matter which." During his travels in the 
 East, he questioned the old mountaineers, the inhabitants of 
 Constantinople and of Smyrna, as well as they of Upper and 
 Lower Egypt, and, notwithstanding the high temperature of 
 these regions, he learned that everywhere, with full liberty 
 and no restriction as to coupling, the malady tends to dis- 
 appear. He therefore recommends that dogs should be allowed 
 to go about at large, and be submitted only to the great 
 influence of nature, feeling satisfied that rabies would soon 
 disappear from the list of maladies.* M. Sacc, another of the 
 advocates for this hypothesis, after enumerating the principal 
 causes to which the disease is generally attributed, concludes 
 that it is produced in dogs by prolonged and enforced con- 
 tinence. In support of this, he gives the following as the most 
 convincing proof. Travelling in Hungary in 1852, he learned 
 that on both banks of the Danube there was only one breed of 
 dogs — the wolf or pariah dog {chien-loup) — and that on the 
 left, or Christian bank, there were every year some cases of 
 rabies ; while on the other, or Turkish bank, the malady was 
 unknown. He attributed this difference to the circumstance 
 
 * V Independance Scientifque ct Litteraire, 1869.
 
 1 06 Rabies a?id Hydrophobia. 
 
 that the Christians only preserved the male dogs^ while the 
 Turks allowed nearly as many females as males to live. 
 
 If this report was founded on irrefragable proofs, as La- 
 fosse observes, it ought to be seriously reflected upon before 
 being rejected. But is it very likely that it is based upon 
 facts ? If so, how comes it to pass that the dogs belonging 
 to the Christians are not driven by their desires to visit the 
 canine females on the Turkish bank ? Is there no communica- 
 tion between the two shores of the Danube ? and are the dogs 
 less capable of swimming across a river than Leander was 
 across the Hellespont ? And what is to prevent the civilised 
 dogs of the French towns in Algeria from visiting those of the 
 Arabs ? Is it not possible that when the dogs of the Euro- 
 peans or Christians become rabid, they might not sometimes 
 vent their fury on those of the nomad tribes and Turks, and 
 thus inoculate them with the death-producing \drus ? 
 
 But no reliance can be placed upon the evidence hitherto 
 produced to substantiate the above opinion. In opposition to 
 it, indeed, we have the evidence of Roucher, who states that, 
 in Algeria, the dogs wandering at large are not exempted 
 from rabies, and a large proportion of those in villages, or 
 which lead a nomadic existence, suffer from it. Thus, of 65' 
 cases of hydrophobia (in man, of course) occurring within a 
 certain period, 25 were reported from the country districts as 
 having taken place either in Arab tribes, in sparsely-populated 
 villages, or in the suburbs of important towns. And the same 
 authority, after investigating the facts collected as to the 
 frequency of rabies among various breeds of dogs in that 
 country, remarks that nearly all those living in a domestic 
 state, and which have become rabid, have generally been bitten 
 by stray dogs, and that therefore the rabific virus should have 
 another origin more general, perhaps, than domesticity. " We 
 are more disposed to place above it, and in the first line, the 
 effects of vagabondage, with the cortege of miseries accompany- 
 ing it. . . . They are the stray dogs, those which are unknown
 
 Influence of Sex. 107 
 
 and without an owner, which predominate among the rabid." 
 When we reflect that rabies is developed in wolves and foxes, 
 animals which live in a wild state, and are not thwarted in 
 their generative desires, we may suspect that prolonged con- 
 tinence has but little, if anything, to do with the development 
 of madness. Other domestic animals, as the ass and horse, are 
 in some countries, particularly the East, frequently kept in an 
 entire state during their lives, without being permitted to 
 exercise their procreative faculties, and yet no disease simu- 
 lating rabies appears in them in consequence of this compulsory 
 abstention. But, it has been contended by others, if the actual 
 enforced abstinence from sexual intercourse does not develop 
 rabies, the jealousy, excitement, irritation, and anger among 
 dogs, consequent on several competing for the same female, is 
 sufficient to, and even does, occasion the appearance of rabies 
 in them ; and the exemption of the bitch from these influences 
 is, in all probability, the reason why she is so seldom afiected 
 with the disease. The incessant competition, the extreme 
 excitement, and the savage fights among amorous dogs in 
 pursuit of a female in rut, have been decided upon as sufficient 
 to predispose them to madness ; and it has even been believed 
 that their bites, when disputing for the possession of a bitch 
 during the rutting season, will engender rabies. Several 
 occurrences have also been brought forward to support the 
 opinion, the most striking of which are to be found in a 
 memoir on canine madness which L. Toffbli, of Bassano, 
 published in 1840. It was these occurrences which led this 
 author to believe that Vamour contrarie might give rise to 
 spontaneous rabies. At Compese, a little village some miles 
 from Bassano, there was a mongrel bitch which showed signs 
 of rut, and a multitude of admirers attended upon her, as is 
 usually the case. Among them was one, a surly mongrel, 
 which, extremely enamoured and jealous, always hung, about 
 her, and closely followed upon her steps. But as this dog was 
 driven away and maltreated by his more vigorous rivals, he
 
 1 08 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 always failed in his attempts to gain lier aj5ections ; neverthe- 
 less, he continued day and night to brave all danger and 
 withstand all worrying, until at last, discouraged and peevish, 
 he withdrew from the contest. Then he exhibited a new 
 phase in his character, by biting a cat which previously had 
 been his playfellow ; afterwards he attacked every dog he 
 met, particularly those who had been his rivals, and wounded 
 them all more or less, no matter how strong and ferocious 
 they might be. Finally, he cruelly injured a child, and would 
 no doubt have resorted to other dangerous performances had 
 he not been promptly killed. On hearing of this circumstance, 
 TofFoli carefully investigated the matter, and gathered all the 
 information he could, the result being that he was convinced 
 the dog had become affected with primary or spontaneous 
 rabies through the influence of the above-cited causes, without 
 any other dog having communicated the malady by wounding 
 him. But he was not quite satisfied with this solitary 
 instance, as to others it might appear to offer insufficient 
 evidence. So he associated himself with an old sportsman 
 who had passed fifty years of his life among numerous packs 
 of hounds, and with this man he retired to a country house, 
 away from all traffic and people, in order to conduct his experi- 
 ments and carry out his investigations, so as to put the subject 
 beyond the reach of a doubt. 
 
 For example, he got a bitch in rut and put beside her a 
 dog which she did not know and did not care for. He excited 
 the dog to the utmost degree, but would not allow him to go 
 near the bitch, and yet there was no sign of rabies. It was 
 not the same, however, when several dogs were admitted to 
 the place where the female was kept. The same exciting 
 competition commenced as in ordinary cases, accompanied by 
 the same maddening jealousy and fierce combats, and eventually 
 the dog first introduced became rabid. 
 
 The results obtained in this way by Toffoli were so constant 
 and decisive, that he was perfectly convinced as to the effect
 
 hifluence of Sex. 109 
 
 of jealousy and rage, conjoined with a powerful sexual desire, 
 in producing a rabid condition.* 
 
 These experiments do not appear to have been repeated by 
 any other observer, and it must be confessed that they 
 require repetition before being received as worthy of depend- 
 ence, for the reason that daily observation invalidates the 
 results which might be derived from them to uphold such an 
 hypothesis as that now under examination. True, one or two 
 casual observations have certainly been recorded in favour of 
 it, and these are worth noticing here. 
 
 A cross-bred spaniel, aged five and a-half months, was 
 brought to the infirmary of M. Leblanc, the eminent veteri- 
 nary surgeon in Paris, on the 18th October, 1863. This 
 animal ofiered all the symptoms of rabies ; the eyes were 
 sparkling and fixed, bark hoarse and broken, and it had a 
 tendency to fly at everything put before it, as well as gnawing 
 the wood of its kennel, &c. The owner, a watchmaker, de- 
 clared that he had bred the dog, and that since its birth it had 
 not left its mother. It never went out, and it was naturally 
 very quiet. Towards the commencement of the month, the 
 mother showed signs of rutting, and the young dog, excited 
 by the odour, made unsuccessful attempts to approach her. Its 
 ardour was extreme, its agitation incessant, and its appetite 
 became almost null. On the 14th, the owner's daughter, 
 wishing to play with it, was slightly bitten. On the 16th, 
 the bitch, fatigued no doubt by the caresses and tentatives 
 of the dog, drove it ofi" by biting it, and it then escaped from 
 the house in the evening, and did not make its appearance 
 until the middle of the next day. Then it was ofiered some 
 milk, which it lapped up with avidity, and went to sleep imtil 
 the evening, "When one of the workmen went to light the 
 gas in the shop, the dog wakened up from its torpor and flew 
 at the man, trying to bite his heel, which it did not succeed in 
 doing, leaving only a red mark on the skin. Next day it 
 
 * Journal Veterinaire de Bel(/iqite, 1843.
 
 1 1 o Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 was taken to M. Leblanc's establistiment, when his son at once 
 recognised the presence of a rabid animal among his patients 
 by the characteristic howling only. During the three suc- 
 ceeding days it refused all kinds of food ; on the 21st it was 
 paralysed, and died on the morning of the 22nd. Immediately 
 afterwards, an examination was made of the body. The blood 
 was black in all the vessels, and the liver, kidneys, and heart 
 were gorged, but there were no lesions in the larynx or trachea. 
 Straw and the dehru of wood were found in the stomach ; the 
 lining membrane of the intestines had red patches here and 
 there, and the bladder was empty.* 
 
 M. Weber, another Parisian veterinary surgeon, relates a 
 similar case in favour of the spontaneous origin of the disease 
 from this undue excitement of the venereal organism. The 
 dog which subsequently became rabid was so valuable that it 
 was not allowed to stray, but was kept in a loose box in a 
 stable. In the adjoining box was a bitch in rut, and the 
 effluvia from her caused the most ardent generic excitation in 
 the neighbouring animal. For nearly fifteen days this unfor- 
 tunate creature, condemned to such tantalising proximity, 
 manifested the utmost agitation, and continued making as high 
 jumps as it could to get over the partition that separated it 
 from the object of its desires ; but its aspirations, like its 
 eflPorts, were not successful. Fifteen days afterwards this dog 
 became furiously rabid, and its owner affirmed that it had never 
 been bitten, f 
 
 But it must be evident that more facts of this kind are 
 required before any satisfactory conclusion can be arrived at. 
 In the meantime, it would be well to decide that it is not 
 improbable that there may be some foundation for the supposi- 
 tion that intense sexual excitement may produce rabies, though 
 at present there are only probabilities in favour of it. 
 
 * It must be mentioned that M. Decroix made inquiries into the history of this 
 case of so-called " spontaneous rabies," and afterwards announced that M. Leblanc 
 had not been told the correct version. (See the Aheille Medicale, 1863, p. 358.) 
 
 •j- Boulej', " Bulletin de I'Academie Imperiale de Medecine," 18C3-G4, p. 92.
 
 hifiitence of Aiiger. 
 
 1 1 1 
 
 There is another point of view which must be taken into con- 
 sideration in discussing the question as to the origin of rabies 
 from this cause. This is the relation the periods of rutting 
 bear to the periods when the disease is most prevalent. 
 
 The dog-bitch is usually in rut in February and August, and 
 if procreation does not take place it is sometimes renewed three 
 months later — in May and November. Of course in domes- 
 ticity there are exceptions to this rule. 
 
 The cat usually ruts in spring and autunm, but in this 
 animal also a domestic condition sometimes produces deviations 
 from the general law. 
 
 The female fox commences to be in rut about January and 
 February ; and the she wolf, when aged, towards the end of 
 December and in January ; younger animals are so in February 
 and the beginning of March. 
 
 If the production of rabies was at all connected with this 
 condition of the generative system, then we might expect the 
 malady would be only prevalent at the periods when rutting is 
 general ; whereas, we find that it is observed at all seasons. If 
 the foregoing causes are capable of engendering rabies, we 
 shovdd observe most cases of that disease in February and 
 August, allowing for the period of incubation ; but, according 
 to the statistics, these months do not furnish the most numerous 
 cases. Indeed, if the causes enumerated were at all influential 
 in producing the disease, we should not only have it much more 
 frequently than it now is, but it would be common in countries 
 where it is at present rare, or never witnessed. 
 
 Influence of Anger. 
 
 The same may be said with regard to the effect of bites 
 inflicted by angry dogs during the rutting or any other season, 
 or caused by other creatures. The Abbe Hozier, in his Dic- 
 tionary, mentions a man who became mad through having 
 bitten himself in a fit of rage ; a case is also recorded in which 
 a soldier became rabid in consequence of bites inflicted by a
 
 1 1 2 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 comrade ; and Pelletier, of Mans, reports the case of a woman 
 who contracted the disease through having been bitten in the 
 breast by the child she was nursing. Dr. Camille Gros has 
 recorded a case that occurred in the clinique of M. Tardieu at 
 the Lariboisiere Hospital, which would tend to prove, if accu- 
 rately recorded, that the bite of an angry dog is dangerous. 
 " An individual was bitten by an angry — but not rabid — dog. 
 The wound was washed with clean water and spirits of camphor, 
 and it healed in ten days. Afterwards he became ill, symptoms 
 of hydrophobia manifested themselves, he was brought to the 
 hospital, and died in four days ; at the autopsy the lesions 
 observed in hydrophobic patients were found. The premonitory 
 symptoms and the progress and duration of the malady, 
 were the same as with them." From this fact, this author 
 imagined that the bite of an irritated dog, or one in rut, might 
 become momentarily virulent and cause rabies.* 
 
 But surely if the bite given in anger by man or animals not 
 rabid had such an influence, cases of hydrophobia and rabies 
 would be quite every-day events. Cur and other dogs are 
 continually biting each other all over the world ; and whoever 
 has struggled, as I have, to sleep through the night in a 
 Turkish locality — Scutari, for instance — in Damascus, in 
 Cairo, or in one of the main thoroughfares of a North China 
 town, such as Tientsin, will be ready to testify that sanguinary 
 battles among the half- starved and mangy canine scavengers 
 are matters of at least hourly occurrence. Besides, in this 
 country, so far as our observation has extended, dogs kept 
 purposely for fighting — the notorious bulldogs — are those least 
 frequently affected with rabies. 
 
 Certain it is, that nothing can be more erroneous or terrify- 
 ing than the assertion that rabies may be induced by the 
 bite of a healthy animal ; and it must be strenuously denied 
 that such a result is possible. No wound, injury, or bite from 
 a healthy dog will produce the specific disease we term rabies. 
 
 * Camille Gros, " These sur la Rage." Paris, I860.
 
 Influence of Pain. i \ 3 
 
 Of the abundant proofs we might bring forward to support this 
 assertion, we need only quote what Professor Pillwax of Vienna 
 has adduced against the alarming statement. In 1862, when 
 rabies ajDpeared as an epizooty at Vienna, 552 dogs were 
 brought for examination to the Veterinary Institute, and all 
 these, with the exception of 32, were found to be free from this 
 disease ; among the remaining 490 were only a few cases of 
 mange and e]3ilepsy. Yet the official report stated that the 
 majority of these dogs had bitten people, and, notwithstanding, 
 not one of those who had been wounded by the 490 non-rabid 
 dogs died of hydi'ophobia. Only one individual — a boy — who 
 had been bitten in the face by a dog suffering from paroxysms 
 of rabies, was attacked by the disease on the twenty-fourth 
 day, and died in three days, " Since the year 1848," says the 
 Professor, " during which period I have had the examination 
 of suspected and really rabid animals, 300 and 400 dogs have 
 been annually brought to the Veteriuary Institute because they 
 had bitten people. Until the state of their health had been ascer- 
 tained, they were looked upon as suspicious by the authorities. 
 Although the number of these non-rabid animals amounts to 
 more than 5,000, yet not one of the persons so injured by them 
 has had hydrophobia. If the bite of a non-rabid dog is 
 capable of inducing hydrophobia, surely a large number of 
 these people must have been affected and have perished." 
 
 Influence of Pain. 
 
 By some writers, extreme pain has been mentioned as likely 
 to produce .madness, and instances are given in which dogs 
 have become rabid, apparently through intense suffering. One 
 of the most striking of these is given by Eck, a veterinary 
 surgeon at Berent. A dog had been castrated by some cruel 
 boys, who used a bad knife and caused the animal great torture. 
 Soon after the mutilation, the poor dog found its way home, 
 and retired to a corner of the house, refusing all kinds of food. 
 Some time afterwards, it came out of its retreat, obedient to 
 
 I
 
 1 14 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 the voice of its master, thougli it would not permit him to seize 
 it ; on the contrary, it was irritable and morose, threatening to 
 bite the farm people it had previously been very fond of. It 
 took refuge in a corner of the stable, from whence it issued 
 the following day to bite some cattle, and could not be driven 
 off by its master's voice nor threatenings with a stick. It 
 escaped through a hedge, again bit some cattle it met in the 
 village, and disappeared. Some time afterwards, the owner of 
 the dog, returning from the market with two horses, was 
 astonished to observe that in a very short time one of them had 
 become very emaciated, and that it indulged in all kinds of dis- 
 orderly movements, jumping about and kicking as it had never 
 done before. The same evening, this horse was being led about, 
 when it escaped and seized a goose, which it crushed with its 
 teeth. Eventually this horse died mad. Some days subse- 
 quently, the other animals bitten by the dog became ill, and 
 died exhibiting symptoms which left no doubt as to the nature 
 of their disease ; and the neighbouring cattle also suffered. M. 
 Eck saw the horse and five cattle succumb to rabies, communi- 
 cated to them by the maltreated dog, which he had every 
 reason to believe became affected with spontaneous rabies in 
 consequence of the pain it experienced.* 
 
 But may not this tortured dog have been bitten by a rabid 
 animal previous to the mutilation ? Tardieu alludes, in one of 
 the reports of the Comite Consultatif d' Hygiene, to the case of 
 a cat that became rabid in consequence, it appeared, of a large 
 wound. If pain could produce rabies, surely the disease would 
 be much more prevalent. Serious operations are sometimes 
 performed on dogs, and it is the animal, perhaps, of all others, 
 which is preferred for experiments — often of a teriibly cruel 
 character — ^by the vivisector and experimentalist. Cropping 
 the ears is also atrociously painful, and yet from these causes 
 we have never heard of a case of madness — real rabies — 
 produced. 
 
 * Magazin fiir Thierheilkunde, I860.
 
 Injiue7ice of Breed, 1 1 5 
 
 Influence of Breed. 
 
 Rabies may be said to attack all breeds of dogs indiscrimi- 
 nately, though but little attention has yet been paid to the 
 class of animal in which it appears most frequently. Some 
 writers have averred that small EngKsh dogs, spaniels, poodles, 
 terriers, Pomeranian, and other dogs — in fact, all those of an 
 irritable temperament, and which usually appear surly or 
 vicious — are more particularly predisposed to contract the 
 malady spontaneously.* 
 
 In the epizooty in Vienna, during 1841, Professor Eckel, in 
 141 cases of canine rabies, estabhshed the following per cent- 
 age : — 
 
 Mongrels of all kinds 53^ 
 
 Small English breed 12J 
 
 Foxhounds 6^ 
 
 Poodles ........ 5 
 
 Pomeranian dogs ...... 2? 
 
 Danish dogs and Pointers . . . . 2f 
 
 Pugs and Bassets, or Turnspits . . . 2f 
 
 Mastiffs If 
 
 Hounds, Sheep-dogs Of 
 
 This veterinarian remarked, in reference to the above pro- 
 portions, that the total number of each breed could not be 
 ascertained ; so that no definite conclusion can be arrived from 
 his statistics. Nevertheless he was of opinion, that whatever 
 the breed might be, the dogs de luxe kept in apartments, 
 petted and abundantly fed, and whose venereal aj)petites were 
 incompletely or never gratified, were the dogs most liable to 
 rabies. 
 
 Professor Pillwax, in the epizooty in the same city in 1862, 
 corroborates Eckel to some extent by stating that the majority 
 of the rabid dogs in that year were mongrels, or belonged to 
 irritable and nervous breeds, or else were dogs which, having 
 
 * " Among dogs, such as are noted to be most apt to become mad are 
 s-wiftest of foot, fullest of agility in body, leanest of constitution, and in colour 
 red or blacke." — Spackman, "A Declaration of such grievous Accidents as com- 
 monly follow the l}itting of Mad Dogges" (London, 1613), p. 32, 
 
 i2
 
 1 1 6 Rabies and Hydt^ophobia. 
 
 been kept all their lives chained up, had become very vicious. 
 He also observes that, as in 1841, the largest number so 
 affected belonged to people who were in tolerable circum- 
 stances, and the animals themselves had been well fed and 
 carefully preserved from the weather, but insufficiently exer- 
 cised, and seldom allowed to gratify their sexual propensities. 
 
 Hertwig is also of opinion that dogs kept only for luxury 
 are the most dangerous. 
 
 Professor Saint-Cyr's observations do not substantiate those 
 
 of Eckel and Pillwax. In 54 cases of rabies in 1864 he found 
 
 the following proportions : — 
 
 1. Sporting Dogs. 
 
 Hounds 3 
 
 Pointers and Spaniels 16 
 
 19 or 35 per cent. 
 2. Watch Dogs. 
 
 Pomeranian dogs 12 
 
 Mastiffs 6 
 
 Bulldogs and House-dogs ... 4 
 Newfoundland dogs 3 
 
 25 or 46-20 per cent. 
 
 Mongrels ....... 4 
 
 "Moutons" 2 
 
 Terrier 1 
 
 King Charles Spaniel 1 
 
 Greyhound ....... 1 
 
 Pug J. 
 
 10 or 18-80 per cent. 
 
 According to this table, says the author, it is the dogs which 
 
 lead the least sedentary lives that are most frequently diseased. 
 
 And the report he furnishes for the next year again bears out 
 
 his opinion. In 87 cases of rabies, the breeds are enumerated 
 
 as follows : — 
 
 Pugs 7 
 
 Pomeranians 22 
 
 Hounds 4 
 
 Pointers 20 
 
 Mastiffs and Newfoundland dogs ... 9 
 
 House-dogs and BuUdogs ..... 6 
 
 King Charles dogs 8 ,
 
 hifluence of Breed. 
 
 117 
 
 Poodles 
 
 Greyhounds 
 
 "Moutons" 
 
 7 
 2 
 2 
 
 87 
 
 And in 1868, in the same city (Lyons), Professor Peuch's 
 observations still further confirm those of Saint-Cyr. In 27 
 cases there were : — 
 
 Bulldogs, Newfoundland dogs, and Mastiffs 
 
 Pugs 
 
 Pointers 
 
 Pomeranian dogs 
 
 Poodle 
 
 8 
 7 
 7 
 4 
 1 
 
 27 
 
 In the 393 cases quoted by M. Bourrel, of Paris, we find the 
 difierent breeds of dogs yield the following proportions : — 
 
 Breed. 
 
 Males. 
 
 Females. 
 
 Totals 
 
 Mongrels 
 
 102 
 
 8 
 
 110 
 
 Pomeranians . 
 
 76 
 
 8 
 
 84 
 
 Terriers . 
 
 61 
 
 16 
 
 77 
 
 Sporting-dogs . 
 
 47 
 
 8 
 
 55 
 
 Griffons, or Poodles . 
 
 19 
 
 6 
 
 25 
 
 Spaniels (small breed) 
 
 22 
 
 2 
 
 24 
 
 Water-Spaniels 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 Newfoundlands 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 Greyhounds 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 Half-bred Pugs 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 Lap-dogs . 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 Danish dogs 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 344 49 393 
 
 Roucher has collected a list of the animals reported in 
 Algeria whose bites were followed by death from rabies, which 
 died of the disease, or were bitten by rabid creatures. He 
 classifies them as follows : — 
 
 Dogs 70 
 
 Horses 
 
 Cats . 
 
 Mules . 
 
 Calves 
 
 Goat . 
 
 Jackal 
 
 Small wild animal 
 
 Species unknown 
 
 7 
 4 
 2 
 2 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 3 
 
 91
 
 ii8 
 
 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 The number of dogs he afterwards estimated to be about 
 100 ; but the 70 he allotted in the following proportions, 
 according to breed and regime : — 
 
 Dogs belonging to European owners 
 
 „ „ Arab tribes 
 
 Stray European dogs . 3 - 
 Arab dogs . . .8 
 Unknown breeds . .4] 
 Dogs not known, or whose regime was not re- 
 ported . . . . . . 
 
 i! 
 
 20 
 3 
 
 16 
 
 32 
 
 There was reason to believe that the majority of those which 
 were not seen, or whose manner of living was not known, 
 belonged to the category of stray dogs, among which there 
 was certain to be a good proportion of the Arab breed. A small 
 wild animal, supposed to be a ratel or ferret, was the cause of 
 rabies in one case. 
 
 In this country we have no statistics to refer to, but from 
 casual reports and notices it might be concluded that dogs at 
 large and dogs in confinement are alike susceptible to the 
 malady, and that no particular breed sufiers more than another. 
 
 Influence of Age. 
 
 Age has been considered by several authorities as influencing 
 to some extent the production of rabies ; and, as usual, the 
 majority of the Continental observers have not failed to note 
 this particular also. We will only refer to a few of these. 
 
 Eckel, in 1841, found that the adult age appeared to be the 
 most favourable for the development of rabies ; and Pillwax, 
 in 1862, made a similar observation. Saint-Cyr, in 52 cases, 
 reported the ages to be as follows : — 
 
 Less than 6 months 
 From 6 months to a year 
 
 1 to 2 years 
 
 2 to 3 „ . 
 
 3 to 4 „ . 
 
 4 to 5 „ . 
 
 5 to 6 „ . 
 
 6 to 7 „ . 
 
 7 to 8 „ . 
 
 1 
 5 
 12 
 8 
 5 
 
 
 
 5 
 1 
 1
 
 Influence of Age, 
 
 119 
 
 From 8 to 9 „ .2 
 
 „ 9 to 10 „ 
 „ 10 to 11 „ 
 Age unknown 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 62 
 
 In 1865 the ages of the rabid dogs admitted to his clinique 
 were in 87 cases — 
 
 Less than 6 months 6 
 
 From 6 months to a year 7 
 
 1 to 2 years 
 
 2 to 3 „ . 
 
 3 to 4 „ . 
 
 4 to 5 „ . 
 
 5 to 6 „ . 
 
 6 to 7 „ . 
 
 7 to 8 „ . 
 
 8 to 9 „ . 
 
 9 to 10 „ . 
 
 10 to 11 „ . 
 
 11 to 12 „ . 
 
 12 to 13 „ , 
 
 12 
 11 
 8 
 9 
 4 
 10 
 I 
 3 
 3 
 
 
 1 
 
 Unknown age ....... 12 
 
 87 
 
 From these tables we might conclude that young and adult 
 dogs — that is, animals aged from one to seven years — are 
 most frequently attacked by rabies. 
 
 Peuch, in the 27 cases already alluded to, found the following 
 to be the ages : — 
 
 1 dog . 
 
 aged 7 months. 
 
 5 dogs 
 
 „ 15 to 20 months. 
 
 6 „ 
 
 „ 2 to 3 years. 
 
 9 „ 
 
 „ 4 too „ 
 
 3 „ 
 
 „ 6 to 7 „ 
 
 1 dog . 
 
 „ 8 to 9 „ 
 
 2 dogs 
 
 age unknown. 
 
 Out of 8,639 dogs admitted to the Canine Hospital of Paris, 
 which is under the direction of M. Bourrel, in the period 
 from 1859 to 1866, no fewer than 393 were rabid, or rather 
 more than 4 per cent. This high rate M. Bourrel attri- 
 buted chiefly to the influence of agglomeration. At any rate, 
 it will be seen that his large field for observation gave him an
 
 I20 
 
 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 excellent opportunity of noting several features in the disease 
 which does not fall to the lot of many. 
 
 "With regard to age and sex in the early months of the 
 dog's life, he gives the following proportion as suffering from 
 rabies : — 
 
 Males 
 
 Females.. - 
 
 Totals ... 
 
 Months. 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 Total. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 1 
 
 A 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 3 
 1 
 
 8 
 1 
 
 1 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 26 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 31 
 
 One year and upwards. 
 
 Males 
 
 Females... 
 
 Totals ... 
 
 Years. 
 
 1 
 
 42 
 3 
 
 45 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 36 
 
 8 
 
 5 
 
 40 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 32 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 16 
 3 
 
 8 9 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 15 
 
 Totals. 
 
 6453 
 11' 7 
 
 1 
 
 12 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 318 
 44 
 
 7560 
 
 44 
 
 44 
 
 36 
 
 19 
 
 13 
 
 7 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 362 
 
 From these figures it will be seen that from the earliest up 
 to the latest period of its life the dog is liable to rabies ; but 
 that from one to seven years it would af)pear to be most suscep- 
 tible to the invasion or generation of the malady. 
 
 Thus far, then, we have examined some of the causes which 
 have been supposed by various writers, and often accepted by 
 the public, to be concerned in predisposing to, or exciting the 
 direct development of, canine rabies, and in none of them have 
 we found a satisfactory solution of the problem. Few veteri- 
 narians now deny, in an absolute manner, the spontaneous 
 generation of the malady ; yet none can assign its genesis to 
 any specific cause. It is a malady mi generis, but how it is 
 primarily induced we must confess we know not. It certainly 
 appears to be on the increase in the great centres of civilisation 
 in Europe, and its development would seem to coincide, as has 
 justly been remarked by Professor Roll, with the degree of
 
 Contacrmi. \ 2 1 
 
 i> 
 
 domestication and over-refinement, or "softness," of the dog; the 
 regime to which it is usually submitted being directly opposed 
 to the conditions which nature provides for the existence of 
 carnivorous animals. 
 
 But it must not be forgotten that the disease has existed 
 from the earliest times, and that creatures not subjected to the 
 refining, enervating, and, in many respects, unnatural process 
 of domestication — the fox and wolf, for examjjle — are capable, 
 we have every reason to believe, of develoj)ing the pest, and 
 oftentimes in a particularly severe form. 
 
 In vi€W of the obscurity which prevails Avith regard to the 
 genesis of rabies, and the inefiiciency of the various causes 
 which have, from time to time, been brought forward to accoimt 
 for its appearance otherwise than through the mediimi of a 
 contagious element, we are almost forced to accept the conclu- 
 sion that there exists a special miasm capable of provoking the 
 disease when acting on animals naturally irritable or vicious, 
 or in a morbid condition. Or we might conclude that the 
 spontaneous disease depends upon several causes in combina- 
 tion, which, in the dog at least, act upon the stomach, air- 
 passages, and nervous system ; though what they are, or how 
 they operate, we must confess we know not, and in this respect 
 we find ourselves in the same difficulty with regard to rabies as 
 we are with so many other equally serious diseases of man and 
 beast. 
 
 Contagion. 
 
 If there have been grave doubts among some comparative 
 pathologists as to the spontaneous development of rabies, there 
 have never been any entertained by the most competent authori- 
 ties as to the contagiousness of the disease when once it is present 
 in an animal. Since the days of Aristotle and Celsus, this 
 important fact has been recognised ; and it is now fully esta- 
 blished that it is the only evident, efiicient, and incontestable 
 cause in effecting the production of the disease in other crea- 
 tures of the same or different species than those immediately
 
 122 Rabies afid Hydrophobia. 
 
 affected. Indeed, as has been already mentioned, several 
 veterinarians of the highest reputation have given it as their 
 settled conviction that the disease is maintained and spread 
 solely by its contagious element, and that there is no other 
 cause in operation. And certainly, when we begin to inquire 
 into the subtle nature of the infecting element, the character 
 of the animals in which it is elaborated, and the peculiar 
 tendency they have to wander away when affected by rabies — 
 a rabid dog sometimes travelling many miles from its home, 
 and wounding nearly every creature it meets, without its course 
 being always clearly tracked, or the number of its victims 
 accurately noted, or even discovered — we must admit that what 
 would in many instances be designated spontaneous rabies in 
 the inferior creatures might only turn out, on rigid inquiry, to 
 be cases of inoculation by the bites of dogs strangers to the 
 district. In this respect we are quite willing to coincide with 
 those veterinary authorities who assert that, in the immense 
 majority of cases, the malady is the result of inoculation by 
 animals affected with the disease. Bouley was so convinced of 
 this fact, that he believed that nine hundred and ninety-nine 
 cases in every thousand were due to contagion. 
 
 Vitality of the Virus. 
 
 This "contagium" or deleterious principle is present at 
 the commencement of the malady, and continues to be formed 
 imtil the termination of life ; but it has been determined that 
 it does not preserve its potency long after that event — observa- 
 tions and experiments having proved that the disease is not 
 transmissible to man, mammifers, or birds by the usual media 
 at a later period than twenty -four hours after the death of the 
 rabid animal, or after the cadaveric rigidity {I'igor mortis) has 
 completely invaded the dead body. According to Hertwig, the 
 infecting principle loses its potency within from twenty -four to 
 forty-eight hours — when the body is quite cold and rigid — in 
 the flesh and blood of dogs that have died rabid ; but the
 
 Nature of Virus. 123 
 
 period 18 longer in large animals. Eckel inoculated the blood 
 of a man who had died from hydrophobia, two days after 
 decease, but with a negative result. He experimented on a 
 large scale with the saliva and blood of rabid dogs which had 
 been dead for more than twenty-four hours, but could not 
 produce the disease. And we must not forget to notice the 
 remarkable case of a pupil at the Veterinary School of Copen- 
 hagen, who, in examining the body of a dog that had died mad 
 the previous evening, cut his finger slightly. This inoculated 
 him with the virus, and he died of hydrophobia in six weeks.* 
 
 Little reliance can be placed upon the statements concerning 
 the fatal inoculations occurring a long time after the death of 
 the diseased creature, and Haubner says that there is no proof 
 with regard to the virulency of dried saliva. f 
 
 Nature of the Virus. 
 
 We know nothing as to the intimate nature or composition 
 of this animal poison, except that it is organic matter in a 
 peculiar condition, capable of reproduction when transferred to 
 other creatures, and producing specific effects in them resem- 
 bling those developed in the animal from which it was origin- 
 ally derived ; and we can only judge as to its presence and 
 virulency by the results it produces when introduced into the 
 blood of previously healthy animals. 
 
 This specific principle is what is technically designated a 
 "fixed virus," in contradistinction to some other animal 
 contagions which are termed " volatile," from their capability 
 of being transmitted through the medium of the air, breath, &c., 
 surrounding infected creatures. The infecting element in 
 rabies may, nevertheless, be volatile, though nearly all obser- 
 
 * Hertwig, " Jahresbuch," 1859, p. 60. 
 
 t iSome experiments perfonned by Count Salm would seem to negative this 
 statement. He inoculated animals with the dried saliva of a rabid dog, and m 
 this way produced rabies in them. Whether the saliva was more than twenty- 
 four hours old is not stated ; and I am not a;vare that the experiments have been 
 repeated.
 
 124 ■ Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 vation, and certainly all experiment, go to prove it "fixed." 
 Further observation, however, is required before this important 
 question in the etiology of the disease can be determined, as it 
 has been quite recently stated that the hunting dogs of the 
 Albrighton pack received the infection by smelling through 
 the yard railings at the young hounds which were suffering 
 from rabies. And other instances of presumed volatile infection 
 might be adduced, but some of these will be referred to here- 
 after. 
 
 The Saliva. 
 
 The vehicles in which the poison is conveyed are various. 
 From the earliest times the saliva, or mucus from the mouth, 
 has justly been considered as the medium par excellence, and 
 there can be no doubt whatever as to its being the agent of 
 transmission in nearly every case of communicated rabies. But 
 nothing has been discovered in the morbid saliva or foam from 
 the mouth of the mad dog to account for its poisonous pro- 
 perties ; it is the same clear ropy fluid in the rabid as in the 
 healthy animal, and the microscopist seeks in vain for the 
 secret of its death-bringing power ;* neither can the chemist 
 trace any alteration in the quantity or quality of its con- 
 stituents, or distinguish the presence of any new or imusual 
 element. Perhaps the disease germs are transferred from the 
 blood to this fluid. The hypothesis that certain ferments — an 
 improper term — may be developed in great abimdance in the 
 saliva under the influence of psychical disturbance, would 
 account for those instances in which rabies shows itself in dogs 
 bitten by others which are excited or furious by sexual desire, 
 though themselves healthy. 
 
 * M. Boucher, of Ville-Jossy, believing with TroUiet, Fereal, and Villerme, 
 that the bronchial mucus contains the virulent element, says : " Nevertheless, 
 at the autopsy of a person who had died of rabies, the salivary glands were 
 examined by Ordonez, and in the saliva found in them were observed crystalline 
 elements {elements cristallins) which this able micrographist had never before met 
 with in these glands." — L Union Medicate, 1869.
 
 The Blood. 1 2 5 
 
 Until within a comparatively recent period it does not appear 
 to have been suggested whether other products of secretion or 
 excretion might not also contain it, and up to the present time 
 some important points connected with this question have not 
 yet been solved. 
 
 The Blood. 
 
 With regard to the blood as an infecting agent, we have the 
 interesting experiments of Professor Eckel, of Vienna, under- 
 taken in 1841. With the yet warm blood obtained from a 
 he-goat affected with rabies, he inoculated a sheep at the nose, 
 lip, and tail. Twenty-five days afterwards this sheep became 
 imwell, and it died on the twenty-eighth day, having exhibited 
 symptoms which were certainly not exactly those of rabies, 
 and yet had no analogy to those of any other known malady. 
 ISTothing was found after death to account for this result. 
 
 Eckel also inoculated the head and ears of a dog with the 
 saliva of a hog which had become mad from the bite of a rabid 
 dog. Four months afterwards the subject of the experiment 
 was still healthy ; it was then re-inoculated with the blood of 
 a locksmith who was affected with hydrophobia. On the sixty- 
 second day subsequent to the second inoculation, the dog was 
 seized with immistakable rabies and died. 
 
 The circumstance must not be overlooked, in appreciating 
 these results, that at the. time the experiments were performed, 
 rabies was prevalent as an epizooty in Vienna. 
 
 Lafosse inoculated three dogs with blood from as many 
 animals of the same species affected with confirmed rabies. 
 Only one of these inoculated dogs died, after presenting 
 symptoms which this able veterinarian could not ascribe to 
 any known disease, but which he thought belonged to that 
 form of rabies which the French have named rage tranquiUe. 
 No lesion was observed on a 2^ost mortem examination which 
 would account for death taking place.* 
 
 * "Traite de Pathologie.Veterinaire," vol. iii. p. 841.
 
 126 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 The experiments of Breschet, Magendie, and Dupuytren are 
 opposed in their results to those of Eckel and Lafosse, they 
 having transferred the blood of rabid animals into healthy ones 
 without producing the malady. And Hertwig gave the blood 
 and saliva of rabid animals to healthy dogs with no definite 
 result. Nevertheless, as Lafosse has well observed, there exists 
 strong presumptive evidence that the blood in rabies, as in 
 several other contagious diseases, is impregnated with the 
 virus. And Eckel, EoU, Haubner, and other distinguished 
 veterinarians, are decidedly of opinion that the virus of the 
 disease is present in the blood, flesh, and other blood-containing 
 tissues and organs, and appears in them with the outbreak of the 
 malady. Consequently, it is as presumable that fresh flesh, 
 soaked in blood, might also produce rabies if brought into 
 contact with other absorbing surfaces than those of the 
 digestive organs ; and perhaps even the latter may be im.able 
 always to destroy the virus supposed to be contained in this 
 medium. The recent experiments of the distinguished veteri- 
 narian of Lyons, Professor Chauveau, have incontestably 
 proved that the virus of a contagious malady may be absorbed 
 by the digestive organs. Conducted with all the care and 
 sagacity that marks the researches of this able physiologist, there 
 is every reason to place entire confidence in these experiments, 
 opposed though they are in their results to those of Renault 
 and Roche Lubin. The subject is one of much moment as 
 affecting health, animals used for food being liable to the 
 disease, and are therefore not unlikely to find their way into 
 the butcher's stall. 
 
 The Flesh. 
 
 This, of course, leads to the question. Whether the flesh of 
 creatures which have died of rabies or been killed while afiected 
 with it, can communicate the malady ? It is to be regretted 
 that the facts upon which the solution of this serious problem 
 in veterinary sanitary police depend should be more or less
 
 The Flesh. 127 
 
 contradictory; but it nevertheless appears Hhat a large pre- 
 ponderance of evidence of a very trustworthy kind affirms the 
 question. 
 
 With regard to the use of the flesh as food, the question 
 would of course apply to its being ingested in a raw as well as 
 a cooked state, and also the condition of the absorbing surfaces 
 with which it comes into contact. 
 
 Cooked Flesh. 
 
 In the matter oi cooJced flesh from rabid animals, we find that 
 Dr. Lecamus, of the Faculty of Paris, has eaten it with impunity. 
 Jean Baptiste Castelli reported in 1777 to the Medical Society 
 of Paris, that in the previous year a butcher had sold at 
 Medola, near Mantua, the flesh of a cow which had been killed 
 while exhibiting all the symptoms of rabies, after being bitten 
 by a mad dog. None of the people who consumed its flesh 
 were inconvenienced. 
 
 Schoenkius, on the contrary, stated that an innkeeper in the 
 duchy of Wurtemberg gave several persons the flesh of a pig 
 that had been afiected with rabies, and these sufiered from 
 hydrophobia. 
 
 Lanzoni of Ferrara saw a whole family affected with 
 hydrophobia after eating the flesh of a cow that had been 
 attacked with the disease, but only three died, the others 
 having recovered " through the help of Providence and the 
 administration of remedies " — a circumstance which diminishes 
 our confidence as to the nature of the malady. 
 
 Our " History " affords some instances of the pernicious effects 
 of the flesh of rabid animals when eaten, and particularly that 
 of the epizooty in Peru in 1803 (p. 36), when negroes perished 
 through having to consume the cattle that died mad. 
 
 Fernelius states that a mad wolf was hunted and killed, and 
 that several persons ate of the flesh ; all died of the disease 
 soon afterwards.* 
 
 * " De Morbo Contag.," book ii. chap. 14.
 
 128 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 Uncooked Flesh. 
 
 The influence of uncoolied flesh has been more carefally noted. 
 We must remember that the ancients prescribed as a pre- 
 servative remedy against hydrophobia, the liver, head, heart, 
 and other parts of a mad animal, especially that of a rabid 
 wolf. And Eoucher informs us that the Arabs in Algiers are 
 in the habit of eating, without repugnance or danger, the flesh 
 of animals that have died of confirmed rabies ; the only pre- 
 caution they adopt, according to Dussourt and Bergot, is to 
 carefully avoid being wounded by splinters of bone when 
 cutting up the carcase. Bergot has on two occasions been a 
 witness to this fact in the case of two calves which died from 
 communicated rabies. 
 
 At a recent meeting of the Central Veterinary Society of 
 Paris, M. Decroix, an eminent veterinary authority, stated that 
 he and M. Bourrel, another veterinary surgeon,* had experi- 
 mentally eaten a piece of raw flesh from a dog that had died 
 of rabies. No evil efiects followed, and he was convinced as to 
 the innocuousness of the uncooked flesh of rabid animals ; with 
 cooking, however, he affirmed it might be eaten in perfect con- 
 fidence of safety.* 
 
 Delafond, director of the Alfort Veterinary School, gave a 
 dog the tongue of a horse that had perished from rabies, but it 
 did not sufier. 
 
 Gohier, professor at the Lyons Veterinary School, observed 
 difierent results. He made a dog swallow the flesh of another 
 that had died rabid ; in nineteen days it was mad, and soon 
 succumbed. The same experiment made on two dogs with the 
 flesh of rabid sheep, caused the death of one from the disease 
 seventy days afterwards ; the other did not experience any 
 injury. Lafosse carried out similar experiments. He gave the 
 flesh of a mad ox that had just died to two dogs ; that of a rabid 
 sheep to five dogs ; of a rabid dog to another animal of the 
 * " Kecueil de Med. Veterinaire," June, 1871.
 
 The Flesh. j2q 
 
 same species, and to a sheep. For the latter animal the flesh 
 had been chopped fine and given in dough. 
 
 All these creatures remained in perfect health, except one 
 of the dogs which had been fed on the rabid sheep. This 
 animal died in about a hundred and fifteen days, after mani- 
 festing peculiar symptoms of the same description as those 
 presented by the dog that had been inoculated with infected 
 blood by this veterinarian. It became taciturn, remained con- 
 stantly lying at the back of its kennel in a drowsy state, absolutely 
 refusing food and drink, until it fell into a consumptive con- 
 dition, and died in thirteen days after the commencement of 
 these singular symptoms. It never showed any inclination to 
 bite, and after death no pathological changes were discovered 
 to account for the fatal termination. The animal had lost a 
 leg in consequence of another experiment to which it had been 
 submitted more than a year previously, but this, in the opinion 
 of Lafosse, had nothing to do with the result. He pertinently 
 asks if the dog was affected with that form of rabies to which 
 the term "■ tranquil " has been given ; but until fortified by 
 further experience, he prudently decides not to venture on 
 giving a positive opinion. He adds, however, that the results 
 obtained by Gohier still remain, and that these deserve 
 serious consideration, as much from the trustworthiness which 
 marks all the writings of that veterinarian, as from the 
 ability and discernment of which he has given proof in the 
 munerous experiments he conducted with regard to contagious 
 diseases. 
 
 Supposing that the preceding facts, more or less correctly 
 interpreted, be considered exact, the conclusions to be drawn 
 from them would be, that, in certain circumstances, the cooked 
 flesh of rabid animals might cause rabies in other creatures, or 
 serious accidents to the persons who consumed it ; and that, 
 in the lower animals, the use as food of raw flesh from the 
 same source may, in some instances, produce rabies, or be 
 followed by the manifestation of a general and fatal morbid
 
 130 Rabies and HydropJiobia. 
 
 condition, which, in its symptoms, bears some resemblance to a 
 certain variety of that disease. 
 
 The number of authors who have stated that accidents have 
 arisen from the consumption of the flesh of rabid animals as 
 food is not meagre, nor are they of slender repute. The 
 question as to the innocuousness of this flesh would appear, 
 for these reasons, to be based upon negative and affirmative 
 facts, and though no rigid conclusion can be arrived at when 
 it is so divided by contrary opinions, yet it must be remem- 
 bered that the negative facts only demonstrate the inconstancy 
 of the communication of the disease in this manner ; while 
 the affirmative facts, if properly observed by reliable authorities, 
 should solve the problem. 
 
 But if the disease has been sometimes induced by means of 
 the flesh of rabid animals, is it certain that the virus has been 
 absorbed in the digestive organs ? Might there not be abra- 
 sions about the lips and mouth through which it would obtain 
 direct access to the blood, and thus develop the malady ? At 
 any rate, knowing the powerful neutralising action generally 
 ascribed to the digestive apparatus on several active animal 
 poisons, when these are introduced by the mouth, it is very 
 probable that in those instances in which rabies has been 
 produced by the administration of uncooked flesh, the mem- 
 brane covering the lips and gums, or lining the cheeks, may 
 have been abraded, or in a condition to permit the ready 
 absorption of the contagious matter contained in this food. 
 Experiments have demonstrated that rabies will follow the 
 application of the flesh and blood of a mad animal to a wound 
 on the body of a healthy one.* 
 
 Milk. 
 
 The influence of the milk, obtained from animals supposed 
 
 to be infected with rabies, has received much attention ; 
 
 * Lnfosse, Op. cit., p. 839. Galen, in his book on Temperaments, says that 
 the saliva of the mad dog is not equally dangerous when admitted into the 
 stomach as when introduced \»y a wound.
 
 The Milk. 131 
 
 and, as in the case of the flesh, the facts relating to its 
 virulence are negative and positive. Among the negative 
 facts, however, those must be distinguished which have 
 reference to the milk derived from animals only bitten by mad 
 dogs, and those really afiected with the disease. 
 
 Andray reports that peasants have used, for more than a 
 month, the milk of a cow which was wounded by a mad dog, 
 without experiencing any inconvenience.* 
 
 An infant fed on the milk of a goat until the day the animal 
 became mad, remained in perfect health. And, what is more 
 striking, another child drank the warm milk drawn from a 
 rabid cow, and no ill effects followed. The veterinarian, Gelle, 
 has stated that he was commissioned by the Prefet of the 
 Haute- Garonne, to inquire into an occurrence reported from 
 the commune of Gagnac, near Toulouse, in which several 
 persons had drunk the milk of a rabid cow every day from the 
 commencement until the fatal termination of the disease. 
 Though some of them were plunged into the greatest terror, 
 yet none were affected with the disease. 
 
 The experiments made by Baumgarten and Valentin concord 
 with the observations made by Gelle ; they are also confirmed 
 by the researches instituted by Baudot, who, a great number of 
 times, noted that neither the milk nor butter obtained from 
 rabid cows produced unpleasant effects on whole families who 
 had consumed these articles of food, f 
 
 At the Alfort Veterinary School, a ewe which had been 
 wounded by a rabid dog was soon after delivered of twin lambs, 
 which it of course suckled. Twenty-one days after the in- 
 fliction of the bite the ewe became rabid, and died, but the 
 lambs did not manifest any signs of the disease. 
 
 The only positive statements I can meet with as to the milk 
 of a mad cow producing rabies are the following. Soranus of 
 Ephesus, the most distinguished disciple of the Methodic School 
 
 * " Recherches sur la Rage." Paris, 1781. 
 
 t "Memoires de la Soc. Royale de Medecine," vol. ii. p. Oli- 
 
 k2
 
 132 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 of Medicine, averred ttat infants at the breast are sometimes 
 attacked with li^^drophobia.* Balthazar Timneus speaks of a 
 peasant, with his wife and children, as well as several other 
 persons, becoming rabid through drinking the milk of an 
 affected cow. Eleven of these died ; but the peasant and his 
 eldest child were restored by medical treatment — a circum- 
 stance which might tend to throw some doubt on the occur- 
 rence. Faber mentions instances in which the milk has proved 
 injurious. An observation made by M. Dussourt, and quoted 
 by Eoucher, offers a very probable instance of transmission by 
 the milk of a hydrophobic patient. This was the case of a 
 negress in Algeria, whose child died presenting symptoms 
 similar to those of the mother before she perished. In the 
 same country, however, M. Hugo relates the case of a rabid 
 bitch whose puppies were suckled by her, and remained in 
 good health. But, again, an instance is given in CasseWs 
 Magazine for July, 1871, in which the puppies suckled by a 
 mad bitch also became rabid, f 
 
 It will be seen, then, that a large share of proof is in 
 favour of the innocuousness of the milk derived from cows or 
 other creatures while affected with rabies ; though the question 
 as to whether this liquid would also prove inoffensive when 
 drawn immediately from the mammary gland and brought into 
 contact with any other absorbing surface than that of the 
 digestive organs, has not yet been responded to. Neither has 
 
 * Csel. Aurelianus, Op. cit., lib. iii. cap. 2. 
 
 t " A friend of mine once owned a favourite terrier which had recently littered 
 five puppies, and as she was kept constantly in his garden, she could not pos- 
 sibly have been bitten for some considerable time. But she suddenly displayed 
 unmistakable sjmiptoms of madness, and ran up and down the garden, with the 
 saliva flying from her jaws, and her head twitching from side to side, as the 
 heads of all mad dogs do. . . . But even in her frenzy her maternal instinct 
 was too strong, and she ran back to her kennel, and began suckling her puppies. 
 .... But here is the strangest part of the story, and to me it seems very 
 pathetic : — all her little puppies were raving mad too, and the foam hung in 
 flakes about their mouths, and their poor little heads twitched, just as the mother's 
 had done. They had sucked in madness with the milk, for she had not bitten 
 any of them. This was, in my experience at least, a new feature in the history 
 of hydrophobia."
 
 Localisation of Virus. i ? ? 
 
 a distinction been drawn, with regard to the ingestion of milk 
 from rabid creatures, between the secretion as it is obtained 
 fresh from this gland, and after it has been altered by the 
 action of heat or commixture with other articles of food, as 
 coffee, tea, &c,, which might more or less destroy the virus, 
 supposing it to exist in this fluid. 
 
 In the uncertainty in which the question remains, it would 
 be well to proscribe the use of milk obtained from animals 
 supposed to be, or actually rabid : for it must be always 
 remembered that one' positive fact is worth a thousand negative 
 ones. 
 
 Does the Virus exist in the Nerves ? 
 
 The malady being one which appears to be more or less of a 
 nervous character, several authorities have imagined that the 
 contagious material might be lodged in the nerves ; and Rossi 
 made some experiments with the view of proving that it was so. 
 He was led, from these experiments, to affirm that rabies could 
 be induced by transferring a portion of nerve from a diseased 
 to a healthy animal ; and, indeed, he describes how he 
 produced madness in a dog by inoculating it with a morsel of 
 nerve, yet warm, from the thigh of a rabid cat. And Hertwig, 
 the talented professor of the Berlin Veterinary School, has 
 several times carefully repeated this experiment with pieces of 
 nerve and muscle, and has produced the disease, though less 
 frequently than if he had inoculated with the saliva. 
 
 Is the Virus contained in the Breath ? 
 
 Since the days of Aretius,* the learned physician of Cappa- 
 docia, the idea has more or less prevailed that the breath of 
 rabid animals or hydrophobic persons could transmit the 
 disease ; and at intervals we find names of some imjDortance 
 endeavouring to support the idea by citing cases of rabies 
 which they had observed, and the origin of which they thought 
 
 * " De Signis et Causis Acutor. Morb.," book ii. chap. 7.
 
 134 Rabies and Hydrophobia . 
 
 could be ascribed to no other cause tban the inbalation of the 
 pulmonary transpiration. 
 
 " But," says Lafosse, and his remarks will be endorsed by 
 those who have had most experience among rabies in the lower 
 animals, " how often have we ourselves been compelled to inhale 
 the breath of mad dogs ? At the Veterinary School the dog- 
 kennels are only separated from each other by boards, and these 
 partitions are perforated with holes in their upper part in such 
 a fashion that the air, charged with the transpiration from the 
 lungs, circulates from the one kennel to the other. Though the 
 thickness of the boards is the only separation between dogs that 
 are rabid and those which are not, and though we can reckon 
 no less than fifty-six cases in which mad dogs have had this 
 indirect relation with others which were not afi'ected with the 
 disease, yet no transmission of the malady has been known." 
 
 Yet in this country at least there have been instances 
 recorded which would seem to prove that the disease may be 
 transmitted by the pulmonary and other exhalations ; though 
 it must be confessed that we require more carefully-observed 
 experiments and facts of this kind before assenting affirmatively 
 to the question. 
 
 Does it exist in the Perspiration ? 
 It enters into the category of popular ideas with regard to 
 this disease, that the contagion lurks in the perspiration ; but 
 up to the present time there is no proof whatever that the 
 nurses, physicians, and others who attend to the hydrophobic 
 patients, and frequently touch them when perspiring, have ever 
 had the malady transmitted to them by this medium. Neither 
 has any observation been made with regard to this question by 
 those who have had experience among rabid animals. 
 
 Does it exist in other Secretions or Excretions ? 
 There do not appear to be any observations which might 
 lead to the inference that the special virus of rabies exists in
 
 Localisatioii of Virus. 13 c 
 
 other secretions or excretions, and no experiments have been 
 instituted, so far as we are aware, to ascertain whether the 
 mucus from other parts than the mouth, or the tears and the 
 urine, could become the vehicles of contagion. Roll, however, 
 in stating that the saliva, the foam from the mouth, and the 
 blood are the agents in which the vims is most potent, states 
 that " the other products of secretion and excretion are equally 
 charged with it." * 
 
 Certainly, Eckel's experiments appear to demonstrate that 
 the contagium is present in the blood, and it would therefore 
 be rash, without negative proof, to conclude that it did not 
 exist in all the secreted or excreted fluids. 
 
 Is THE Virus present in the Secretions of the 
 Generative Organs ? 
 
 This question has been submitted by Lafosse ; and yet he 
 has been obliged to reply, that no observation made on animals 
 has definitively settled it. It is usually so difiicult to follow 
 out the course of the malady in those creatures which are most 
 liable to it, and to ascertain their various acts from the moment 
 when the disease begins to affect them in its latent state until 
 it reaches its apogee. 
 
 Does the Virus exist during the Incubation of the 
 
 Disease ? 
 
 The facts relating to this question have only had reference, 
 for the most part, to the human species. 
 
 Chabert, a former director of the Alfort Veterinary School, 
 relates that a female, the wife of the executioner [gmlJotiere), 
 contracted the disease ; she had cohabited with her husband up 
 to the evening previous to his being attacked with hydro- 
 phobia, due to his having been bitten by a rabid dog. Hoffman 
 relates a similar case. 
 
 But Baudot mentions the case of a young woman who had 
 
 * Op. tit. p. 464.
 
 136 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 cohabited with a soldier for a month, from the day when he 
 had been bitten by a mad dog until hydrophobia manifested 
 itself in him, without becoming affected. 
 
 The Memoirs of the Royal Society of Medicine of Paris also 
 contain an accoimt of several peasants of Trigance who were 
 bitten by a wolf, and who lived with their wives until the 
 day before the disease appeared, without the latter participating 
 in the malady. 
 
 Bouteille, Boissiere, and Rivollier mention cases in which 
 sexual intercourse took place within only six hours of the 
 appearance of hydrophobia, aDd yet there was nothing to prove 
 that the malady could be transmitted during the period of 
 incubation. 
 
 M. Canillac, a veterinary surgeon of Allier, France, reports 
 that a cow became rabid forty days after having been bitten by 
 a mad dog. During the attack she calved, and though every 
 care was taken to prevent her licking the calf, which she only 
 suckled for one day, the progeny also exhibited symptoms of 
 rabies on the third day after birth.* 
 
 Veterinary-Surgeon Hickman, describing an outbreak of 
 rabies among some ewes, states that the lambs of all the ewes 
 which had yeaned before the symptoms appeared did well ; 
 but when the symptoms became manifest before yeaning, the 
 lambs were born dead, or very soon died.f 
 
 The evidence, it will be seen, is contradictory as to whether 
 the deleterious principle is present as an infecting agent before 
 the disease has become developed. But pending the settlement 
 of the question by observation or experiment, it will be well to 
 remember that a contagious malady of the horse species — 
 glanders — may be transmitted by means of the blood abstracted 
 from an inoculated animal which has not yet become affected 
 with the disorder in an apparent manner. 
 
 * Lafosse, Op. cit., p. 841. 
 
 t The Vefcrin((ri.nn, vol. xi, p. 356.
 
 Communicability. I3y 
 
 Between what Species is the Disease communicable ? 
 
 Though it has long been decided that animals of the canine 
 and feline species could transmit the disease to various species 
 and to each other, yet that the malady could be conyeyed from 
 others than the cat and dog tribes does not appear in recent 
 times to have been clearly understood, and the experiments 
 undertaken with the object of proving whether it could or 
 could not be communicated in this way have been somewhat 
 conflicting in their results. 
 
 For instance, it was doubted whether, in the case of herbi- 
 vorous animals afiected with rabies, their bite coidd convey 
 the malady in the same manner that it had been conveyed to 
 them. Notwithstanding that common observation, in acci- 
 dental cases, had long ago decided the matter, experiments 
 made by Betti, surgeon of the Florence Hospital, and after- 
 wards repeated by the veterinarians Girard, Vatel, Huzard, 
 sen., and Dupuy, as well as at the Lyons Veterinary School, 
 were unsuccessful in transmitting rabies from herbivorous 
 animals. Lafosse inoculated a cow, two horses, and two dogs 
 with the saliva from a rabid sheep, but without any result ; he 
 also inoculated a horse and three dogs with the saliva from a 
 rabid ox, but had no better success. For several years the 
 highest authority, perhaps, on this malady in Europe — the 
 late veterinary professor Renault — believed, from numerous 
 experiments, that the rabies of the herbivora could not be 
 communicated to the dog ; and it indeed appeared to be the 
 impression that the rabaic virus of the carnivora, though 
 potent in producing the disease in herbivorous creatures, lost 
 this potency in them, and hence the non-virulence of their 
 saliva. 
 
 Yaughan and Babington in this country were unsuccessful 
 in their attempts to convey the malady from herbivores, and 
 it was thought by some eminent men — among them Sir Astley 
 Cooper and the veterinary professor Coleman — that the power
 
 138 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 to propagate the disease was confined to sucli animals as 
 naturally employed their teeth as weapons of offence. 
 
 But experiments of a later date have proved this assumption 
 to be erroneous. Eckel, as we have seen, succeeded in con- 
 veying the disease from a he-goat to a sheep ; he also success- 
 fully inoculated the dog with the saliva of rabid herbivores. 
 Berndt inoculated four sheep with the saliva of a mad ox, and 
 they became mad. Breschet asserted that he had conveyed 
 the disease by inoculation with the foam from the mouths of 
 rabid horses and asses. Professor Rey, of the Lyons Veteri- 
 nary School, having produced rabies in sheep by causing them 
 to be bitten by mad dogs, succeeded in developing this disease 
 in other sheep by inoculating them with the saliva or by bites 
 from the mad creatures ; and Renault finally succeeded in 
 obtaining the transmission of rabies from herbivores to the dog. 
 
 Youatt gives an instance in which rabies was conveyed from 
 a horse to a man ; this excellent veterinarian also communi- 
 cated the disease on two occasions from the horse to the dog, 
 and once from the ox to the dog.* 
 
 Professor Tombari, of Turin, reports the admission of a 
 rabid heifer into the Veterinary School of that city, on the 
 14th July, 1863. It died at the end of the second day after its 
 arrival ; but an hour and a half before death, a quantity of the 
 saliva which flowed abundantly from its mouth was collected 
 in a sponge, and with it a horse was inoculated (at the neck), a 
 sheep (at the flanks), and two bitches. The sheep was the first 
 to die, in about two days, after refusing water and all kinds of 
 nourishment, and showing great prostration. On the fourteenth 
 day, the horse began to show symptoms of dulness ; it trem- 
 bled, became covered with perspiration, and refused to eat and 
 drink ; the breathing was accelerated, and the animal lost con- 
 dition, but remained tranquil ; it did not attempt to kick, but 
 tried to bite when any one approached it. It succumbed on 
 the nineteenth day. On the 28th July, one of the bitches 
 
 * The Veterinarinn, vol. iv. p. 223.
 
 Comm It n icahility. 1 3 9 
 
 showed all the characteristic symptoms of rabies, and the other 
 died of the disease in the beginning of September.* 
 
 The saliva of rabid sheep has produced rabies in rabbits. 
 Tardieu mentions that in 1855, in the department of Creuse, 
 France, a sheep that had been bitten by a mad dog, bit in its 
 turn the shepherd, who was seized with hydrophobia fifteen 
 days afterwards, and died.f 
 
 The result of the experiments carried out by various autho- 
 rities led Roll to assert that the bite of herbivorous animals 
 suflfering from rabies, as well as inoculation with their saliva 
 or blood, will communicate the afifection, though the contagious 
 principle is not so active or intense as that derived from the 
 carnivora. 
 
 The disease has been communicated from the ox to fowls, as 
 demonstrated by Dr. Ashburner, in 1828, and later by Mr. 
 King, of Clifton, who produced rabies in a fowl by inoculating 
 it with the saliva of a cow that had just succumbed to the 
 disease. 
 
 Zincke, of Jena, produced rabies in fowls by inoculating 
 them with the canine virus ; and Van Swieten reports that an 
 old woman died with all the symptoms of rabies, after a wound 
 inflicted on her by an irate cock ; but, as he could not admit 
 that a virus not present in an animal could be communicated 
 by that animal, he conjectured that the cock was suffering from 
 rabies which had been imparted to it by a fox. 
 
 It must not be forgotten that the facility with which the 
 disease can be transmitted by different species depends, besides 
 the activity or degree of virulency of the infecting principle, 
 upon the organisation and habits, or rather nature, of the 
 diseased. Flesh-eating or carnivorous animals, as is well 
 known, generally attack other creatures with their teeth, which 
 are well adapted for wounding and tearing ; consequently, they 
 are the most successful in inoculating with the poison. Cases 
 
 * " II Medico Vetorinario," 1865. 
 
 t " Dictionnaire d'Hygiene Public ct de Salubritc."
 
 140 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 are reported in which the malady has appeared in mankind 
 without any other injury having been inflicted than scratches 
 by cats' claws. For instance, Lipscomb mentions the history 
 of Daniel Perrin, aged twenty, who, in the autumn, was only 
 scratched by a mad cat, so that the cuticle of his right thumb 
 was wounded. In the following March he was seized with 
 hydrophobia, and died mad ; * but in all probability these 
 weapons had been previously contaminated by the saKva, as 
 rabid animals frequently use their paws to remove the viscid 
 secretion that obstructs their mouths. 
 
 Herbivorous animals differ in their habits and instincts, as 
 well as in their aggressive weapons, from the carnivora, which 
 render them less dangerous enemies when affected with rabies. 
 The horse's natural weapons are its hoofs, and it comparatively 
 rarely employs the teeth ; while the cow, sheep, and goat use 
 their horns. The transmission of the disease from these 
 animals is, therefore, less likely to occur, though not from any 
 other cause than their instinctive reluctance to use their teeth 
 in inflicting injury. And even when, at a late stage of the 
 disease, these instruments are resorted to, particularly by the 
 horse, the bite is not so liable to produce inoculation, simply 
 from the fact that, owing to the shape of the teeth, and the 
 disposition of their tables or biting surfaces, they cannot readily 
 penetrate the skin. 
 
 With regard to the communicability of rabies from the 
 human species to the lower animals, the evidence is not less 
 conclusive, notwithstanding the fact that negative experiments 
 have been recorded. On the 19th of June, 1823, Magendie 
 and Breschet, in the Hotel Dieu, and in the presence of manv 
 witnesses, gathered some saliva from the mouth of a man who 
 was dying of hydrophobia, and with it inoculated two healthy 
 dogs, near the patient's bed. One of these animals was seized 
 with rabies on the 27th of July, and bit two others, one of which 
 was mad on the 26th of August. Eckel, as we have seen, 
 * " The History of Canine Madness," p. 64.
 
 Transvi issioji . 141 
 
 mentions a similar instance. Mr. Earle, of St. George's Hos- 
 pital, London, inoculated several rabbits with tbe saliva of a 
 woman affected with hydrophobia ; some of these became rabid. 
 Hertwig successfully transplanted the virus from a dying man 
 to a dog ; and Renault, of Alfort, also proved experimentally 
 that the disease could be transmitted from mankind to the 
 canine species. And Aurelianus, Enaux, Chaussier, and others 
 mention instances in which hydrophobia has been induced in 
 persons who have accidentally had the saliva of hydrophobic 
 patients applied to their lips. 
 
 In the past year (1871) a girl named Bence died in Liver- 
 pool from hydrophobia. It was believed she had not been 
 bitten; but the death of her little brother from the disease 
 occurred about three weeks previously, and the supposition 
 was that the virus had been communicated in some way to the 
 girl through a wound in her foot. 
 
 From the above and other facts, which it is not deemed 
 necessary to allude to in this place, it may be safely affirmed 
 that the virus of everj^ rabid animal will communicate the 
 disease, and that there is every reason to beheve that all 
 warm-blooded creatures are susceptible to its influence. 
 
 Frequency of Transmission. 
 
 Another important and interesting question connected with 
 the foregoing subjects, is that which has reference to the 
 frequency with which rabies follows the bite or inoculation 
 with the infecting material of a mad animal. For the lower 
 animals, there are a sufficient number of observations recorded 
 to enable us to form an approximative idea on this subject, 
 though it must be borne in mind that some unavoidable 
 contingencies rather tend to depreciate the value of the figures 
 given in cases of wounds ; for instance, it is not always possible 
 to assure one's self that bites have really been inflicted by mad 
 animals, or, if so inflicted, that they have been sufficient to 
 insure inoculation.
 
 142 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 Lafosse, of Toulouse, states that out of 60 animals suspected 
 of having been bitten by rabid creatures, 21 died from the 
 disease. According to Renault, out of 244 dogs brought to the 
 Alfort School between the years 1827 and 1837, having been 
 bitten in the streets by mad or suspected dogs, and which 
 remained for two months under observation without receiving 
 any treatment, 74, or about one-third, became rabid. This 
 veterinarian states that some uncertainty always prevailed 
 with regard to the existence of the malady in the dogs which 
 inflicted the injuries ; that the traces of bites had not always 
 been sought for and noted in all the dogs left at the school, and 
 that therefore there was no proof that they had been bitten ; 
 and, besides, they might have been wounded in parts of the body 
 where the thickness of the hair would prevent the saliva reach- 
 ing the wound. It was in consequence of this uncertainty that, 
 at different periods between 1830 and 1851, he caused dogs and 
 herbivores — ^horses and sheep — to be bitten several times by 
 really rabid dogs, in his presence, and on those parts of their 
 bodies where the skin is thinnest and has least hair ; on other 
 occasions he obtained saliva from the mouths of the mad dogs 
 when they were most furious, and with it inoculated healthy 
 animals by punctures in the skin. The number thus experi- 
 mented upon was 99, of which %1 contracted the malady ; the 
 other 32 were kept under observation for more than a hundred 
 days without manifesting any symptoms of the disease.* 
 
 Though everything in these experiments appears to have 
 been favourable to the production of the malady, yet it 
 will be observed that only three-fourths became affected — 
 the other fourth, without any preventive treatment, entirely 
 escaping. 
 
 According to the registers of the Lyons Veterinary School, 
 the proportion of animals bitten accidentally in the streets, and 
 which afterwards became mad, was, for the dogs one-fifth, and 
 
 * Renault, "Rapport sur la Rage" (Bulletin de I'Acad^mie de Medecine. 
 Paris, 1852).
 
 Transmission. 143 
 
 horses one-fourth. This proportion is not much less than that 
 reported by Renault as the result of his experiments. 
 
 For Berlin, Hertwig reports that from 1823 to 1837, out of 
 137 dogs bitten in the streets of that city, and brought to the 
 hospital of the Veterinary School to be kept under observation, 
 only 16 became rabid — a proportion of one to eight. The same 
 talented veterinarian inoculated 59 dogs, of which number 14, 
 or 23.7 per cent., contracted the disease ; but of 25 others 
 which he either inoculated with the saliva of mad dogs, or 
 caused to be bitten by them experimentally, 10 became rabid, 
 and the other 15 remained healthy, In some cases he fomid 
 that several inoculations — from two to four — were necessary. 
 It is worthy of remark that a young mastiff resisted for three 
 years all Hertwig' s attempts at inoculation, although seven 
 others inoculated at the same time, and with the same saliva, 
 succumbed to the malady.* 
 
 Faber has stated that of 114 dogs bitten by others which 
 were rabid, 77, or 68 per cent., were afterwards affected ; of 
 68 to 78 cattle bitten by rabid dogs, 45, or 64 per cent., died of 
 rabies ; and of 127 sheep, 51, or 40 per cent., became rabid. 
 
 From these statistics, collected in different places and at 
 different times, it might be inferred that at least two-thirds of 
 the animals bitten accidentally by dogs supposed to be, or 
 which are really mad, escape, without being submitted to any 
 treatment ; while of those experimentally exposed to receive 
 the contagion under the most favourable conditions for its 
 transmission, about one-third do not contract the malady, even 
 when abandoned to their fate. Lafosse is of opinion that the 
 degree of contagion appears to vary from one-third to one- 
 eighth. Nevertheless, as Renault has justly observed, it must 
 not be accepted as correct that these results, obtained in a large 
 number of observations, represent the consequences which 
 might follow the bite of each rabid dog ; for it often happens 
 that a dog undoubtedly mad bites a certain number of animals, 
 * Beitrage zur nJiheren Kenntniss der Wiithkrankheit.
 
 1 44 Rabies and HydropJwbia. 
 
 or furnishes saliva with which to inoculate them, and out of 
 this number the sixth or seventh portion only will contract the 
 disease, while, in consequence of the bites or inoculations with 
 the saliva of another dog, which appears to be in the same con- 
 dition as to rabies, nearly all the individuals wounded or inocu- 
 lated — the five-sixths or six- sevenths, for example — will become 
 mad. It may be as well to mention here that a mad dog, 
 when at liberty and on its tour of destruction, will frequently 
 bite as many as sixty or seventy other dogs, in addition to the 
 people and cattle it may encounter ; and that these wandering 
 rabid dogs are the chief agents in diffusing the malady. 
 
 The virus of the rabid wolf would appear to be more violent 
 and prompt in its action than that of the dog, as a greater per- 
 centage of those bitten by this animal will perish than in the 
 same number wounded by the latter.* 
 
 As with the lower animals, so with mankind — for, provi- 
 dentially, many of those injured by dogs, cats, wolves, foxes, or 
 other creatures affected with rabies remain unaffected ; but, as 
 has been just stated, particularly in our history, the injuries 
 caused by wolves have been most frequently followed by rabies. 
 Renault gathered from different sources that out of 254 persons 
 bitten by these animals, 164, or nearly two-thirds, became 
 hydrophobic. Of 114 cases collated by Dr. Watson of persons 
 bitten by mad wolves, 67 died. In the "Memoirs of the 
 Paris Royal Society of Medicine," aji instance is recorded for 
 1772, in which a rabid wolf bit two persons, and many cows 
 and horses ; all perished. f Troilliet relates that of 23 persons 
 wounded by a rabid wolf, 13 died. Baudot also gives an 
 account of no less than 40 oxen, cows, horses, dogs, and other 
 creatures bitten by a mad wolf in June, 1765, the majority of 
 
 * " Die Wuthkrankheit." 
 
 t Wolvee are still very numerous in some of the departments of France. 
 Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire, for instance, states that in only one department — the 
 Nievre — a wolf-killer, aided by his helpers, destroyed no fewer than 1,134 
 wolves.
 
 Transm ission . 14c 
 
 wliich succumbed. Dr. Camescasse, sanitary oflBcer in Turkey, 
 gives the history of 47 persons bitten by a rabid wolf, 45 of 
 whom perished of hydrophobia. Pahnarius has seen twenty 
 wolves, driven either through hunger or madness, sally out of 
 a forest, and seize every living creature that came in their 
 way; all bitten by them perished afterwards. Renault esti- 
 mated the mortality arising from the bites of rabid wolves at 
 ^^ per cent. 
 
 Tardieu mentions that in 99 individuals bitten by animals 
 manifestly rabid, 41 only became ultimately affected with 
 hydrophobia ; and from the inquiry instituted in France by the 
 Comite Consultatif d'Hygiene Publique, we learn that from 
 1855 to 1858 included, out of 198 individuals injured by viru- 
 lent bites, 112 afterwards died from hydrophobia, or 6 in every 
 ten. This, of course, does not include those cases in which 
 preservative remedies were adopted, but is merely the nxmiber 
 of those left to chance. 
 
 Aitken states that out of 153 persons bitten by dogs, only 
 94 are known to have perished — making the chances of escape 
 as nearly three to two. "Watson says that of 15 persons bitten 
 by a mad dog, only 3 succumbed ; and John Hunter states 
 that he knew an instance in which 21 were bitten and only 
 one died ; though he estimated the mortality at 5 per cent. 
 Vaughan relates an instance in which between twenty and 
 thirty persons were wounded by a mad dog, and only one 
 perished ; and Sully speaks of 4 persons and 12 dogs having 
 been bitten by the same rabid dog ; all the dogs perished, but 
 the people escaped.* Tardieu gives an instance, however, in 
 which one dog in a department of France gave the disease to 
 ten persons. 
 
 In the commimication already alluded to as famished by 
 Professor Bouley in 1870, it would appear that in the forty- 
 nine departments of France in which the existence of rabies was 
 announced by 108 reports, 320 persons were bitten by mad 
 
 * " Observations on the Bites of Animals," p. 23. 
 
 L
 
 146 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 animals. Of these, 129 perished from hydropliobia — a mor- 
 tality of 40.31 per cent. ; and in 123 cases known and specified 
 by these documents, no harm followed — making 38 per cent, 
 in which the bites have proved innocuous. But it will be 
 noticed that 68 cases remain to be accounted for ; of these there 
 is no further reference in the reports — a circumstance which 
 would lead to the supposition that they had not a fatal issue, 
 since a death due to the bite of a mad animal always causes 
 more alarm and commotion than if the accident was followed 
 by complete immunity. 
 
 According to Renault, the percentage of deaths from hydro- 
 phobia in persons bitten by rabid dogs is 33. 
 
 In Algeria, of 63 persons wounded by animals, 47 died from 
 hydi'ophobia, the remaining 16 escaping the malady, although 
 they had been, like the othejs, bitten by animals which after- 
 wards died rabid, or had transmitted the disease to other 
 persons. 
 
 Of the 63 bites, 39 were single — that is to say, inflicted by 
 one animal on one person only. One of these bites did not 
 produce any after consequences. In 8 multiple bites 4 were 
 double — or inflicted by one animal on two persons — 1 triple, 2 
 quadruple, 1 quintuple. One of these double bites caused 
 two deaths ; the other three one death each. 
 
 Three persons attacked at the same time by the same animal 
 did not become hydrophobic. Two quadruple bites caused, on 
 two occasions, two deaths ; on another occasion one death. 
 And the quintuple bite only produced one victim. The details 
 point to the curious result of 8 rabid animals having wounded 
 24 persons, and yet only 9 of these dying of the malady. The 
 proportionately small number of fatal cases was ascribed to the 
 precautions taken after the wounds had been inflicted, and it is 
 curious to note that those who thus escaped evil consequences 
 were almost exclusively French people. 
 
 Some interesting instances of immunity are recorded in 
 Algeria by Roucher. One reported by M. Migueres was as
 
 T7''ansmission . 147 
 
 follows : a strange clog bit a cat, which died imraediatelj', and 
 
 a dog, which was killed on the following day ; likewise a child, 
 
 that did not suffer anj'^ bad results from the wound, and the 
 
 father of this child, who in attemiDting to capture the animal, 
 
 was bitten, and afterwards perished of hydrophobia. Dr. Moreau, 
 
 of Bone, alludes to an instance in which a dog bit two persons, 
 
 one of whom succumbed to hydrophobia in two days, after 
 
 forty-eight days' incubation ; the other in seven days, after one 
 
 hundred and sixteen days' incubation. This animal also 
 
 wounded a tailor, twenty-three years of age, in the hip, and 
 
 although he took no precautions he escaped hydrophobia. The 
 
 brute also attacked a child seven years old, and woimded it 
 
 extensively in the chest, yet it exhibited no symptom of 
 
 hydrophobia — though it must not be overlooked that a surgeon 
 
 who was called in immediately cauterised the injuries by the 
 
 deflagration of cones of moist gunpowder. 
 
 With regard to the animals which inflicted the woimds in 
 
 the 320 cases that Bouley reports, 284 were male dogs and 
 
 26 females, 5 he or she cats, and 5 male or female wolves. 
 
 Out of 48 persons who perished of hydrophobia in France in 
 
 1852, only one had been bitten by a cat.* In 85 cases of death 
 
 from hydrophobia, Boudin announces that 58 were due to dogs, 
 
 20 to wolves, and 7 to cats. 
 
 In 228 cases of hydrophobia occurring in France from 1850 
 
 to 1859, in which the animals inflicting the injuries had been 
 
 noted, Tardieu found the following : — 
 
 Produced by bite of dog 188 
 
 „ „ wolf 26 
 
 .. » fox 1 
 
 Of the varieties of dogs whose bites caused the death of 
 
 people in 14 cases, the following were noted : — 
 
 Sheep-dog 5 cases. 
 
 Setter 2 „ 
 
 * Tardieu, •' Dictionnaire d' Hygiene et de Salubrite." Paris, 1854. Art. 
 "Rage." 
 
 l2
 
 148 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 Terrier or " Griffon " 2 cases. 
 
 Poodle 1 » 
 
 Spaniel bitch (suckling) . . . . 1 „ 
 
 Lap-dog (small) 2 „ 
 
 Mastiff (large) 1 „ 
 
 There are several other points connected with the trans- 
 mission of the disease to mankind which deserve notice, though 
 they are, perhaps, not of so much moment with regard to the 
 existence or extension of the malady among the lower animals. 
 
 The transmission of rabies to the human subject is not so fre- 
 quent as is generally believed, though from the foregoing figures 
 it will be seen that the number who suffer from the disease is 
 painfully large. No doubt, insusceptibility to the influence of 
 the virus may have much to do in exempting those who are 
 bitten by rabid animals from the serious consequences which 
 ensue in the majority of cases. That such susceptibility exists 
 in rabies, as in other diseases, there can be no doubt whatever, 
 after what has been noted in the lower animals as well as in 
 mankind. E-enault's careful experiments proved that one-fourth 
 of the inoculated creatures escaped the effects of the inocu- 
 lations which were mortal in the other three-fourths ; and what 
 better instance can we have than that of the mastiff which 
 Hering unsuccessfully inoculated many times during three 
 years, while other dogs experimented upon at the same periods, 
 and with the same virus, contracted rabies? This predisposition 
 or susceptibility is more conspicuous, generally speaking, in 
 the canine and feline species than in the herbivora or the 
 human species. Dogs and cats hold the first place in the scale 
 of susceptibiKty ; then man and the pig ; next ruminants — the 
 sheep and goat being more susceptible than the ox ; and, 
 lastly, the horse. 
 
 It is in admitting the existence of this aptitude or predis- 
 position — so strangely overlooked or ignored by the non- 
 contagionists — that we can explain the fact that, in many 
 instances, the saliva of a mad dog introduced into a wound has 
 not induced the disease, while in other cases the slightest
 
 Transm issioii . 149 
 
 abrasion of the skin has permitted the absorption of the poison 
 and the production of the malady. This aptitude and immunity 
 is observed in other contagious diseases besides rabies. In 
 addition to this, repeated observations have demonstrated that 
 certain mad dogs have infected the greater part of the animals 
 they have wounded, while others, labouring under the same 
 disease and equally guilty of biting, have only exceptionally 
 transmitted it to those they attacked. This peculiarity would 
 go far to prove that there is a difference in the virulency or 
 intensity of action of the contagium, not only in certain 
 animals, but in certain outbreaks. It is necessary to remember 
 these facts when considering the probabiKties of the occurrence 
 or extension of rabies, and also when endeavouring to draw 
 inferences from statistics. And there also arises the question 
 as to the virus becoming less active after passing through 
 several organisms. The experiments of Professor Rey, of 
 Lyons, show that there is some foundation for the belief that 
 repeated transmissions attenuate the power of the infecting 
 element. This veterinarian, by successive inoculations in several 
 different animals with the rabific virus obtained from a single 
 primitive source, found that it appeared to act with much less 
 promptitude on the last than the first inoculated, and that with 
 sheep it had no effect after the fifth removal or generation. There 
 also remains the presumption that the first bites of a mad animal 
 are more dangerous than those afterwards made, especially if 
 they are numerous and inflicted at short intervals, as there is 
 less likelihood of the teeth being so thickly covered with saKva 
 after they have been several times used — or, in other words, 
 after they have been wiped by penetrating the fur, clothing, 
 skin, or flesh of another creature.* And it may even be surmised 
 that only a certain quantity of the virus is secreted in a given 
 
 * In June, 1871, a rabid dog in the suburbs of Nottingham attacked a flock of 
 sheep on the highway, and bit about twenty ; it then immediately sprang at the 
 face of the young man who was driving them, and wounded him severely ; the 
 •wounds were subsequently di-essed, though they were so serious that the gravest
 
 1 50 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 time, and that this may be soon expended wlien the bites are 
 repeated in quick succession. One more consideration must be 
 noticed in connection with the apparent innocuousness of the 
 bites received from rabid animals. Wool and thick hair may 
 be, and no doubt is, in many cases, a safeguard against the 
 introduction of the virus into wounds inflicted on the lower 
 creatures, owing to these materials cleaning the fangs while 
 they are passing through them. The clothes worn by people 
 will serve a like purpose ; free haemorrhage from the wounds 
 will also aid in carrying away the saliva from contact with the 
 living tissues. 
 
 These considerations, which cannot be lost sight of, will serve 
 to explain much that is supposed to be obscure in the trans- 
 mission of rabies in the lower animals, as well as to man. 
 
 Sex in Mankind. 
 
 In the human species, the male sex (as with the canine 
 species) appears to be the most exposed to this transmission. 
 In England, from 1847 to 1858, 133 deaths took place from 
 hydrophobia; of these 103 were males and only 30 females. 
 In 1866, when the deaths from this disease were no less than 
 36, the males were 27 and the females 9 ; in 1867, 9 males 
 perished and only 1 female ; in 1868, there were 7 males, no 
 females ; and in 1869, 16 males and 2 females. 
 
 In Ireland, in 1864, 6 men and 1 woman died of the malady. 
 
 In Scotland, however, for the ten years from 1855 to 1864, 
 12 deaths are reported, and the proportion of males and females 
 is equal. 
 
 From 1844 to 1850, 39 deaths from hydrophobia were 
 reported in Bavaria ; of these 21 belonged to the male sex and 
 18 were females. 
 
 apprehensions were entertained as to his heing inocnlated. Up to the present 
 time, however (January, 1872), he remains in health ; and we might ask if his 
 immunity from the mortal disease was not mainly owing to the dog having 
 previously hitten so many woolly animals.
 
 Sex in Mankind. i c j 
 
 In France, in 1852, in 48 cases of hydrophobia, 36 were men 
 and 12 women. The same proportion had been observed in 
 preceding years ; and in summing up all the results of different 
 inquiries in that country, it was found that in a total of 136 
 deaths from this disease there were 104 men and 32 women. 
 
 In 239 cases of hydrophobia, the statistics of which were 
 collected by M. Tardieu from departmental reports compiled in 
 France from 1850 to 1859, the sexes were enumerated in the 
 following proportions : — 
 
 Males 175 
 
 Females . .64 
 
 In Bouley's analysis, out of the 320 persons bitten, 206 
 belonged to the masculine sex, and 81 to the feminine ; the 
 sex is not indicated for the remaining 33. 
 
 This statement is in harmony with the preceding, and 
 indeed with general observation ; the number of women injured 
 by mad dogs is always much inferior to that of men, and may 
 be explained by the less risk they incur by reason of their dress 
 and their mode of life. 
 
 With regard to the mortahty following these bites, the more 
 ample dress may also have had some share in diminishing the 
 number of deaths among the females ; for while of the 206 
 persons of the male sex who were bitten, the mortality was 
 100 — a little less than one-half, or 48 per cent.- — among 81 of 
 the opposite sex the deaths were only 29 — slightly more than 
 a third, or 36 per cent. M. Bouley, who does not allude to 
 the influence of dress in the respective rates of mortality, thinks 
 the privilege of relative immunity only a statistical accident 
 due to the small number of cases reaistered. 
 
 Age in Mankind. 
 
 The age of the persons bitten is not without interest. 
 In England, in 1866, the number of deaths being 36, the 
 ages were as follows : —
 
 152 
 
 Rabies and Hydrophobia, 
 
 Under 5 years .6 
 
 From 5 to 10 years 9 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 , 4 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 
 10 to 15 
 
 
 15 to 20 
 
 
 20 to 25 
 
 
 25 to 30 
 
 
 30 to 40 
 
 
 50 to 60 
 
 
 60 to 80 
 
 In 1867, in 10 deaths the ages were : — 
 
 Under 5 years 2 
 
 From 5 to 10 years 2 
 
 „ 10 to 15 „ 2 
 
 „ 15 to 35 „ 1 
 
 „ 35 to 45 „ 2 
 
 „ 45 to 55 ,, 1 
 
 In Scotland, for the ten years from 1855 to 1864, in 12 
 deaths the ages are : — 
 
 1 
 3 
 3 
 1 
 2 
 1 
 1 
 
 The 39 deaths from hydrophobia reported in Bavaria as 
 occurring between the years 1844 and 1850, were of persons 
 whose ages were found to be : — 
 
 Under 1 year 3 
 
 From 1 to 5 years 17 
 
 Under 1 year (male) 
 
 » 
 
 5 years (females] 
 
 >) 
 
 10 
 
 years 
 
 » 
 
 15 
 
 >» 
 
 )) 
 
 30 
 
 » 
 
 )9 
 
 45 
 
 )> 
 
 >l 
 
 65 
 
 '> 
 
 5 to 10 
 10 to 20 
 20 to 30 
 30 to 40 
 40 to 50 
 50 to 60 
 60 to 70 
 70 to 80 
 
 1 
 3 
 4 
 1 
 3 
 I 
 1 
 5 
 
 Boudin gives the following ages of 136 persons in France, 
 who died from hydrophobia : — 
 
 Under 5 years ....... 7 
 
 From o to 15 years 30 
 
 „ 15 to 20 ,, 15 
 
 1
 
 Aoe in Afankind. 
 
 153 
 
 From 20 to 30 „ 
 „ 30 to 60 „ 
 „ 60 to 70 „ 
 
 Above 70 years . 
 
 Not indicated 
 
 12 
 
 54 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 Of 47 cases in Algeria, the ages were thus distributed : — 
 
 Under 5 years 
 From 5 to 10 years 
 
 „ 11 to 20 „ 
 
 „ 21 to 30 „ 
 
 „ 31 to 40 „ 
 
 „ 41 to 50 „ 
 Above 50 years . 
 Age unknown (adults) 
 
 „ „ (children) 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 9 
 6 
 5 
 
 2 
 16 
 1 
 
 In Bouley's statistics the ages of individuals bitten are given 
 in 274 cases, the distribution of which into decimal series 
 further substantiates the interesting fact revealed by the above 
 tables, that the largest number of accidents from this cause — 
 97 out of 274 — corresponds to the series from 5 to 15 years ; 
 this is the age of childhood, marked by thoughtlessness, im- 
 prudence, and helplessness, as well as a tendency to tease and 
 play with animals. Numbers of dogs, during the fit of madness, 
 observes M. Bouley, would spare the children with which they 
 are so familiar, if the latter did not tease them more than usual, 
 from finding they were not in their ordinary humour, owing 
 to the disease. On the other side, he adds, this large propor- 
 tion of bitten children is to be explained by the greater risks 
 they run of being attacked by stray dogs in the streets of towns 
 or in villages, where they are so frequently seen playing in 
 groups. 
 
 Another interesting fact M. Bouley points out has reference 
 to the series in which the number of persons bitten is highest, 
 for in it the mortality is lowest. In the 97 cases reported as 
 occurring at from 5 to 15 years of age, there were only 26 
 deaths ; while in the succeeding series, the mortahty is 12 m 
 25, 21 in 34, and 17 in 28— better shown in decimals as 2677 
 for childhood, and 48, 61, and 60 per cent., for the subsequent
 
 154 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 series. From whence the conclusion to be derived is, says this 
 authority, that if children are more exposed to the bites of 
 rabid animals, it must also follow that they are less predisposed 
 to contract the disease, perhaps owing to their natural heedless- 
 ness and their perfect moral quietude. 
 
 Seat of Injury. 
 
 The influence the situation of the injury has in the trans- 
 mission of rabies to the human species is not only of great 
 interest, but is a subject of the highest importance. 
 
 In 1852, in the 48 cases of hydrophobia cited by Boudin, the 
 bites were localised as follows : — 
 
 On the face . . . . . .13 cases. 
 
 „ lower limbs 15 „ 
 
 „ upper limbs 12 ,, 
 
 Not indicated 8 ,, 
 
 In 178 cases collected between 1855 and 1858, they were : — 
 
 On the hands 86 cases. 
 
 ,, face 47 „ 
 
 limbs 40 
 
 5> 
 
 Tardieu states that in 145 cases of hydrophobia in which the 
 situation of the wounds was noted, he fomid the following : — 
 
 On the upper limbs, and chiefly on the 
 
 hands 79 cases. 
 
 On the face 37 ,, 
 
 On the lower limbs 29 ,, 
 
 In the resume of Bouley's statement it is remarked : " If we 
 compare with each other the bites occupying the same situation, 
 some of which were mortal in their results, while others were 
 not followed by rabies, it is found that, in the 32 cases in 
 which the wounds were made on the face, death has occurred 
 in 29, and only 3 escaped ; or a mortaKty of 90 per cent., and 
 innocuity of about 9 per cent. In the 73 cases in which the 
 virulent wounds were inflicted on the hands, the statistics 
 demonstrate that they were fatal in 46, and inoffensive, so far 
 as rabies is concerned, in 27 ; or a mortality of 63 per cent.,
 
 Seat of Injury. i c c 
 
 and innocuity of 36 per cent. With regard to the wounds of the 
 upper and lower limbs, when compared with those of the face 
 and hands, the relations are inverse : the 28 cases in which 
 the wounds were inflicted on the upper extremities were only- 
 fatal in 8 instances, and remained inoffensive in 20 ; and the 
 24 cases of wounds on the lower limbs were followed by hydro- 
 phobia in 7 patients, while 17 escaped the disease. This gives 
 a mortality of 28 and 29 per cent., and of innocuity of 70 and 
 71 per cent." 
 
 Lastly, for the wounds on the body, which were generally 
 multiple, the mortality is again in the ascendant ; out of 19 
 cases of this description, 12 perished from hydrophobia, and 7 
 did not contract the malady. 
 
 These facts confirm the results of previous inquiries in 
 France, and once more demonstrate that the bites inflicted by 
 rabid animals upon uncovered parts of the body, such as the 
 face and hands, more certainly afibrd access to the contagium 
 than those which are made on the arms or legs when the teeth 
 of the mad creature has, before reaching the skin, to traverse 
 the clothing, and thus be deprived of their virulent humidity.* 
 
 * One day in the summer of 1865, a mad dog appeared in a commune in 
 Roumania. In its course, it crossed the garden of a peasant and showed itself 
 at the door of his house, pursued by several people intent on killing it. The 
 peasant, hearing the alann, hurried to the door, accompanied by his daughter, 
 and attacked the dog with a stick. The animal turned upon its aggressor, bit 
 him in the left arm through the clothes, inflicting several wounds. The 
 daughter, on her part, also attacked the dog, which left the father, flew at her, 
 and wounded her in the face. Some days afterwards, both went to the hospital. 
 The father, sixty years of age, of a strong constitution, had on the fore-arm 
 four wounds that had all the appearance of having been inflicted by bites ; they 
 were not inflamed. Dui-ing his stay at the hospital he did not manifest any 
 anxiety on account of those bites, and went away in eight days, cured. The 
 daughter had on her left cheek a large complicated wound, which was swollen 
 and painful on pressure. The swelling disappeared in a few days. What was 
 most remarkable in her case was, that to every one who would listen to her she 
 expressed her fear of becoming mad, after the examples she had seen. In forty 
 days, the wound being almost cicatrised, this woman suddenly lost her appetite, 
 and manifested symptoms of anorexia ; she had bilious vomitings, becanu; dull 
 and very restless, and the wound swelled and broke out anew. After four days' 
 duration of these precursory signs, nervous symptoms became apparent, such a."; 
 groat perversion of the intellectual faculties, spasms in the chest and throat.
 
 y 
 
 156 
 
 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 It is true that the consequences of bites inflicted on the body 
 appear to contradict this proposition ; but it must be observed, 
 in explanation, that the wounds in this part are generally mul- 
 tiple, a circumstance which increases the chances of successful 
 inoculation ; that among these wounds there are some on naked 
 parts, as the neck and chest ; and also that, when a man is 
 attacked by a mad animal, if he is bitten on the body he is 
 also certain to be so on the hands, which are his natural instru- 
 ments of defence. 
 
 The great mortality attending the wounds inflicted by rabid 
 wolves is probably due to the fact that these animals generally 
 fly at the faces of those persons whom they attack. 
 
 Rate of Mortality from Hydrophobia. 
 
 As before mentioned, no estimate can be formed of the 
 deaths among animals from rabies in this country ; but with 
 regard to those occurring in the human species in England, we 
 are indebted to the returns of the Registrar-General for the 
 following information : — 
 
 In 1838 there died of hydrophobia 
 
 24 persona. 
 
 1839 
 
 »t >» 
 
 15 
 
 
 1840 
 
 » » 
 
 . 12 
 
 
 1841 
 
 » » 
 
 7 
 
 
 1842 
 
 7> »> 
 
 15 
 
 
 1847* 
 
 » »> • 
 
 5 
 
 
 1848 
 
 " )> 
 
 7 
 
 
 1849 
 
 >» » 
 
 17 
 
 
 1850 
 
 » »» 
 
 13 
 
 
 1851 
 
 » >> 
 
 . 25 
 
 
 1852 
 
 >» )> 
 
 15 
 
 
 1853 
 
 >» Jl 
 
 . 11 
 
 
 1854 
 
 » » 
 
 . 16 
 
 
 alternating with cramp in the legs; there was also well-marked hydrophobia, 
 sputation, altered voice, dilated pupils — in fine, all the classical symptoms which 
 characterise virulent rabies. — Constantinescu, " De la Rage," p. 44. 
 
 The same author states that in the mountains of Eoumania, persons bitten b\- 
 mad dogs or wolves have no fear for the consequences if the wotmds have been 
 made through their clothes, while they pretend to be much alarmed if they are 
 bitten through the uncovered skin. 
 
 * From 1842 until this yeai-, I cannot obtain the exact number of deaths.
 
 Mortality. 
 
 157 
 
 In 1855 there died of 
 
 hydrophobia 
 
 14] 
 
 persons 
 
 1856 
 
 » 
 
 )» 
 
 5 
 
 )> 
 
 1857 
 
 » 
 
 >» • • 
 
 3 
 
 t> 
 
 1858 
 
 » 
 
 »> 
 
 2 
 
 >9 
 
 1859 
 
 )> 
 
 » 
 
 4 
 
 »> 
 
 1860 
 
 i> 
 
 » 
 
 3 
 
 >> 
 
 1861 
 
 »j 
 
 j» 
 
 4 
 
 )' 
 
 1862 
 
 n 
 
 »> 
 
 1 
 
 )> 
 
 1863 
 
 » 
 
 n 
 
 4 
 
 » 
 
 1864 
 
 M 
 
 >» 
 
 12 
 
 »» 
 
 1865 
 
 n 
 
 >» 
 
 19 
 
 >> 
 
 1866 
 
 » 
 
 >» 
 
 36 
 
 »> 
 
 1867 
 
 » 
 
 » 
 
 10 
 
 » 
 
 1868 
 
 » 
 
 »> 
 
 . 7 
 
 » 
 
 1869 
 
 » 
 
 »> 
 
 . 8 
 
 >» 
 
 To every 1,000,000 persons the number of deaths from 1851 
 to 1867 has been : — 
 
 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 
 
 1 -8 -6 -9 -1 -3 -2 -1 -2 
 
 1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 
 
 •2 -2 -05 •2-6 12 -5 
 
 The mean annual rate of mortality from hydrophobia in 
 England for fifteen years, to every 1,000,000 inhabitants, 
 was 'S. 
 
 In Scotland, the deaths from this disease were : — 
 
 In 1855 
 1856 
 1857 
 1858 
 1859 
 1860 
 1861 
 1862 
 1863 
 1864 
 1865 
 1866 
 
 
 
 
 
 From 1855 to 1864, a period of ten years, the proportion of 
 victims to hydrophobia in every 100,000 deaths from every 
 disease in that country was 6. 
 
 The statistics of deaths from hydrophobia in France do not 
 appear to have been very generally or regularly obtained ;
 
 158 
 
 Rabies ajid Hydrophobia. 
 
 according to Boudin, tliey have been received only from the 
 chief places in that country. The list prepared by the Minister 
 of Public Works, from documents furnished by the large towns, 
 gives the following numbers : — 
 
 
 Died from hydrophobia. 
 
 Died £i-om other causes 
 
 In 1854 . 
 
 47 
 
 194,222 
 
 1855 . 
 
 34 
 
 196,088 
 
 1856 . 
 
 12 
 
 111,906 
 
 1857 . 
 
 18 
 
 132,192 
 
 1858 . 
 
 39 
 
 121,799 
 
 1860 . 
 
 17 
 
 145,354 
 
 This minimum of deaths from hydrophobia, however, only 
 comprises those occurring in a fraction of the French popu- 
 lation, and the same authority argues that there is no reason to 
 believe that they are less numerous in the country and in small 
 localities, than in the chief towns of the arrondissements and 
 other towns having at least 10,000 inhabitants ; indeed, the 
 contrary is more probable, for preventive measures should be 
 generally better enforced, and bitten persons more speedily 
 attended to, in large towois than in the country ; besides, in the 
 latter, people are also liable to come in contact with wolves and 
 foxes, animals which furnish their contingent to the disease. 
 Taking, therefore, the localities for which the cause of death 
 is not specified, and assigning to them the same proportions as 
 for the towns, the probable number of persons who perished in 
 France would be in — 
 
 1854 
 1855 
 1856 
 1857 
 1858 
 1860 
 
 249 
 162 
 
 70 
 117 
 288 
 
 91 
 
 This estmate gives a mean annual rate of deaths from hydro- 
 phobia for the whole of France of 162, a very high rate indeed. 
 In Prussia, according to Dieterich, the number of deaths 
 from the malady were : — 
 
 In 1844 
 1845 
 1846 
 
 20 
 15 
 
 28
 
 Mortality. 
 
 159 
 
 From 1820 to 1834 inclusive, a period of fifteen years, 1,073 
 persons succumbed to hydrophobia in that kingdom, or about 
 •71 every year. 
 
 In Bavaria the deaths from 1844 to 1850 inclusive, were 39. 
 
 Austria appears to have suffered severely during the period 
 from 1830 to 1838, and again from 1839 to 1847. The foUow- 
 ing statement is interesting, as sho'vsdng the divisions of the 
 empire in which hydrophobia was most prevalent : — 
 
 
 1830 to 1838. 
 
 1839 to 1847 
 
 Lo"wer Austria . . . . 
 
 22 
 
 29 
 
 Upper Austria . . . . 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 Salzbourg .... 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 StjTia . . . . . 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 Carinthia 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 Camiola .... 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 Ga3rtz, Gradis, Istria 
 
 33 
 
 20 
 
 Trieste .... 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 TjTol and Vorarlberg 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 Bohemia .... 
 
 48 
 
 34 
 
 Moravia .... 
 
 18 
 
 8 
 
 Silesia .... 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 Galicia .... 
 
 63 
 
 81 
 
 Bukowina 
 
 12 
 
 24 
 
 Dalmatia .... 
 
 122 
 
 14 
 
 Lombardy 
 
 107 
 
 85 
 
 Venice .... 
 
 54 
 
 66 
 
 Military Frontier 
 
 83 
 
 589 
 
 67 
 
 449 
 
 These figures will afford some idea of the danger the human 
 species incurs from the prevalence of rabies. 
 
 In Sweden, according to Boudin, the mean annual death- 
 rate from hydrophobia at four different periods was : — 
 
 From 1776 to 1785 58 
 
 „ 1786 to 1790 138 
 
 1831 to 1835 
 1856 to 1860 
 
 6 
 
 42 
 
 In Belgium, from 1856 to 1860, there were only 26 deaths. 
 
 The number of persons who have perished annually from 
 hydrophobia in Algeria since the French occupation cannot, 
 for obvious reasons, be satisfactorily determined. Roucher has
 
 1 60 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 collected the records of 47 cases from 1844 to 1863, which 
 give a mean anmial mortality of 2'35. From 1860 to 1863 
 no fewer than 19 cases were recorded, a proportion exceeding 
 that noted in France. The 47 cases were thus apportioned 
 among the population — 
 
 Europeans 34 
 
 Natives 7 
 
 Nationality unknown 6 
 
 Proportions between Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 In connection with the mortality from hydrophobia in the 
 human species, to whom the disease is communicated by rabid 
 animals, it would be very interesting and valuable if we could 
 arrive at an idea as to the proportions existing between the 
 people who perish from this disease, and the number of crea- 
 tures aflfected with rabies in any country like our own, and espe- 
 cially of those animals which generate and propagate the malady. 
 No government has yet attempted to collect statistics with 
 this object, and, indeed, in England rabies has received so 
 little notice that it is not deemed worthy of being included 
 among the contagious animal diseases which merit the atten- 
 tion of the legislature ; so that we are quite at a loss with 
 regard to data which might enable us to arrive at a satisfac- 
 tory conclusion as to the extent of the danger incurred to the 
 human population through the frequency of this scourge in the 
 canine and feline species. Our history and the foregoing 
 statistics may, however, aid us to some extent, and this aid 
 may be supplemented by a reference to some other available 
 facts and figures supplied by continental authorities. 
 
 The foreign veterinary schools keep and publish an annual 
 register of the diseased animals admitted to their infirmaries, 
 and it is not unusual for the veterinary surgeons in large cities 
 to do the same ; so that if we compare the number of cases of 
 rabies recorded in these registers with the deaths from hydro- 
 phobia which are accurately noted in nearly every country, we
 
 Relative Propo7dions. i6i 
 
 shall be able to form some estimate, perhaps, of the relative 
 proportions between rabies and hydrophobia. But it will be 
 seen that this estimate will be far from correct, inasmuch as 
 every rabid dog does not come under the cognizance of these 
 public-spirited men ; many die or are killed without being 
 reported; so that the valuation, so far as the dogs are con- 
 cerned, will be under rather than over the truth. 
 
 We will take Paris as a city in which the canine race is 
 tolerably numerous, and where the number of rabid dogs has 
 been pretty accurately registered, either on their admission to 
 the excellent Veterinary School at Alfort, or to the private 
 infirmaries kept by skilful veterinary surgeons. The Alfort 
 register gives, for ten years, the list of mad dogs admitted 
 annually, as follows : — 
 
 1853 . . . 11 
 
 1854 3 
 
 1855 16 
 
 1856 20 
 
 1857 17 
 
 1858 19 
 
 1859 .17 
 
 1860 20 
 
 1861 37 
 
 1862 32 
 
 Total 192 
 
 For the four last years of the above decade, M. Bourrel 
 admitted into the canine infirmary in Paris 85 rabid dogs, and 
 if we add these figures to those of Alfort for these years, we 
 shall find an annual mean of nearly 48 mad dogs in these two 
 establishments alone ; while in the entire department in which 
 Paris is situated, the average number of deaths from hydro- 
 phobia is only 2'35 a year. These figures certainly prove that 
 the number of victims to this disease in mankind is far below 
 that of the canine race, and this disproportion is no doubt 
 largely due to the intense desire the mad dog manifests to 
 wound its own species and to avoid injuring its himian co- 
 
 M
 
 1 62 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 denizens — tendencies whicli will be alluded to hereafter wh.en 
 describing the symptoms of rabies. 
 
 The history of the outbreak of rabies in Hamburg in 1851, 
 also testifies that the danger incurred by man, through co- 
 habitation with the dog, sometimes bears no relation to the 
 multiplicity of cases of rabies ; for though no fewer than 267 
 mad dogs were destroyed during the intensity of the epizooty, 
 according to Boudin there was no case of hydrophobia re- 
 corded. Other eruptions might be quoted with the same 
 object ; though some, again, show a large implication of the 
 human species and a grave mortality from hydrophobia, which 
 only peculiar circumstances — such as the greater virulency of 
 the contagium and exaggerated violence of the malady in the 
 dog — can account for. 
 
 No estimate can be made of the relative mortality in other 
 species of animals besides the canine and human species. 
 
 Mode of Access of the Virus. 
 
 There can be no doubt whatever as to the fact that a recent 
 wound, or, as it is technically termed, a " traumatic surface," is 
 capable of absorbing the contagium of rabies ; and also that the 
 most dangerous injuries are those which bleed least, or an 
 abrasion on any part of the body. But there is not the 
 same certainty with regard to the absorption of the contagium 
 by other channels, though some facts would go far to prove 
 the possibility of such an occurrence, as we have already 
 noticed. The mucous membranes would appear to be most 
 exposed to absorb the poison, particularly those of the mouth, 
 though unperceived abrasions of their surface may in reaKty be 
 present. 
 
 Enaux and Chaussier speak of persons who were affected with 
 hydrophobia through wiping their mouths and noses with 
 clothes soiled with the saliva of rabid creatures ; and Caelius 
 Aurelianus says that a woman suffered the same fate in con-
 
 Access of Virus, 1 63 
 
 sequence of wetting witli her tongue the folds of a cloak 
 which had been torn by a mad animal.* And a still more 
 marvellous instance is given by Schenkius, in which the 
 malady was produced by a scratch from a hunting knife that 
 had been used to kill a mad dog some years before, "j" It is also 
 stated by Palmarius that horses, goats, and sheep have become 
 affected through eating the straw on which rabid swine had 
 lain.+ 
 
 These instances, if they appear somewhat incredible, yet 
 ought to render us circumspect as to allowing the saliva of rabid 
 animals to come into contact with the membrane Kning the 
 mouth, nose, or eyelids, or even on the hands. Indeed, it would 
 seem doubtful whether even the gastric fluid has much in- 
 fluence in depriving the virus of its activity, since Zincke 
 inoculated a fowl with virulent saliva mixed with some of the 
 gastric fluid of a cat, and it died in fourteen days afterwards. 
 
 The ancients appear to have been fully alive to the danger of 
 allowing the contagious principle to come into contact with the 
 lining membrane of the mouth, as Celsus states that on a sound 
 condition of it depended the safety of the Psylli who sucked 
 the wounds of bitten people ; and at a later period Dioscorides is 
 particularly urgent in recommending those who perform this 
 judicious and humane operation to rinse out the mouth with 
 astringent wine, and afterwards lubricate it with oil before 
 commencing. 
 
 Van Swieten, quoting Palmarius, says that a countryman 
 was dying of hydrophobia, and being informed of this, in an 
 intermission of the fits he desired that be might take a farewell 
 of his children, which the people who kept him tied down 
 consented to ; he kissed them, and then was suffocated. On 
 the seventh day the children were seized with the same illness, 
 and died in great agony. § 
 
 * " Acutor Morb.," book iii. chap. 9. 
 t "Observ. Medicin.," book %'ii. p. 848, 
 + " Lib. de Morb. Contag." 
 ^ " De Morbis Contagiosis.' 
 M 2
 
 1 64 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 Bardsley mentions the case of a man who, while sleeping on 
 the ground, was licked ahout the mouth by a rabid dog, and 
 afterwards had hydrophobia and died. Another man was 
 attacked with the malady, and no proof could be adduced that 
 he had been bitten ; it was subsequently remembered that he 
 had used his teeth to untie the rope with which a rabid dog 
 had been hanged. 
 
 Two of the cases of death from hydrophobia included in the 
 table furnished by Boudin, were due to small dogs accustomed 
 to lick the faces of their owners, to whom the disease was in 
 this way communicated. And Mr. Lawrence mentions the 
 case of a lady who had a French poodle, of which she was very 
 fond, and which she was in the habit of allowing to lick her 
 face. She had a small pimple on her chin, the top of which 
 she had rubbed off; and, allowing the dog to indulge in his 
 usual caresses, it licked this pimple, of which the surface ^as 
 excoriated. Thus she acquired hydrophobia, of which she died. 
 In the Gentlemcm^s Magazine (vol. xx., p. 429), an instance is 
 given in which a woolcomber in Derby died of hydrophobia, 
 having become fatally infected by taking off the skin of a mad 
 dog, and casually putting the knife to his mouth. Lipscomb 
 mentions the case of a poor man in Kent who was seized with 
 the malady through allowing a dog, apparently in health, to 
 lick an ulcer on his leg, having been persuaded of the sanative 
 influence of that practice. 
 
 Youatt asserts that in more than a score of cases of rabies in 
 the horse, the disease was induced by their stable companions, 
 Dalmatian dogs, licking them about the nose ; but we are 
 inclined to believe that bites were more probably the means of 
 inoculation. 
 
 The unbroken skin of the hands would appear to be perfectly 
 impervious to the poison, as there is no mention of any evil 
 consequences having ever befallen the many veterinary surgeons 
 who, in studying the malady, ministering to diseased animals 
 when alive, or examining their bodies after death, must often-
 
 Incubation. 1 65 
 
 times have had saliva and blood smeared upon these pai-ts. 
 But the danger must be great when there are recent excoriations 
 or abrasions on the skin. 
 
 Incubation. 
 
 The poison of rabies having obtained access to the living tissues 
 by a wound, an abrasion of surface, or perhaps through a very 
 thin but intact membrane — though this is doubtful — gives rise 
 to pathological manifestations after a variable period of time, 
 according to the predisposition of the creature inoculated ; in 
 other words, according as the organic soil in which the morti- 
 ferous seed is sown is more or less prepared for its evolution. 
 And the early appearance of the morbid symptoms may, perhaps, 
 depend upon the activity of the virus, as we have evidence to 
 show that it is more prompt in producing its effects in some 
 species of animals than others, and is even more virulent in the 
 same species the nearer it is to its primary source. 
 
 What takes place during this incubatory or latent period we 
 know not ; but it may be confidently asserted that in no other 
 malady is this interregnum more variable and uncertain ; indeed, 
 if we are to credit some reports, the duration of the latent stage 
 is indefinite. The capriciousness of the virus of rabies in this 
 respect is certainly very remarkable and unaccountable. The 
 wounds produced by rabid animals generally heal up readily, 
 and leave but slight traces, and to all appearance those who 
 have been injured appear to be as well as usual. True, in some 
 rare instances in the human subject, pain has been experienced in 
 the region of the wound for a considerable time after the 
 receipt of the injury, and still more rarely a quickened pulse 
 and slight fever have been present from this time until the 
 disease became manifest. In other exceptional cases, silent 
 changes seemed to be taking place in the constitution, evidenced 
 by general debility, a quick, weak, and easily excited pulse, sal- 
 low looks, and sunken eyes. But, as a rule, the health remains 
 to all appearance the same as before the inoculation ; and so
 
 1 66 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 subtle is the poison that, according to Van Swieten, persons 
 who afterwards die of hydrophobia may, in the incubatory stage, 
 contract diseases of various kinds, even virulent diseases, such 
 as variola, without the course of the rabies being thereby 
 modified in the least, or its evolution retarded. What occult 
 influence is at work, what changes may be taking place previous 
 to the manifestation of the first symptoms, is a matter of pure 
 hypothesis. The venom of the cobra, hydrocyanic acid, strych- 
 nine, and other poisons, produce eifects more or less prompt 
 and decided, according to the amount introduced into the body 
 of any animal, and we can exactly prognosticate not only the 
 result, but the time about which it should occur. The virus of 
 contagious diseases, and more particularly hydrophobia, diflfers 
 from these, inasmuch as a minute quantity is as potent in 
 inducing its particular malady, in a certain time, as a large 
 quantity ; and in the special disease now under consideration 
 it may lie in a latent condition for a long period without afford- 
 ing the slightest indication of its presence. 
 
 Faber imagined that the contagious principle became encysted 
 after its introduction into the body, and that it was only under 
 the influence of certain favourable conditions — such as the 
 inflammation of the cyst — that it entered the blood. 
 
 Dr. Brown Sequard is of opinion that an alteration takes 
 place in the part of the body that has been bitten by a rabid 
 dog, before the convulsive and other phenomena of hydrophobia 
 appear ; and also that the convulsions of hydrophobia occur by 
 fits following a kind of aura (pain or other sensations) starting 
 from the wound of the bite or its cicatrix, which then very 
 often gives way, and is replaced by a bleeding or suppurating 
 sore. He admits that there is a poisonous principle in the 
 saliva of rabid individuals ; but he thinks that it is in con- 
 sequence of changes produced locally in the nerves woimded 
 by the bite that the phenomena of hydrophobia occur. In 
 support of this view he mentions a most interesting case com- 
 municated to him by Dr. Stokes, of Dublin, and which occurred
 
 Incubation. 167 
 
 in the practice of Dr. Stokes's father. A tourniquet was 
 applied to the bitten limb of a patient attacked with hydro- 
 phobia, and the symptoms quickly improved, and even seemed 
 to cease altogether. The surgeon then proposed to his colleagues 
 to amputate the limb ; but they declined to assent to the opera- 
 tion. It was ascertained several times that so long as the 
 tourniquet was applied to the limb no convulsions occurred, 
 while they came on as soon as the tourniquet was removed. 
 As from a fear of inducing gangrene the tourniquet was not 
 constantly applied, the spasms returned, and the patient idti- 
 mately died.* As in man so in the animal ; for Roll states that 
 in many cases there appears to be a greater amount of sensi- 
 bility in the cicatrix, which is manifested by the creature 
 licking, rubbing, or scratching it. 
 
 Virchow was of opinion that the contagium of rabies has an 
 action similar to that of ferments, and that the new elements 
 introduced at the point of inoculation are being continually intro- 
 duced into the blood, by means of which they act on the nervous 
 system. He also says that in the latent period the conta- 
 gium should be ehminated from the blood during the course of 
 the regulating metamorphic movements, and that rabies only 
 appears when these elements have accumulated in an excessive 
 quantity — as may perhaps occur in consequence of the multipli- 
 cation of the ferment at the time of a new inflammation of the 
 wound. 
 
 Roll thought that, after inoculation, there might be pro- 
 duced insensible alterations in the nervous apparatus, as is 
 the case in alcoholic intoxication — these alterations becoming 
 manifest by the symptomatic ensemble when the animal is sub- 
 mitted to certain unfavourable conditions. 
 
 However this may be, it would appear that a certain stage 
 
 must be attained in the development or increase of the poison 
 
 before the disease manifests itself ; and, as has been suggested, 
 
 a double zymosis or fermentation (if the term may be allowed) 
 
 * "Lectures on the Central Nervous System," p. 261.
 
 1 68 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 may also take place, first in tlie part, and afterwards in the 
 system, the result of which is either to multiply the poison or 
 to increase its virulency. Many instances are on record which 
 appear to support this surmise, particularly those in which local 
 disturbance in the seat of the injury has preceded the more 
 urgent symptoms of the disease. For example, Pouteau gives 
 the history of a case of hydrophobia in which, about thirty- 
 two days after the man was bitten, and the day previous to the 
 first symptoms showing themselves, two red pimples, white at 
 the top, appeared precisely at the spot on the back of the 
 hand, where the dog had made the wound, and which was then 
 only a scar. They soon disappeared.* 
 
 Boerhaave states that when hydrophobia is in its latent con- 
 dition the wound becomes painful again, and vague pains are 
 subsequently perceived in neighbouring parts. And Salius 
 Diversus, who imagined he had discovered an infallible sign of 
 threatening rabies, asserted that a peculiar pain was set up at 
 the seat of the bite, and from thence it ascended by insensible 
 degrees to the brain in the space of three or four days, and 
 gave rise to vertigo, f 
 
 This local aura, however, is not always present, and many 
 cases are observed in the human species in which it is entirely 
 absent. 
 
 * " Essai sur le Eage." Lyons, 1763, p. 31. 
 
 t "When the bitten body beginneth to grow into madness, he sensibly 
 feeleth a paine, though not very great, in the place that he was bitten in, -which, 
 creeping fi-om place to place, about three or fower days after it beginneth, or a 
 little more, ascendeth to the brain, where it causeth a kind of giddynesse and a 
 certaine manner of confusion withall, whereby the sicke bodie beginneth to 
 stagger and reele this way and that way, and shortly after falleth starke mad." 
 — Spachman, " A Declaration of such Grievous Accidents as commonly follow 
 the Bitting of Mad Dogges." London, 1C13, p. 23. 
 
 "The first effects of a poisonous saliva appear rarely before the third day, 
 sometimes not till the thirtieth or fortieth, .and some instances are related of the 
 poison laying dormant two or three years— nay longer— and then breaking out. 
 It generally shows itself at the full or new moon, when a sharp pricking pain is 
 felt in the part where the bite was given, although the wound shall have been 
 healed some time.''— Zr/y«>Y/, "An Essay on the Bite of a Mad Dog." London; 
 1762, p. 27.
 
 I?icubation. 1 69 
 
 The supposed localisation of tlie infecting principle in or 
 around the wound in the form of pustules or vesicles, after the 
 injury has been almost or quite healed up, and to which the 
 designation of " primary lysses " lias been given, has been 
 frequently alluded to. 
 
 And again, there are the " secondary lyssi," so long tradition- 
 ally believed in by the inhabitants of Greece and Russia before 
 made known to the world by Xantbos and Marocbetti. This 
 sign, as before noticed, consisted of a pustular or vesicular 
 eruption beneath the tongue, wbicb appeared soon after the 
 commencement of the incubation stage — within a few days, 
 according to these authors. Magistel, who paid particular at- 
 tention to this subject, says that be saw the *' lyssi " in different 
 individuals on the sixth, eleventh, and twentieth day after the 
 bite of a rabid dog, and that after the twenty- second day he 
 never succeeded in finding them, although he looked for them, 
 until the thirty-fourth day after the inoculation of the virus.* 
 
 The existence of these secondary lyssi has given rise to much 
 dispute, the majority of the most competent authorities being 
 incredulous as to their ever appearing in this situation, and 
 though for a time the subject was allowed to subside, it has 
 recently been brought forward again by Auzias-Turenne.t 
 
 * " Memoire sur THydrophobie " {" Journal de I'Hopital de Burley." Paris, 
 1824.) 
 
 t "Aper9u Historique et Philosophique sur les Lysses ou Vesicles de la 
 Rage " ("Eecueilde Med. Veterinaire," vol. v. 5tli series, p. 658.) 
 
 Marocbetti asserted tbat in a person bitten by a mad animal, tbe virus accu- 
 mulates and is temporarily retained about tbe orifices of tbe sublingual ducts, on 
 tbe sides of tbe frsenum of tbe tongue, and on tbe lower aspect of tbat organ. 
 In tbese places several epbemeral pustules sbow tbemselves, wbose fluctuation 
 can be perceived by means of a probe. Tbe time at wbicb tbey appear is not 
 certain, but they usually correspond to tbe interval between the third and ninth 
 day after tbe bite, though tbey have been seen so late as the thirty-fourth day. 
 If the virus in tbese pustules is not destroyed within twenty-four hours after 
 tbey appear, it is resorbed and the disease soon manifests itself. It is therefore 
 necessarj', during six weeks at least, to examine carefully, several times each day, 
 the lower part of the tongue of a person who has been bitten. If the pustules 
 appear, open and cauterise them promptly ; but if tbey do not form, it is certain 
 that tbe individual will not sufl'er from hydrophobia.
 
 1 70 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 The celebrated Trousseau is not a disbeliever in their pre- 
 sence ; for he admits that this peculiar sublingual eruption may 
 be met with in a certain number of cases of rabies (in man), 
 but that one must know how, and particularly when, to look 
 for it, namely, at the commencement of the incubation stage, 
 and not in the period of invasion or of confirmed rabies, since 
 the eruption has disappeared by that time, without leaving any 
 trace behind. " In the present state of science we may not, 
 perhaps, have the right to deny, as has been done, the presence 
 of lyssi in rabies. This eruption should, therefore, be searched 
 for in persons who have been recently bitten by a rabid animal, 
 and whose wounds have not been cauterised. The accuracy of 
 the statements made by Marochetti and Xanthos may easily be 
 tested, because the wounds inflicted by rabid animals are rarely 
 cauterised sufficiently early, and to a sufficient depth, to prevent 
 absorption of the virus ; so that in a certain proportion of cases, 
 the presence of lyssi ought to be made out from the third to 
 the twentieth day after the inoculation. I need not dwell on 
 the advantages that would be obtained if the statements made 
 by Marochetti, Xanthos, and Magistel were confirmed. Rabies 
 could then be diagnosed during its incubation stage, and if by 
 laying open and cauterising these vesicles the ulterior mani- 
 festations of the disease can be prevented, the complaint could 
 be cured as soon as the sub-lingual eruption was detected. I 
 cannot, therefore, too strongly recommend practitioners to look 
 out for the presence of lyssi in individuals who have been ex- 
 posed to the risk of being inoculated with rabies. The examina- 
 tion should be made regularly twice a day, according to 
 Marochetti, because the eruption does not show itself on a 
 fixed day, and the vesicles break easily. The same authority 
 adds, that the eruption comes on at an earlier period in pro- 
 portion to the amount of poison deposited in the wound, and 
 that the invasion of the confirmed disease comes on also earlier, 
 according to the early date of the appearance of the eruption.". 
 
 Trousseau likewise adds : " There seems to have been of late
 
 Incubation. i y i 
 
 a disinclination to attach any importance to the presence of this 
 eruption, and it has been said that it was a very extraordinary 
 circumstance, without its analogue in pathology, that the virus 
 of rabies should be localised — stored-up in a particular region 
 I cannot entirely concur in this opinion ; and, without desiring 
 to prove that this localisation of the virus is a perfectly natural 
 phenomenon, which might have been foreseen, I will merely 
 call attention to the fact that in most virident diseases, a 
 primary localisation of the virus may be detected in a particidar 
 tissue organ, and that the disease gives rise to general mani- 
 festations only secondarily. Thus, in eruptive fevers, we see 
 the morbid principle affect the skin primarily, and the lumbar 
 portion of the spinal cord in small-pox, the bronchial and 
 laryngeal mucous membrane in measles, and the kidneys in 
 scarlatina. We see syphiKs limit itself, in the first instance, 
 to the lymphatic ganglia in the groin and in the occipital 
 region, and station itself for a time in the lymphatic system 
 before giving rise to secondary manifestations in mucous mem- 
 branes and in the skin. Again, we see the poison of glanders 
 affect the mucous membrane of the nose in the beginning, 
 and it is only after a time that other mucous membranes are 
 involved, together with the skin, the cellidar tissue, the joints, 
 and viscera. 
 
 " If in virulent diseases in general, therefore, the virulent 
 principle has a primary elective seat, why should one refuse to 
 admit, on d priori grounds, that the virus of rabies, when 
 inoculated into any part of the body, can act primarily on a 
 determinate and localised region ? Why should any surprise 
 be felt at its selecting the free extremities of the excretory 
 ducts of the salivary glands, when no doubt is nowadays enter- 
 tained as to the saliva itself being the vehicle of the poison ? 
 Again, why wonder that a special eruption shoidd be confined 
 to the region where the excretory ducts of the sublingual and 
 submaxillary glands terminate, when experiments by Claude 
 Bernard have proved that all the salivary glands do not possess
 
 172 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 similar properties ? Lastly, when it has been experimentally 
 shown that certain substances, such as iodine and the iodides of 
 potassium and of iron, are more rapidly eliminated by the 
 salivary glands than by any other organs, why should it not be 
 admitted that these glands may eliminate a virulent principle 
 which, after a definite time and by virtue of special circum- 
 stances, lodges and is stored up in the extremities of the 
 excretory ducts of these glands, or in the salivary follicles in 
 their vicinity ? Marochetti thought that the virus which had 
 been thus deposited was, after a certain time, absorbed, and 
 then gave rise to all the symptoms of confirmed rabies. He 
 therefore followed the traditional practice of the inhabitants of 
 Thessaly and Ukraine, and made an early incision through the 
 vesicles, so as to give issue to the virulent matter, and then 
 cauterised them with a red-hod iron. He afiirms that this plan 
 always succeeded in the numerous cases which came under his 
 observation in Ukraine. One cannot take too much pains to 
 look for this peculiar eruption, since it would be the only sign 
 by which the incubation stage of rabies can be diagnosed, and 
 since by cauterising it one may arrest the fatal progress of the 
 disease."* 
 
 Whatever the results of more extended and careful observa- 
 tion may develope in the future, with regard to the localisation 
 of the rabid virus, either at the point of inoculation, the region 
 of the tongue, or elsewhere, during the latent period of the 
 disease, it may be accepted at present that, of several indivi- 
 duals inoculated, all do not become afiected with the malady ; 
 and yet during this interval there is nothing to indicate which 
 will be attacked and which escape, neither is there anything 
 by which to foretell when it may appear. In the words of 
 Dr. Beale, we might say, " Just as a seed may remain perfectly 
 quiescent, but nevertheless in a living state, for a long period 
 of time, without growing or giving any evidence of vitality, so 
 there is reason to think that many kinds of bioplasm (of which 
 * "Lectures on Clinical Medicine." By A. Trousseau. London, 1867.
 
 Incubation. 173 
 
 the virulent principle of rabies is no doubt one) may remain in 
 a living, but almost dormant, state in tbe system, ready to 
 spring into active existence should the conditions favourable to 
 their existence be brought about, and the pabulum for their 
 
 nutrition be at hand the development of the forms of 
 
 disease characteristic of their presence being determined by the 
 state of the system and the conditions to which it is exposed."* 
 
 We know not whether the contagium is present in the saliva,-{- 
 the blood, or other fluids, while the disease is yet in its occult 
 state, and are only made aware of its existence when it begins 
 to produce its painfully characteristic efiects. 
 
 In many instances rabies appears without any apparently 
 exciting cause, the poison having germinated sufiiciently to 
 induce those morbid changes or physiological derangements 
 which mark the presence of this malady. At other times 
 some internal or external influence promptly puts an end to its 
 latency, and developes the disorder in all its malignancy. 
 Excitement, anger, sexual irritability, terror, injury to the cica- 
 trix, sudden changes of temperature, and morbid disturbance, 
 &c., appear sometimes to exercise a powerful influence in hasten- 
 ing its advent in the lower animals. A remarkable instance 
 of the effect of terror in inducing what appeared to be rabies, 
 occurred in my own experience in 1865, while stationed with my 
 regiment at Manchester. A very small toy terrier, the gift of a 
 friend, had been in my possession about three weeks, and had 
 not been wounded by any dog to my knowledge. It appeared 
 perfectly healthy, and was as playfid as usual, when, in August 
 of that year, going on leave to Warwickshire, I took this little 
 creature with me, and had it in the railway carriage during 
 the journey. Playful at starting, it soon lay down on a cushion 
 
 * " Disease Germs: their Real Nature," p. 164. 
 
 t It is much to be regretted that Marochetti and others -who have seen the 
 secondary lyssi did not resort to inoculation with the contents of the vesicles to 
 prove whether they really contained the morhific element. This, I imagine, 
 would have established the correctness of their hypothesis, or altogether disproved 
 it, and could have been easily carried out.
 
 174 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 and slept, as there were no other passengers in the compart- 
 ment, and continued in this state until, on entering Crewe 
 station, the engine of a passing train suddenly blew the 
 whistle close to our carriage. The shrill sound and the noise 
 caused the dog to spring up apparently in a frantic state of 
 alarm. It gave vent to strange yelps, something between a 
 howl, a scream, and a bark, and commenced to rim round the 
 compartment, jumping up on the seats, climbing the walls as 
 if trying to escape, and behaving like an animal perfectly 
 furious. Though before extremely obedient and affectionate, 
 now it would not listen to me ; indeed, it seemed to be deaf, 
 and I had much difficulty in securing it. Buttoning it up 
 firmly in the breast of my light overcoat, it continued to scream 
 in the same manner, and was perfectly indifierent to all kind 
 words. Soon after, quantities of ropy saliva began to flow 
 from the mouth, and this, through the incessant struggles of 
 the poor beast to get away, was not long in saturating the 
 clothes it was in contact with. It also showed an urgent dis- 
 position to bite when taken hold of, snapping at the hand 
 which seized its neck, an action it had never previously exhi- 
 bited. The occurrence was so unusual and so startling, that 
 though I half suspected rabies, I could not bring myself to 
 believe that the disease would appear in this very sudden 
 manner, and be excited by such a cause ; for the creature was 
 more or less accustomed to noises from the time it had been 
 given to me. Nevertheless, I was careful to keep my hands 
 covered by strong gloves, and to prevent the saliva reaching 
 my face. 
 
 On reaching my destination some time after the manifesta- 
 tion of these symptoms, the dog, still in the same condition, 
 was let loose on the platform of the railway station, and it ran 
 into the station-master's house and under the bed of a back room. 
 Here it was seized with difficulty, and taken home, where it 
 was turned out in the garden, and all the characteristic symp- 
 toms of rabies in a violent form were soon noted : the peculiar
 
 Inciibafio7i. 
 
 175 
 
 expression of the physiognomy, the curled-iip lip, exposing the 
 canine teeth, the foamy saliva hanging from the mouth in long 
 strings, the arched hack, head held low on the ground, and — 
 most curious symptom of all — a perpetual gulping, as if the 
 creature was trying to swallow something. It started away 
 among the trees, heneath shruhs, and crept into all the remote 
 corners, as if to hide itself. It appeared to be almost blind, as 
 it ran against objects in its way, and its hearing at intervals 
 being also evidently affected, it would allow me to approach 
 to within a short distance, when it immediately rushed off again 
 Kke a hunted hare, until it reached another out-of-the-way 
 spot, where it once more assumed the striking attitude just 
 mentioned. The chirp of a bird, or the rustling of the leaves 
 of a shrub, appeared to throw it into a convulsive fit, and gave 
 it a most alarming and distressing appearance. There could be 
 no doubt now, it was thought, as to the nature of the disorder, 
 and as the dog was a household pet, and much valued, it was 
 determined to try the effect of treatment, which the very small 
 size of the animal and a pair of gardener's gloves on the hands 
 permitted to be carried out without injury to the attendant, 
 though without success, as it died on the second day. An ex- 
 amination of the body revealed the existence of the most com- 
 mon pathological lesions of the disease : congestion of the brain 
 and the mucous membrane at the base of the tongue ; the 
 lining membrane of the stomach and intestines was also deeply 
 injected. 
 
 Was this a case of spontaneous rabies, produced by terror, or 
 had the dog been bitten by a rabid animal before it came into 
 my possession ? If the latter, the usual premonitory symptoms, 
 or " first stage," had passed imnoticed. 
 
 It has been suggested that it may have been a case of epilepsy, 
 but the symptoms were certainly very different to those I have 
 witnessed in that diseased condition. 
 
 In the human being, the influence of a moral cause in the 
 development of the hydrophobic symptoms has been noted at
 
 176 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 various times ; but tlie most interesting, perhaps, are tlie fol- 
 lowing : — 
 
 A man, aged thirty-seven years, was admitted to the Saint 
 Louis Hospital, Paris. His case is reported by M. Malherbe. 
 Six weeks before admission he had been bitten by a cat, but 
 this circumstance he did not allude to when first seen. He 
 then complained of a pain in his left arm. Being afterwards 
 interrogated, it was discovered that the cat had been ill for 
 some days, and had been killed soon after it bit him. The bite, 
 which was in the left arm, had been cauterised by a druggist. 
 Cicatrisation had been complete for some time, when one of his 
 neighbours said to him, " I have hanged my cat. Yours bit it, 
 and it went mad." The unfortunate man was greatly moved 
 by this statement, and immediately afterwards experienced the 
 first symptoms of the disease, which were not severe until the 
 12th August, 1869, the date on which he was admitted to the 
 hospital, where he soon after died, of course. 
 
 Sauvages alludes to an instance of hydrophobia occurring in 
 a man who had been bitten by a mad wolf. This individual 
 continued in good health until the thirty-third day after the 
 bite, when, as he was dressing his vines, a person who was 
 passing by, entering into conversation on the subject of his 
 accident, inadvertently told him of several people who had died 
 of hydrophobia six months after they were bitten. This made 
 such an impression upon the man, that, on his return home, he 
 became low-spirited and pensive, and had no appetite for food ; 
 the injured parts, which had healed up, inflamed in a very 
 violent manner; a fever ensued, for which he was bled four 
 times in twelve hours — together with a dread of water, and 
 other symptoms of the disease. On the fifth day he put an end 
 to his sufierings by hanging himself. * 
 
 The Tribune (vol. i., p. 245) alludes to the case of a 
 woman who had been bitten in the face, and who was admitted 
 to the Hotel Dieu, Paris. After a few days she was cured of 
 * "Dissertation but la Rage. Chefs d'CEuvre de M. Sauvages."
 
 Incubation. i y y 
 
 her wounds and discharged. Going about her usual avocations 
 one day, she heard a man exclaim, *' She has not yet gone mad, 
 then ? " From that time she could not swallow liquids, and 
 on the same day re-entered the Hotel Dieu, but this time to 
 die of hydrophobia.* 
 
 One of the most recent examples of this dangerous im- 
 pressionability of the imagination I can find, is that related by 
 M. Bucquoy. A woman in the clinic of Dr. Maisonneuve 
 had been bitten by a dog, which was supposed not to be rabid, 
 and the injury had healed ; when, two months after the acci- 
 dent, she was met by two students who had been with the 
 doctor at the time, and who asked her if she was not yet mad. 
 Immediately she was seized with nervous symptoms, became 
 intensely anxious and uneasy, and went into the hospital in the 
 belief that she was hydrophobic. She was put xmder the care 
 of M. Langier, and the following day was evidently afiected 
 with the disease ; hemiplegia appeared, with a violent deHrivmi, 
 accompanied by an irrepressible amount of fear, and she died 
 asphyxiated in forty-eight hours, t 
 
 As has been said, the period of incubation of rabies is very 
 uncertain, and in many cases it cannot be ascertaiaed with any 
 degree of probability ; as animals are frequently wounded by 
 others without any particular notice being taken of the circum- 
 stance, and also as frequently without any one observing the 
 injuries at the time of, or eveh after, their infliction. Indeed, 
 it is common to hear the owners of rabid dogs assert that their 
 dogs had never been from home ; or, if abroad, had never left 
 
 * These instances -would appear to have nothing very surprising in them, -when 
 ■we know what a powerful influence the mind, or rather moral causes, exercise 
 on the composition and secretion of the humours ; when we see, for example, the 
 urine, usually neutral or even alkaline in character, hecome suddenly acid as a 
 result of bad news. The secretion of this fluid in a hysterical paroxysm, the flow 
 of bile and subsequent diarrhoea by terror, the gush of tears which grief excites, 
 and the production of milk by a mother while in a fit of anger so hurtful as to 
 poison her ofi'spring— are all so many proofs of the influence referred to. The 
 green frog, irritated by pain, secretes a venom which, for deadliness, has been 
 compared to that of the rattlesnake. 
 
 t Cosmos, Juno, 1860.
 
 178 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 them for a second ; that they could not, therefore, be bitten 
 without their knowledge, and they were not cognizant of Buch 
 an occurrence ; while others do not deny that their animals were 
 bitten, but they do not know when, where, or how.* Yet it 
 is most essential, with a view to preventive measures, that we 
 should know everything about the duration of the incubatory 
 period. 
 
 In the Dog, Lafosse states that the shortest authenticated 
 
 * In illustration of this fact, I may adduce the following incidents related by 
 Blaine. He says: " I was requested by a gentleman residing in Wimpole Street, 
 to examine a dog, which I at once pronounced rabid ; on which he promptly 
 informed me that if the dog was so, he certainly must have become so without 
 infection (which he knew was in direct opposition to my opinion) : for that this 
 dog, which was a very great favourite, had never, for many months, been out of 
 doors alone, nor, indeed, at any time out of the sight of either himself or his 
 valet, who was also attached to the dog, and had the express care of him when 
 his master was absent. As, therefore, neither of them had ever seen him bitten, 
 they were positive on the subject. Anxious to arrive at the truth where so 
 important a matter was concerned, I commenced a close examination of the other 
 servants ; and it was at length remembered by the footman that one morning, 
 when the master's bell rang for the valet to take this dog from the bedroom, as 
 he was accustomed to do, his absence occasioned the footman to answer it ; and 
 this man distinctly recollected the dog accompanying him to the street door, and 
 also that, while engaged in receiving a message brought, he as distinctly remem- 
 bered that the dog went a little way into the street, and was suddenly attacked 
 by another that passed, seemingly without an owner. Here was an explanation 
 of the apparent difficulty : this passing dog, there is little reason to doubt, was 
 rabid, and, pursuing the usual march of mischief, he bit the favourite. Another 
 case, even more confirmatory of the possibility of becoming mistaken on this 
 subject, is that of a Newfoundland dog, which was constantly chained to his 
 kennel during the day, and suffered to be at large during the night within an 
 enclosed yard. This dog became rabid,''and as no dog was known to have had 
 access to the yard, it seemed to be an established certainty in the mind of his 
 owner that he generated the disease spontaneously. This case I also sifted with 
 great perseverance, to elicit the truth, which was this, — that the gardener to the 
 family remembered, one night in bed, hearing an unusual noise, as though the 
 Newfoundland dog was quarrelling with another, but which from the dog's con- 
 fined situation, made him believe was impossible, and he therefore took no 
 notice of the subject. He also recollected that about this time marks of a dog 
 appeared in his garden, which, on account of the height of the wall, surprised 
 him ; and he further remembered that remains of hair were discovered on the 
 wall which separated the garden from the yard where the dog was confined, but 
 which circumstances, until strict inquiry was made, had excited no attention. 
 About the same time the neighbourhood, it appeared, had been alarmed by the 
 absence of a large dog belonging to one of the inhabitants, which had escaped 
 from confinement during the night, evidently under symptoms of disease. Here 
 also a ready solution of the difSculty occurred."
 
 Incubation in the Dov. 
 
 179 
 
 period that occurred in his experience was 7 days, and the 
 longest 155 days. Roll gives, for the same animal, from 3 
 to 6, and rarely from 7 to 10 weeks. Blaine asserts that 
 the majority of cases occur between the third and seventh 
 week, though some are protracted to three, four, or even a 
 greater number of months. A week was the shortest period 
 he had noted. Youatt has known instances in which the first 
 symptoms have only become manifest after from 5 to 7 months, 
 and he never knew of a case occurring before 17 days interven- 
 ing. Other authorities have related cases in which the disease 
 was developed within from 3 to 10 days after contamination. 
 Of 9 cases which Peuch could rely upon, the symptoms ap- 
 peared after the bite, in each, at an interval of 95, 88, 35, 26, 
 24, 22, 18, 15, and 10 days respectively. 
 
 In 1863, Renault reported that of 68 dogs inoculcated experi- 
 mentally or bitten, the malady was developed in : — 
 
 1 from the 5th to the 10th day. 
 
 7 from the 45th to the 50th day. 
 
 4 , 
 
 10th , 
 
 , 15th „ 
 
 2 
 
 60th 
 
 )) 
 
 55th „ 
 
 6 
 
 15th , 
 
 , 20th „ 
 
 «2 
 
 55th 
 
 )» 
 
 60th „ 
 
 5 
 
 20th , 
 
 , 25th „ 
 
 4 
 
 , 60th 
 
 » 
 
 65th ,. 
 
 9 
 
 25th , 
 
 , 30th „ 
 
 1 
 
 65th 
 
 79 
 
 70th „ 
 
 
 
 , 30th , 
 
 , 35th „ 
 
 4 , 
 
 70th 
 
 » 
 
 75th „ 
 
 2 
 
 , 35th , 
 
 , 40th „ 
 
 2 
 
 80th 
 
 >» 
 
 90th „ 
 
 8 
 
 40th , 
 
 , 45th „ 
 
 1 
 
 , 100th 
 
 )> 
 
 118th „ 
 
 In Saint-Cyr's 87 cases of confirmed rabies in 1865, there 
 were only 26 the date of whose inoculation could be positively 
 ascertained. In these the latent period was : — 
 
 Cases. 
 1 
 1 
 3 
 2 
 1 
 1 
 2 
 1 
 1 
 
 Days. 
 
 Cases. 
 
 t 
 
 
 Days. 
 
 16 
 
 1 . . . .36 
 
 18 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 . 38 
 
 21 
 
 1 . 
 
 
 
 . 41 
 
 24 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 . 50 
 
 30 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 . 60 
 
 31 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 . 62 
 
 32 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 . 86 
 
 33 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 . 90 to 100 
 
 35 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 . 105 to 115 
 
 Bouley has known instances in which the latent period was 
 
 n2
 
 1 80 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 twelve days and seven months, though they were rare ; it was 
 usually from six to twelve weeks. 
 
 According to Haubner, in 200 cases the appearance of the 
 disease within 2 months was 83 per cent. ; 3 months, 16 per 
 cent. ; 4 months, 1 per cent. He mentions an instance in 
 which the incubatory period was from 7 to 8 months, and 
 another in which it was 14 months. He gives an average of 
 3 months. 
 
 On the 8th of June, 1791, the man who slept in the kennel, 
 and who had the charge of Earl Fitzwilliam's foxhounds, was 
 unusually disturbed during the night by the hounds fighting. 
 He got up several times to quiet them, but always foimd the 
 same hound quarrelling. He was induced, in consequence, to 
 notice this animal, and finding it stupid and pugnacious, he con- 
 fined it by itself. The other hoimds were quiet the remainder 
 of the night. At the end of the third day after this occurrence 
 the dog became quite rabid, and on the fifth day it died. Pre- 
 parations were made for confining forty-two couple of hoimds 
 separately. Six of these became rabid in the following order : 
 the first on July 1st ; the second on August 3rd ; the third 
 on September 3rd ; the fourth on September 4th ; the fifth 
 on November 10th ; and the sixth on December 8th. In the 
 Albrighton kennels, the latent term was from two to five 
 weeks. 
 
 From these statistics and facts, it will be seen that nothing 
 can be said with certainty, or in a positive manner, as to the 
 length of the interval which elapses between the receipt of the 
 injury and the appearance of rabies ; and that it is therefore 
 hazardous to say, when a dog has been wounded by one that is 
 rabid, at what period it may be considered safe from an attack 
 of the disease, as there are no reliable limits to this latent 
 period.* Young dogs are sooner affected than old ones. 
 
 * Sir William Maxwell, of Monreith, in giving me the history of the out- 
 break of rabies among his hounds already alluded to (p. 45), refers to an instance 
 in which the maladj' appeared in a dog, " Frank," much beyond the ordinary
 
 Incubation in the Cat and Horse. \ 8 1 
 
 With the Cat the iuciibation is said to be from 2 to 4 weeks. 
 
 In the Horse it varies from 15 days to m.ore than 2 months, 
 according to E-oll ; other authorities state that rabies does not 
 appear in this animal before 9 weeks. Blaine was of opinion 
 that the average time is the same as in the dog. Youatt 
 speaks of a case occurring 4 months after inocidation. Haubner, 
 in 40 cases, gives the latent period after 3 months as 15 per 
 cent. ; of these 15 extended to 9 months, and 1 even to 15 
 months. Peyronie gives a minimum of 15, and a maximum of 
 74 days ; and Lafosse speaks of 72, and even 92 days' incuba- 
 tion in this animal. There is a very interesting case recorded 
 in the Lyons Veterinary Journal for 1869 (p. 541), of a horse 
 that was bitten in the nose by a bull-dog. In an hour and a 
 
 period of latency. I make no apology for giving the interesting account of this 
 case in his own words. Speaking of the entii-e disappearance of the contagion 
 from the county with the destruction of the infected animals in his kennels, he 
 writes : " Among the survivors was one— a magnificent dog of the St. John's 
 breed, with a close, thick coat, strong and active as a panther, as intelligent as he 
 was handsome, and the terror of all poachers and trespassers. He never was in 
 the kennel, and one of his characteristics was, that though treating us all with 
 dignified urbanity, he never condescended to any familiarity with any one but his 
 own master, the head gamekeeper. To me a slight quiver of the tip of his tail 
 and a look of kindly recognition in the eye, was all the notice he ever gave. 
 Fulli/ eleven months after the last case of rabies I have mentioned, I walked with 
 a fiiend past the gamekeeper's house, and stojjped to speak to him as he stood at 
 the door, with his dog "Frank "in close attendance at his heel. Suddenly 
 Frank left him and came over to me, and began licking my hand vvith a hot, dry 
 tongue — laying on with all his force, as if he would take the skin ofi'. The 
 keeper called him away, but he always returned, and as we moved on seemed in- 
 cUned to follow us. I ordered them to look to him ; this departure from his usual 
 habits striking me forcibly. Next morning I had a message from the keeper 
 asking for authority to destroy Frank, as he was unmistakably mad "just like 
 the others." However, though it would have been merciful to the poor dog, yet 
 it seemed desirable from the circumstances to allow the disease to run its course, 
 and so ascertain its identity. A frightful business it was, hut no hydrophohia as 
 long as the poor beast could lap ; on the contrary, everything of liquid about the 
 
 place he laid his tongue in. He died on the fifth day It seems a subject 
 
 of grave inquiry whether Frank had carried the virus for eleven months before 
 it incubated into the fearful vigour of the disease, or whether such virus could 
 have existed in any form about fragments gnawed by the previous victims and 
 raked up by him afterwards ; or what theory to adopt to accoimt for his taking 
 the disease so long after it had totally ceased in the district : which, by-the-bye, 
 being a peninsula leading to nowhere but the sea, no passing mad dog could have 
 escaped notice."
 
 1 82 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 half after the Injury, which was inflicted on the 25th March, 
 the wounds were cauterized by the red-hot iron at the Veteri- 
 nary School in that city ; and the animal continued apparently 
 quite well, and performed its usual work until the 30th May, 
 when the first symptoms showed themselves. 
 
 M. Bouley refers to four horses admitted to the Alfort School 
 in 1862, in which the disease appeared from 8 to 12 weeks after 
 the bites were inflicted. Boudin mentions an instance in which 
 a mad dog, on the 8th July, 1849, bit a man, three horses, a 
 cow, and three pigs : all of which were successively afiected 
 with the disease during that year, with the exception of one of 
 the horses, in which it did not appear until 26th September, 
 1850— an incubation of 14 months. This period is so extra- 
 ordinarily protracted, that it might be questioned whether the 
 horse had not been bitten again in the interval. 
 
 In the Ox, Roll gives the latent stage at from nine days 
 to several months, and even more than a year, according to 
 his authorities. Young animals are usually afiected about the 
 third or fourth week after inoculation, Blaine and Youatt 
 think it is much the same as in horses and dogs. In England 
 several cases are recorded in which this period averaged about 
 two months. In one case death occurred in twenty-one days. 
 
 Haubner, from the statistics of 234 cases, states that 10 per 
 cent, occurred after 3 months ; 8 per cent, after 4 months ; 
 the last extending to 9 months. He, however, speaks of 
 instances in which the incubation was prolonged up to the end 
 of the year, 2 months beyond this, and even to 2| years. 
 
 For the Sheep and Goat, Vatel has stated the time of 
 incubation for the first-named animal to be 74 days ; and EoU 
 gives from several days to several months, but ordinarily from 
 2 to 4 weeks. During the present epizooty in Lancashire, 
 a sheep died from the disease within 14 days after the injury. 
 In 180 rabid sheep, Haubner found the latent stage to have 
 been over one month in 8 per cent. ; two months, 18 per cent. ; 
 up to 68 days, 2 per cent. Pigs, according to the last-named
 
 Incubation in the Sheep and Pig, 1 83 
 
 authority, have a period of from 9 days to several weeks or 
 months. Thorel speaks of 49 days ; and Gervi affirms that he 
 has known it extend in this creature to two years, but this is 
 very doubtful. Haubner gives this period as less than two 
 months ; but Benion says it never exceeds eight days.* The 
 malady \*sually shows itself in the pig, I believe, about the 
 fourth week. 
 
 Spinola mentions a noteworthy circumstance in connection with 
 rabies in animals. He states that gestation appears to prolong 
 the duration of incubation, and that all the long-deferred cases 
 which he knew of occurred in cows with calf; in these circum- 
 stances the disease did not usually appear until calving time 
 was over. This would be a curious feature in the malady if 
 it should be further confirmed by other observers. But doubts 
 may be entertained as to the circumstance being general. 
 During the present epizooty in Lancashire, we find in the 
 Veterinarian for March, 1869, two cases of rabies in pregnant 
 heifers reported by Mr. Worthington, of Wigan. Both of 
 these animals died — one in 21 days after being bitten — with- 
 out aborting or calving. 
 
 In Man, the time that elapses between the deposition of the 
 virus in the woimd and the annoimcement of the earliest signs 
 of its constitutional efi'ects, has been fixed at wide intervals, 
 and there does not appear to be the same amount of certainty 
 as to the limit which is observed in the lower animals. 
 
 Romberg made an analysis of sixty authentic observations, 
 and found that the shortest period of incubation was fifteen 
 days, and the most extended from seven to nine months : the 
 average period being from four to seven weeks. 
 
 In this country, the majority of cases have shown this 
 interval to be from thirty to fifty-nine days. John Hunter 
 says the longest period is seventeen months. 
 
 According to Tardieu, in 26 cases it was less than a month ; 
 in 93 cases, from one to three months; in 19 cases, from three 
 « " Traite de I'Elevage et des Maladies du Pore," rails, 1872, p. 270.
 
 1 84 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 to six montlis ; and in 9 cases from six to twelve months. In 
 87 undoubted cases, the period was a month for 17 ; one to 
 three months for 57 ; three to six months for 6 ; and six to 
 twelve months for the other 6. This observer also states that 
 it is shorter in young people than in adults or the aged. In 
 the majority of cases occurring in children aged from two to 
 ten years, the period was reduced to a month, and even to 
 from twenty-five to twenty-eight days in those aged two and 
 a-half, seven, and ten or eleven years. This was a constant 
 feature. 
 
 In the above 147 cases of hydrophobia, this authority found 
 the incubatory period then to be — 
 
 1 month in 26 cases. 
 
 1 to 3 months in 93 „ 
 
 3 to 6 „ 19 „ 
 
 6 to 12 „ 9 „ 
 
 The period also appears to have been brief as the patients were 
 yoimg, being as low as twenty-four days in a child two and 
 a-half years old. 
 
 Trousseau says that the incubation may vary from a few days 
 to a year. 
 
 Boudin states that, in 69 cases, there was an incubation of less 
 than a month in 14 ; from one to three months in 41 ; from 
 three to six months in 8 ; and six to twelve months in 6. 
 
 In 224 cases also noted in France, it was less than a month 
 in 40 ; from one to three months in 143 ; from three to six 
 months in 30 ; and from six to twelve months in 11 cases. 
 
 In Algiers, hydrophobia has been found to vary in its 
 incubatory stage from twenty to two hundred days ; an excep- 
 tional case is mentioned as occurring in nine hundred days 
 after the infliction of the injury ; but the mean duration of the 
 latent period, according to the result of Roucher's analysis, 
 has been fifty-one days ; its ordinary minimum, thirty days ; 
 and maximum, three months. Other Algerian authorities
 
 Incubation iji Alan. 185 
 
 assert that it is not so long, the mean period being thirty or 
 forty days. 
 
 Bouley mentions that out of the 129 fatal cases already 
 referred to, the period of incubation is given in 106 ; and it 
 results from the information furnished, that it is during the 
 sixty days following the bite of the dog that the manifestations 
 of hydrophobia have been most numerous — 73 in the 106 occur- 
 ring during this period. The remaining 33 cases are dispersed 
 in the following days up to the 240th day — or a period of 
 exactly eight months ; but they gradually become less nume- 
 rous, so that beyond the himdredth day the cases are only 
 represented by the figures 1 and 2. At the eighth month there 
 was only one case. 
 
 From these statistics Bouley concludes, that after a bite 
 from a rabid dog, the chances of escape from hydrojDhobia aug- 
 ment considerably when two months have passed without 
 any symptom of the malady appearing, and that beyond the 
 ninetieth day, the probability is in favour of complete immu- 
 nity. But he adds that beyond this period the danger 
 has not entirel}^ passed away, and those who have submitted 
 to virulent bites cannot be altogether re-assured ; though 
 their future prospects become less and less sombre, and the 
 victims to these injuries, as well as their friends, may reason- 
 ably entertain sanguine hopes of safety. In previous inquiries 
 it had been established that the duration of the incubatory 
 period was brief in proportion as the patient was young. The 
 results furnished by his investigation are confirmative of those 
 derived from the preceding statistics. In comparing the series 
 of periods of incubation mth each other — from three to twenty 
 years on the one side, and from twenty to seventy-two on the 
 opposite — for the first there was a mean period of forty-four 
 days, and for the other of seventy-five days — a sensible differ- 
 ence, and one which has a great interest with regard to prog- 
 nosticating the possible consequences of bites from mad animals 
 in the first period of life.
 
 1 86 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 The limits at wliicli hydropliobia has appeared in man after 
 the bite of a mad animal are very wide, and in some instances 
 almost, if not quite, incredible. For instance, Haguenot, citing 
 Sauvages as the authority, gives the history of a peasant who 
 was suffering from the most urgent symptoms of hydrophobia 
 T)n the third day after he had been bitten by a mad wolf. 
 Troilliet even quotes instances in which the characteristic 
 
 . symptoms appeared as early as the day following the injury, 
 and others on the eighth day. Sidey mentions their appear- 
 ance on the twelfth day. 
 
 The other extreme has furnished still more startling cases. 
 Chirac describes the case of a merchant who was bitten by a 
 rabid dog at Montpellier, afterwards resided ten years in 
 Holland, and was only attacked by hydrophobia on his return 
 to France, when he learnt that a brother cadet, who was 
 bitten at the same time by the same animal, had died of the 
 disease. 
 
 Finco, of Padua, gives an instance, in an Italian medical 
 journal, of a young woman who became affected with hydro- 
 
 "" phobia fourteen years after receiving a wound from a rabid 
 dog. In the " Transactions of the Vienna Medical Associa- 
 tion," Hassinger records a case in which the incubatory stage 
 extended over two years. And Mr. Thomson mentions the 
 case of a lad eighteen years of age, who had been twenty-five 
 months in close confinement in prison, and of course during 
 that time had not been exposed to the bite of any animal. 
 Seven years before his admission, he had been severely bitten 
 in the right hip by a dog, and the scar was still apparent. 
 During the whole period he was under observation he was 
 sullen, gloomy, and reserved, and was never known to look 
 
 v_any person in the face to whom he spoke. Death occurred 
 
 after a three days' illness, during which "the most decided 
 
 symptoms of hydrophobia were manifested."* On the 15th 
 
 May, 1854, a case was admitted into Guy's Hospital, in which 
 
 * Aitkcn, Oil cU., p. 719. Lancet, vol. i.
 
 Incubation in Man. 187 
 
 hydropliobia appeared to have been developed five years after 
 the bite was inflicted.* 
 
 In the daily papers for January 6, 1872, there appeared a 
 notice of a boy, fourteen years of age, who died at Nottingham 
 from hydrophobia, induced by a bite on the eyebrow from a 
 dog which had bitten his father at the same time ; the latter 
 had perished of the disease seven months before. — - 
 
 In 1831, Trousseau saw a young man sufiering from hydro- 
 phobia, who had been bitten by a cat seven or eight months 
 previously; the animal, immediately after inflicting the injury, 
 disappeared from the house and had not afterwards returned. 
 
 The cases in which the incubatory stage has been so greatly 
 prolonged, while they have been discredited by some of the 
 best authorities, yet are in some instances vouched for by men 
 who would not allow themselves to be deceived, if possible ; 
 and it would be injudicious to ignore the lesson they inculcate, 
 with respect to adopting every precaution likely to avert the 
 appearance of the disease. At the same time, we are ready to 
 agree with Trousseau, that " the disease generally shows itself 
 (in man) in from one to three months after the infliction of the 
 bite. The cases are rare in which it has developed itself after 
 three months, and still more rare in which it came on from the 
 sixth to the twelfth month ; and one is almost authorised, from 
 the statistical observations that have been made, to question 
 the authenticity of the cases in which the disease set in a year 
 after the person had been bitten. A fortiori, must one regard 
 with suspicion those instances of the disease in which the 
 incubation is stated to have been more prolonged. These 
 latter may not have been cases of true rabies, but of nervous 
 hydrophobia, in which the mere recollection of this awful 
 complaint sufficed to bring on a more or less prolonged dys- 
 phagia (choking, difficulty of swallowing)." 
 
 * Aitken, Op. cit., p. 720. Medical Times, 1854.
 
 1 88 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 SYMPTOMS. 
 
 The virulent germs having fructified under the influence of 
 favourable circumstances, and being now ready to commence 
 the series of pathological changes which mark the course of 
 the disease, the latent period comes to an end, and the opera- 
 tion of the virus on the organism is betrayed by certain 
 signs or indications to which have been given the name of 
 " symptoms." 
 
 The symptoms of rabies in the difierent creatures attacked by 
 it are marked by some striking peculiarities, which give a 
 particularly distinctive character to the malady ; while the 
 symptoms themselves, in whatever species of animal they may 
 be manifested, have the greatest analogy, and in each are 
 characteristic of the affection to an eminent degree : the only 
 differences presented in the various classes being chiefly due to 
 their dissimilarity in organisation, nature, and habits — dis- 
 similarities which more or less influence the development and 
 course of the symptom in every malady. 
 
 A knowledge of the symptoms of rabies in all the domesti- 
 cated animals is of the highest importance ; but for the dog it is 
 more essential than for any other creature, as it is most 
 susceptible to attacks of the disease, is for more frequently 
 affected than any other animal, and is always with us — the pet 
 and playmate of our families, the constant companion of our- 
 selves, and the associate of other creatures. As the prompt 
 recognition of the presence of the malady in its earliest phase 
 may be the means of preventing alarm, or obviating an out- 
 break of the pest over a wide district, and may be useful in 
 averting the harassing anxiety and dread Avhich follows the
 
 Symptoms in the Dog, 1 89 
 
 infliction of a bite from a suspected animal, or may even be 
 serviceable in saving the lives of our fellow-creatures, too much 
 stress cannot be laid upon the urgent necessity there exists for 
 every one who keeps a dog, or has anything to do with animals, 
 becoming acquainted with those signs which indicate the 
 presence of madness; for on the measures devised by this 
 acquaintance really depends the prevention of the disease. If, 
 in ordinary maladies, prevention is better than cure, then in this 
 perhaps most terrible of all afflictions, for which there is no 
 relief, and to be afliected with which is to be doomed to 
 a certain and horrible death, any known means by which 
 it may be hindered from reaching ourselves or other crea- 
 tures, must surely command the most earnest attention and 
 solicitude. 
 
 For this reason, we will commence our description of the 
 sjrmptoms of the disease as they are manifested in those animals 
 which transmit the contagion to our own species ; and if our 
 enumeration of these appears to be too detailed and minute, it 
 must be ascribed to our extreme anxiety that nothing should be 
 omitted likely to lead to the early detection of the malady, with 
 the view to prevent alarm and loss of life. 
 
 After these, the symptoms of hydrophobia in man will merit 
 description, if only for the purpose of comparison ; lastly, those 
 ofiered by other creatures when afiected with rabies will be 
 alluded to. 
 
 Symptoms in the Dog. 
 
 Before commencing a description of the symptoms of rabies 
 in the dog, it may be as well to state that there is in reality 
 no appreciable difference between those presented in cases in 
 which the disease has been communicated, and those in which 
 it is spontaneous. The only distinction worthy of notice is one 
 which is sometimes dependent upon the condition of the wound 
 in communicated rabies, and has reference to what has already
 
 1 90 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 been mentioned with regard to the localisation of the virus at 
 the seat of its introduction. It has been frequently stated that 
 the wounds inflicted by a rabid animal were difficult to heal, 
 and that they always ulcerated when the disease was about to 
 appear ; but there seems to be some exaggeration in these 
 statements. It is only when the wounds are deep and lacerated 
 that they are slow to cicatrise, but in this respect they do not 
 differ from similar injuries inflicted by non-rabid animals ; 
 when they are simple and superficial, they are as readily 
 repaired as on ordinary occasions. 
 
 But, as in mankind, it has been frequently observed that in 
 animals which were about to exhibit the symptoms of rabies, 
 due to a wound, there has appeared to be an irresistible ten- 
 dency to scratch, rub, lick, or even gnaw the spot where 
 inoculation took place, as if it were the seat of annoying pruritis 
 or hyperaesthesia ; and in consequence of this disturbance, the 
 part becomes swollen, the cicatrix is not unusually torn open, 
 and there results a violet-coloured wound which increases in 
 size until the animal dies. This is most frequently observed in 
 swine. 
 
 These phenomena pertaining to communicated rabies are all 
 the more siirprising when we see them produced in animals two 
 or three months after the infliction of the virident wound, and 
 after a solid cicatrix has been formed ; though it is less 
 astonishing and more frequent to find them appear within 
 from fifteen days to a month after the receipt of the injury. 
 
 Lafosse asserts that these phenomena are more frequently 
 absent than present ; he having observed them in only one-third 
 of the cases of communicated rabies that came under his 
 observation. 
 
 Otherwise, in transmitted and spontaneous rabies the symp- 
 toms may be said to be identical. 
 
 The disease has been divided into three stages, or periods, 
 and has also sometimes been described as presenting itself in 
 two or three forms, according to the peculiarities in the
 
 Symptoms in the Dog. loi 
 
 symptoms. But, as a rule, one period of tlie malady does not 
 pass suddenly into another, but by an almost imperceptible 
 transition ; and the forms do not differ essentially from each 
 other, but appear merely to constitute varieties of the same 
 disease, due to the natural disposition of the animal, or other 
 modifying circumstances. These forms have been designated 
 "true rabies" {rage vrai, rasendi ivuth), "dumb rabies" [rage 
 mue, dille wuth), and "tranquil rabies" {rage tranquilk), the 
 latter designation given by Berndt to a peculiar, but, it would 
 ixppear, a well-marked variety. 
 
 It is a great and dangerous error to suppose that the disease 
 commences with signs of raging madness, and that the earliest 
 phase of the malady is ushered in with fury and destruction. 
 The first perceptible or initial symptoms of rabies in the dog 
 are related to its habits. A change is observed in the animal's 
 aspect, behaviour, and external characteristics. The habits of 
 the creature are anomalous and strange. It becomes dull, 
 gloomy, and taciturn ; seeks to isolate itself, and chooses 
 soKtude and obscurity — hiding in out-of-the-way places, or 
 retiring below chairs and other pieces of furniture ; whereas in 
 health it may have been lively, good-natured, and sociable. 
 But in its retirement it cannot rest ; it is uneasy and fidgety, 
 and betrays an unmistakable state of malaise ; no sooner has it 
 lain down and gathered itself together in the usual fashion of a 
 dog reposing, than all at once it jumps up in an agitated manner, 
 walks hither and thither several times, again lies down and 
 assumes a sleeping attitude, but has only maintained it for a 
 few minutes when it is once more moving about, " seeking rest 
 but finding none." Then it retires to its obscure corner — to 
 the deepest recess it can find — and huddles itself up in a heap, 
 with its head concealed beneath its chest and its fore paws. 
 This state of continual agitation and inquietude is in striking 
 contrast with its ordinary habits, and should therefore attract 
 the attention of mindful people. Not unfrequently there are 
 a few moments when the creature appears more lively than
 
 192 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 usual, and displays an extraordinary amount of affection. 
 Sometimes in pet dogs there is evinced a disposition to gather 
 up small objects, such as straws, thread, bits of wood, &c., 
 which are industriously picked up and carried away. A ten- 
 dency to lick anything cold, as iron, stones, &c., is also 
 observed in many instances ; even the cold nose of another dog 
 will be favoured with this mark of attention ; and it is not 
 uncommon to observe an inclination to lick other animals. 
 Sexual excitement is also frequently an early symptom, and is 
 likewise present, at times, in other creatures when rabid. 
 
 At this period no propensity to bite is observed ; the animal 
 is docile with its master, and obeys his voice, though not so 
 readily as before, nor with the same pleased countenance. If 
 it shakes its tail, the act is more slowly performed than usual, 
 and there is something strange in the expression of its face ; 
 the voice of its master can scarcely change it for a few seconds 
 from a sidlen gloominess to its ordinary animated aspect ; and 
 when no longer influenced by the familiar talk or presence, 
 it returns to its sad thoughts, for — as has been well and truth- 
 fully said by Bouley — " the dog thinks and has its own ideas, 
 which, for dogs' ideas, are, nevertheless, from its point of 
 view, very good ideas when it is well." 
 
 These initial symptoms gradually become more marked ; the 
 restlessness and agitation increase ; if on straw, the dog 
 scatters and pulls it about with its paws, and if in a room, it 
 scratches and tumbles the cushions or rugs on which it ordi- 
 narily lies ; and nowhere can it find a suitable place for repose, 
 but is Incessantly on the move, rambling about, scratching the 
 ground, snuifing in corners and at the doors, as if on the 
 scent, or seeking for something. 
 
 With this restlessness there is manifested a curious group of 
 symptoms due to some defect or . aberration in mind, vision, 
 hearing, or feeling, which causes the animal to indulge in 
 strange movements, as if It were affected by some imaginary 
 influences, or subject to hallucinations. Its brain Is in a
 
 Symptoms in the Dog. ig3 
 
 morbid condition, and its mind evidently haunted by phantoms 
 and horrid fancies. When not excited by any external cause, 
 and its movements are observed in silence, the poor creature 
 will remain for a brief period perfectly still and attentive, as 
 if watching something, or following the movements of some 
 creature on the wall ; then suddenly it will dart forward 
 and bite at the vacant air, as if it were pursuing some annoy- 
 ing object, or as if it tried to seize a fly.* At another time it 
 throws itself yelling and furious against the wall, as if it heard 
 threatening noises on the other side, or as if enemies were before 
 it, and it must chase and injure them. 
 
 But though apparently so ready and so determined to employ 
 its teeth against imaginary foes, and to resort to aggressive 
 movements which appear to be quite under the influence of 
 the will, the unfortunate beast is still docile and submissive. 
 To rouse it out of its pitiful frenzy, it is only necessary that it 
 should hear its master's voice caUing it by name ; then the 
 hideous phantom vanishes at once, and the dog runs to receive 
 the caress it loves so well, with all its old expression of attach- 
 ment and regard. 
 
 It cannot be too much or too strongly insisted upon, that, 
 at the initial period of the disease, the dog is not really furious 
 
 * "In 1845," says M. Duluc, of Bordeaux, " I was asked to see a small 
 English-bred dog, which was tied by a slender cord in a room where two children 
 were at play. It was feared the animal was mad, as it had bitten an old woman 
 two days before, and that morning it had attacked several dogs. Naturally it 
 was excessively quiet and affectionate. When I entered the room, it was lying 
 on a chair, and it stared at me with a strange, indefinable look, expressive at once 
 of sadness and fury, and this gaze it maintained for nearly ten minutes ; then it 
 turned away its head, closed its eyes, and appeared sleepy. Soon after the head 
 drooped over the chair and dragged the body to the ground, where it lay huddled 
 up, as if it tried to reduce itself to the smallest possible volume. It only 
 remained an instant in this situation when it seemed to rouse up, opened its eyes, 
 and made several dashes towards the wall. Its owner said to me that it was 
 chasing flies. Being again placed on the chair, it went through the same per- 
 formance of slipping off it on to the floor. Within half-an-hour, this was 
 repeated eight times : the animal roused out of its lethargy, and sprang at the 
 wall as if it tried to seize some object within its reach." The sight of another 
 dog which was brought before it brought on a paroxysm of rage, and it gave 
 out a rabid howl, which left no doubt as to its condition ; it was then killed. 
 
 O
 
 194 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 and mad ; but is, on the contrary, as apparently harmless as 
 usual ; and that the onset of rabies is nearly always manifested 
 by extremely benignant appearances. Not only is the animal 
 not vicious, especially at the beginning of the malady, to those 
 persons to whom it is attached ; but, as already noticed, it would 
 seem as if it became more than usually affectionate, and that 
 this affection increased with the disease. Its instinct impels it, 
 at times, to draw near to its master, as if to ask for relief from 
 its sufferings ; and, if permitted, it willingly tenders its 
 recognition of the care bestowed on it by licking the hands 
 or face. But these are perfidious caresses, against which every 
 one should be warned ; for, as certainly as if by a bite, they 
 may implant the virus if the animal's tongue, moist with 
 the virulent saliva, chances to touch parts where the skin is 
 very thin, excoriated, or wounded. The smallest abrasion may 
 be, as Bouley impressively asserts, a door opened to death ; and 
 what a death ! The instances in which hydrophobia has been 
 due to this kind of inoculation are very numerous ; as people 
 who have not been warned do not recognise the disease in the 
 dog at this stage, and receive its Judas' kiss without suspecting 
 the harm it may cause. 
 
 This sentiment of affection of the rabid dog for its master is 
 so powerful and tenacious, that it dominates it even in the 
 farious stage of the malady, remaining stronger than the rabic 
 impulsion — that ferocious and altogether morbid instinct 
 which impels it to bite, in so deadly a fashion, everything 
 animated that comes in its way. The effort of the animal's 
 will, and its devoted attachment for its owner, would seem to 
 be a potent spell in enabling it to overcome this cruel tendency 
 of the disease. The creature appears to be conscious of the 
 condition it is in, and of the danger attending its bite — a 
 danger to which it would gladly refrain from exposing others, 
 we may be sure. 
 
 Another fortunate peculiarity in rabies, is the powerful 
 influence the master can nearly always exercise upon the dog,
 
 Syvipto7ns in the Dog. 195 
 
 by his presence or voice. This influence, by maintaining a 
 kind of fascination over the animal, keeps the more ferocious 
 symptoms of the disease in abeyance, and thus averts dangerous 
 consequences. The sentiment of submission and attachment 
 remains superior to the rabid instinct, and the animal continues 
 quiet, even when strangers are present. Instances have been, 
 known in which dogs in the first stage of the disease have 
 lived in their master's house, moved about without restriction, 
 slept in the room and even on the bed, without doing any 
 injury to the members of the family, or even to the children, 
 who may have frolicked with it, and perhaps annoyed it. This 
 good behaviour has continued for one, two, or three days, and 
 even for a period sufficiently long for the disease to have 
 reached its climax. Bouley has seen rabid dogs in the hospital 
 court at Alfort which were not muzzled, but merely held by a 
 leash ; and yet, owing to their master's presence, they remained 
 completely inofiensive in the midst of the crowd surrounding 
 them : only manifesting their rabidity after being separated 
 from the person who brought them. 
 
 It seems strange that even during the paroxysms of rabies, 
 when the dog is a prey to the agony of furious madness, the 
 voice of its master has a magical influence in mitigating the 
 delirium : it is sometimes sufficient that a few words should be 
 spoken to bring about a brief interval of calmness in the middle 
 of a fit, and the tail will then be freely moved from side to side 
 in token of recognition ; while a gleam of the afiectionate light 
 which used to shine before the advent of the horrid disease 
 will for an instant lighten up the sombre and haggard-looking 
 eye. Even when the dog has escaped from all control, and 
 wanders erratically abroad, ferocious and restless, and haunted 
 by horrid phantoms, the well-known voice has yet power to 
 attract the attention of the poor demented creature, and it will 
 respond to its name and approach its owner as submissively, 
 sometimes, as in health. " Dispersed by the magical influence 
 of the familiar voice, all these dreadful objects vanish, and the 
 
 o2
 
 196 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 creature creeps to its master with the expression of attach- 
 ment peculiar to it." The unparalleled affection for man- 
 kind, which forms so remarkable a trait in the dog's character, 
 can scarcely be disturbed by the agonies of so excruciating and 
 maddening a disease as rabies ; and it is owing to this circum- 
 stance that serious accidents may be oftentimes averted — as 
 when a dog is suddenly seized with a paroxysm and escapes, 
 threatening all around it, its owner, if present, may then 
 exercise his influence and, secure in his immunity, prevent 
 mischief. It is rare that it attacks its master ; and it is, per- 
 haps, to avoid this misfortune that it wanders away from home 
 on experiencing the first pangs of the malady. It is necessary 
 to say, however, that the master is not always free from 
 personal danger, as there are dogs which become so furious 
 when affected with rabies that they can recognise no one. 
 
 It wiU be seen from these symptoms, which have been so 
 well depicted by Bouley, and verified by every careful 
 observer, that it is entirely erroneous to imagine that rabies 
 is, from the very commencement, characterised by fits of fury 
 and a savage desire to bite ; the contrary is the fact ; and at 
 the beginning it is not the animal's teeth that are to be 
 dreaded, but its caresses and its tongue. True, it is difficult 
 to believe that this devoted creature — so gentle, so docile and 
 submissive, and always so ready to show its attachment by 
 licking one's hands and face, and other expressive actions — 
 should at the same time be the bearer of the germs of the 
 most terrible malady known to the world. And it is the 
 mistaken confidence engendered by the creature's unusual 
 blandishments that only too frequently adds to the list of vic- 
 tims to hydrophobia those who own dogs ; and particularly those 
 dogs which are man's most intimate and sure friends when in 
 health, but which become unwittingly, under the influence of 
 rabies, the most dangerous of enemies. 
 
 The early symptoms are very significant, and shoiild be 
 known by every one ; for upon their prompt recognition ; more
 
 Symptoms in the Dog, 197 
 
 than upon Acts of Parliament or medical skill, depends the 
 prevention of the disease. 
 
 Distrust, says Bouley, a dog when it commences to be 
 unwell ; every sick dog should, as a rule, be suspected. More 
 particularly distrust a dog when it becomes dull, morose, and 
 seeks for solitude ; which appears not to know where to rest ; 
 which is always on the move, prowling, snapping at the air, 
 and suddenly barking at nothing when all around is perfectly 
 still ; whose countenance is sombre, and only assumes its usual 
 animated expression by brief starts. Beware of the dog that 
 seeks and scrapes incessantly, and exhibits aggressive move- 
 ments against phantoms ; and finally, beware, above all, of the 
 dog which has become too fond of you, and is continually 
 endeavouring to lick the hands or face. 
 
 Thus warned and enlightened, we may avert the grave 
 dangers that threaten us. 
 
 The symptoms which are manifested in the digestive ap- 
 paratus are as marked and instructive as those exhibited by 
 the senses. 
 
 As has been mentioned at the commencement of this treatise, 
 the most accredited opinion which prevails with regard to 
 rabies is, that it is always characterised by a horror or dread of 
 water ; and, consequently, if a dog does not exhibit this aversion 
 it is not rabid. This is a most serious error, and has proved 
 fertile in the production of disastrous consequences. It has 
 rendered many persons unhappy for months, and even years, and 
 others it has beguiled into a false security. Should a dog, from 
 any cause whatever, be imable to swallow, it is immediately pro- 
 nounced mad, and perhaps at once destroyed ; while probably 
 every one who has ever been within its reach is in a state of 
 dread. An unfortunate person who may have been bitten by this 
 dog — months, or even years, before — shares in the panic; for 
 among the stupid popular errors due to ignorance, it is believed 
 that if a dog becomes mad, any person who may have been 
 bitten by the animal a long time previously, and while it was in
 
 198 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 health, is in as great danger as if the injury had been inflicted 
 when the animal was really diseased.* On the other hand, if 
 a sick dog can drink it is pronounced free from madness. So 
 universal is this opinion, even among those who ought to know 
 better, that we frequently meet with instances where foolish 
 credulity has occasioned serious mischief. Blaine tells us of 
 Dr. H., an eminent London physician, who, on being consulted 
 by a person actually bitten by a mad dog, immediately inquired 
 whether the animal could drink ; and on being informed that 
 it was able to do so, he peremptorily pronounced that the animal 
 could not be mad, and proceeded to recommend that no pre- 
 cautions whatever should be adopted. Had this advice been 
 followed, three persons might have lost their lives ; but, fortu- 
 nately for them, his opinion was not received as worthy of 
 confidence, and Blaine attended to the wounds. In five weeks 
 an unfortunate spaniel, which had been bitten by this dog, 
 became rabid, and in six weeks a horse, also wounded by it, 
 was afiected. Dr. Gillman relates a case of hydrophobia where 
 a fatal security had been indidged in, owing to the fact that 
 the dog which inflicted the wound ate and drank during its 
 illness, t Mr. Youatt had a dog brought to him which was un- 
 questionably rabid. The owner, a poor woman, had her hands 
 excoriated by an eruption, and these hands the dog had 
 
 * This notion is so absurd that it scarcely deserves alluding to, were it not 
 attended with inconvenient results and the sacrifice of the life of the poor dog, 
 which may be in perfect health when it chances to inflict the bite. To say that 
 hydrophobia will attack the wounded individual, should the animal at any future 
 time become rabid, is just as reasonable as to say that we are liable to receive 
 the infection of small-pox, typhus, or any other contagious malady from a 
 person we have to-day shaken hands with, should he at any future time become 
 affected with either of these diseases. It would be far more satisfactory, if there 
 was any doubt as to the condition of the animal, to keep it secured and under 
 observation. A few days would decide whether or not it was rabid when it 
 inflicted the injury ; and if the result proved the latter, then the mind of the 
 wounded person and his friends would be relieved from the anxiety and dread of 
 perhaps many months' duration, and the animal's life would be spared ; even if 
 he dog happened to be mad, no further harm could result, and every precaution 
 would, in the interval, have been adopted to prevent infection. 
 t " A Dissertation on the Bite of a Rabid Animal."
 
 Symptoms in the Dog. 199 
 
 repeatedly licked during its illness. On Mr. Youatt's intimation 
 tliat it was necessary she should adopt some precaution, she 
 appKed to a medical gentleman, who assured her that if the 
 dog attempted to drink it was not mad, and no precautions 
 were necessary. 
 
 Quite recently, a professed sportsman — Grantley F. 
 Berkeley — in several letters to the Times newspaper, per- 
 sistently attempted to perpetuate this most dangerous fallacy, 
 by asserting that hydrophobia was present in the dog, and 
 adding (December 16, 1871) : " Let all who read this believe 
 me when I say, no hydrophobic dog will either approach to or 
 lap water ; the very sight of it will put him in convulsions." It !'" 
 was only this writer's inexperience of the malady that prompted x 
 him to emit such an absurd opinion, for he elsewhere naively 
 confesses that, " I have in all my experience — over fifty years 
 — known of but one case of hydrophobia." It is surely more 
 than a blunder to give an opinion on such a subject, by which 
 thelives of human beings may be sacrificed, without apparently 
 the slightest proof or knowledge to support it ! 
 
 It is not true that a rabid dog is hydrophobous ; water does 
 not inspire it with fear or horror, and when it is put before 
 the animal it does not produce aversion ; from the commence- 
 ment to the termination of the disease there is no antipathy to 
 water. The many hundreds of rabid dogs seen by Blaine, Youatt, 
 and others, did not evince any marked aversion to that fluid. 
 On the contrary, the animal is generally thirsty ; and if water 
 be offered, it will lap it up with avidity, and will always swallow 
 it at the commencement of the disease. TVTien, at a later 
 period, the constriction about the throat — symptomatic of the 
 malady — renders swallowing difficult, it does not the less 
 endeavour to drink, and the lappings are as frequent and 
 prolonged as deglutition is retarded. Even then we see the 
 suffering creature in despair plunge its entire muzzle into the 
 vessel and gulp at the water, as if determined to overcome the 
 convulsive closure of its throat by forcing down the fluid.
 
 200 Rabies aiid Hydrophobia. 
 
 Tantalus could not experience a greater torment with regard 
 to water than does the unlucky dog. 
 
 So little dread have the canine species of water, that they 
 will ford streams and swim rivers ; and when in the ferocious 
 stage of the malady, they will even do this in order to attack 
 other creatures on the opposite bank. The experience of more 
 than twenty-five years did not, according to Mr. Blaine, afford 
 an instance in which anything like a dread of water was mani- 
 fested, or in which a spasm followed attempts to swallow it. 
 Every observer and writer on the malady testifies to the 
 J correctness of this statement ; and innumerable instances might 
 be adduced in which rabid dogs, from whose bites people and 
 animals afterwards perished, had no fear of water, but 
 swallowed it greedily. Gillman gives many examples, and 
 we have already alluded to some. In John Hunter's cele- 
 brated case of hydrophobia in the boy Rowley, the dog ate 
 and drank with voracity ; and in another case reported in the 
 Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal for 1808, a man was 
 bitten by a dog which " ate and drank heartily, showed no 
 signs of indisposition, hunted as usual," imtil it began to snap 
 at dogs and was destroyed. M. Pierquin, in "De la Folie 
 des Animaux," published not long ago, relates the case of a 
 lady who owned a greyhound, which was in the habit of sleep- 
 ing on her bed. One morning she discovered that it had torn 
 and gnawed the coverlet, and the same day it teas observed to 
 drink a larger quantity of water than usual, though it ate little. 
 Alarmed by this change in its conduct, the lady consulted a 
 veterinary surgeon, who did not find anything to cause anxiety. 
 The next day, when she offered it some food, it woimded her 
 slightly at the end of the finger, near the nail. This occurred 
 on December 26. On the following day it died, " and it had 
 never ceased," says M. Pierquin, " to drink very copiously of 
 water until the end." On February 4, in the succeeding year, 
 the unfortunate woman was seized with hydrophobia, and on 
 the 7th died.
 
 Sympto7ns in the Dog. 201 
 
 M. Duluc, veterinary surgeon of Bordeaux, was called in one 
 day to see a bitch that had returned home covered with mud 
 and prostrated with fatigue, after running about for twenty- 
 four hours and attacking every dog it met : though fortunately 
 without doing them harm, as it was muzzled. It obeyed the 
 voice of its master, and as soon as he spoke it looked anxious ; 
 its eyes were fixed on his, and it continued quiet, though its 
 tail remained motionless between its legs. This animal had a 
 puppy two months old, which M. Duluc placed before it ; it 
 made no opposition to its taking the teat, but a moment afterwards 
 it pushed it away with its paws ; though without attempting 
 to bite it, and making only a kind of growl. Several times the 
 puppy tried to retake the teat, but it was always repulsed in 
 the same manner. For several days this bitch had eaten less 
 than usual, hut it drank as much as before. The next day it 
 came before its master, who took oflf its muzzle and ofiered it 
 water. It lapped for a long time and drank with avidity. Re- 
 assured by this that it was not hydrophobic, he thought he 
 might allow it to run at large in the garden without danger. 
 No sooner was it untied than it ran about in a violent manner, 
 uttering most unusual sounds. Frightened by this extra- 
 ordinary behavioui-, he called it to him, and it obeyed, though 
 with a certain amount of hesitation ; he immediately tied it up, 
 and had scarcely done so when a duck passed within reach of 
 its chain ; this it seized furiously, and crushed its foot. After- 
 wards it flew at a mare that a servant had brought too near it, 
 and bit it severely in the upper lip. No doubt now existing as 
 to the nature of the malady, the dog was sacrificed, as well as 
 its progeny ; and although the mare's lip was deeply cauterised 
 three hours after the accident, it became rabid in twenty-five 
 days. 
 
 A writer in Land and Water, for December 23, 1871 
 (" Salopiensis "), speaks of having had his pack of foxhounds 
 twice decimated by rabies within the last few years, and adds : 
 " I never saw one (hound) so attacked that exhibited any fear
 
 202 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 of water." Another writer in the same journal (J. W. Hill, 
 M.R.C.V.S., Wolverhampton) says : " In the recent dumb 
 madness (at Albrighton), I have seen the hounds bury their 
 muzzles up to the eyes in water, as if to quench their insatiable 
 thirst, but paralysis prevented their swallowing any of the 
 liquid." Mr. Henderson, in his letter to the Times for Decem- 
 ber 13, mentions that the first hound of the Durham county 
 pack attacked with rabies, crossed a brook without reluctance 
 and lapped water freely. " Two days later I saw him lap 
 broth when in a condition so mad, that he flew at any 
 one coming near the door of the kennel in which he was 
 confined." 
 
 The idea that dogs are not rabid when they can drink and 
 do not seem afraid of water is, therefore, utterly erroneous, 
 and would appear to owe its origin to the presence of hydro- 
 phobia in man, which, as we shall see hereafter, is a marked 
 symptom in him. Therefore, beware of a sick dog even when 
 it drinks with avidity, for an aversion to water in rabies does 
 not exist at any period of the disease.* 
 
 * "Parlons maintenant de Y hydrophobie. Nous y sommes aussi bien natui-elle- 
 ment condmts par I'une des circonstances de la relation faite plus haut. 
 * Comment pouvions-nous soupQonner la rage chez notre chien ? ' nous disaient 
 las personnes qui conduisaient 1' animal dont il vient d'etre question ; ' il buvait 
 sans difficulte, et allait souvent boire ! ' Le prejuge de I'hydrophobie est I'un 
 des plus dangereux qui regne a I'egard de la rage canine ; et Ton peut dire que 
 le mot hydrophobie, qui s'est peu a peu substitue, meme dans le langage usuel, a 
 celui de rage, est una das plus detestables inventions du neologisme, parce que 
 cette invention a ete fertile pour I'espfece humaine en une multitude de desastres. 
 C'est que, en efifet, ce mot implique une idee aujourd'hui profondement ancree 
 dans r opinion du public, bien qu'elle soit radicalement fausse, et demontree 
 fausse par les faits de tous las jours. Da par le nom grec impose a la rage, un 
 cbien enrage doit avoir horreur de Veau. Done, s'il boit, il n'est pas enrage ; et 
 partant de ce raisonnement, on ne peut plus logique, un tres-grand nombre de 
 personnes s'endorment dans une securite tropipeuse, a cote de cbians enrages qui 
 vivent avec elles et couchent meme sur leur lit. Et cela, parca qu'il a passe par 
 la cervelle de je ne sais quel savant de faire du mot hydrophobie le synonyme de 
 celui de rage .... Le chien enrage n'est pas hydrophobe ; il n'a pas horreur 
 de I'eau. Quand on lui donne a boire, il na reculo pas epouvante. Loin da la : 
 il s'approche du vase ; il lappe le liquide avec sa langue ; il le deglutit souvent, 
 surtout dans les premieres pcriodes de sa maladie, et lorsque la constriction de sa 
 gorge rend la deglutition difficile, il n'en essaye pas moins de boire, et alors ses 
 lappements eont d'autant plus repetes et prolonges qu'ils demeurent plus
 
 Symptoms in the Dog, 203 
 
 With regard to food, at the commencement of the attack the 
 dog does not usually refuse to eat, and some animals are even 
 voracious to an unusual degree. But in a brief space the 
 appetite for food is modified, and the creature becomes fas- 
 tidious, eating only what it usually has a special predilection 
 for, and refusing what it used to take without hesitation ; this 
 soon gives place to a most characteristic symptom. Either the 
 appetite has become extremely depraved, or the creature is 
 compelled to submit to a fatal and imperious desire to bite and 
 ingest everything ; for it seizes with its teeth, tears, crushes, 
 and finally swallows, substances which are generally indi- 
 
 inefficaces. Souvent meme, en desespoir de cause, on le voit plonger le museau 
 tout entier dans le vase, et mordre, pour ainsi dire, I'eau qu'il ne peut parvenir 
 a pomper suivant le mode physiologique habituel." — Discourse on Rabies delivered 
 hefoi-e the Imperial Academy of Medicine by M. Bouley in 1863. 
 
 " L'hydrophobie proprement dite, telle qu'on I'acceptait autrefois comma 
 symptome de la rage, n'existe pas : au contraire, on remarque que des chiens 
 enrages lechent leur pro pre urine, barbotent dans I'eau qu'on leur presente, et 
 meme la boivent avidement .... Les chiens enrages supportent egalement la 
 vue de I'eau et meme les arrosements : seulement ceux-ci les excitent fortement. 
 Les exemples des cbiens enrages qui ont traverse des eaux courantes ne font pas 
 defaut."— ^o//, op. cit., p. 470. 
 
 " S'il importe de detruire le prejuge qui consiste a croire que tout carnivore 
 enrage est sans cesse en° proie a des acces de fureur, pendant lesquels il cber- 
 cherait a faire usage de ses armes offensives, il n'est pas moins necessaire 
 d'extirper I'idee fausse qui attribue a ces animaux une horreur des liqiiides et un 
 refus obstine des aliments : bien des observateurs signalent des cas oti, dans le 
 debut de la rage, les cbiens etaient tourmentes par une soif ardente et buvaient 
 de I'eau avec une extreme avidite. Maintes fois nous avons vu ce fait se prodTiire. 
 Vers le declin meme, la soif ne se calme pas toujours, et le malheureux enrage 
 s'efforce encore, mais en vain, de la satisfaire, en approcbant sa gueule du liquide 
 qu'il ne peut plus deglutir, que souvent meme il lui est impossible de laper, soit 
 a cause de la paralysie des machoires, soit a cause du spasme du pharynx. II 
 faudrait done bien se garder d'induire de ce qu'il conserve le desir et la faculte 
 de boire, de ce qu'il n'entre pas en fureur a la vue de I'eau, qu'un animal n'est 
 pas affecte de la rage. Bien souvent nous avons eu a nous feliciter d' avoir resiste 
 aux soUicitations de personnes voulant rentrer en possession de chiens qu'elles 
 avaient confies a nos soins, et qu'elles s'obstinaient a ne pas croire enrages, parce 
 qu'elles les voyaient boire avec facilite." — Lafosse, "Traite de Pathologic Vete- 
 rinaire," vol. iii. p. 851. 
 
 " II est desormais acquis a la science, que c'est precisement un signe de la 
 rage lorsque la soif est trop ardente, et que jamais appellation plus fausse, plus 
 absurde, et en meme temps plus dangereuse, ne fut appliquee a aucune maladic 
 que celle (!C hydrophobic a la rage du chien." — Hanson, " Le Meilkui- Prcsorvatif 
 de la Rage," p. 26.
 
 204 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 gestible, and certainly not alimentary. The litter of its 
 kennel, wool from cushions, the cover of the bed on which it 
 sleeps, — if allowed to spend the night with its master, — carpets, 
 stockings, slippers, wood, grass, earth, stones, coal, glass, 
 horse-dung, human excrement, — even its own faeces and urine, 
 — or whatever else may come in its way, are devoured. 
 
 At the examination of the body of a dog that had died of 
 rabies, it is so common to find in the stomach a quantity of dis- 
 similar matters on which the teeth have been exercised, that if 
 there was nothing known of the animal's history these would 
 be strong evidence of the presence of the disease. 
 
 Therefore, whenever a dog is observed to persist in tearing 
 the carpets, cushions, or other articles in rooms ; when it 
 gnaws boards or the wood of its kennel, devours its straw, 
 soil, &c., without exhibiting any tendency to bite people, it 
 ought to be suspected ; for these signs are but a prelude to 
 those of a more serious character, and the poor animal is in 
 reality venting that ferocity on inanimate objects which will 
 soon be directed towards everything animated. 
 
 It is generally believed that the mad dog slavers or foams 
 abundantly, and that the mouth is always filled with this 
 secretion ; when such is not the case, it is imagined that the 
 animal is not rabid. This is another serious error ; for the 
 secretion of saliva is not much increased, if at all, until the 
 disease has reached its furious stage, and before this period a 
 dog may be quite mad without foaming or slavering at the 
 mouth. Youatt says there is at first an increased secretion of 
 saliva ; but it soon lessens in quantity, becomes thicker, viscid, 
 adhesive, and glutinous ; and it adheres to the comers of the 
 mouth, fauces, and teeth. It is at this period that the thirst is 
 so ardent, owing to the inflammation or congestion at the back 
 part of the throat. The dog sometimes furiously attempts to 
 detach the saliva with its paws ; and if, after a while, it loses 
 its balance in these attempts and tumbles over, there can no 
 longer be any mistake as to the nature of the malady.
 
 Sympto?ns in the Dog. 205 
 
 There is another symptom connected with the mouth in that 
 form of the disease called " dumb madness," which might mis- 
 lead, and in fact has frequently done so. The lower jaw drops, 
 in consequence of paralysis of its muscles, and the mouth 
 remains open. The membrane which lines its interior is dry 
 from the constant current of air passing over it, and assumes a 
 deep red tint ; while its surface is covered with brown patches 
 of dust or dried earth, which more especially adhere to the 
 upper surface of the tongue and to the lips.* The mem- 
 brane lining the mouth sometimes shows cracks, due to its 
 dryness. The strange alteration produced in the dog's physiog- 
 nomy by its constantly open mouth and the dark colour of its 
 interior, is rendered still more remarkable and characteristic 
 by the dull, sad, or dead expression of the animal's eyes. 
 
 In this condition the creature is not very dangerous, because 
 it usually cannot bite if it tried ; but the saliva is none the less 
 virulent, and inoculations with it through imprudent handling 
 will be as fatal as if they had been made with the teeth. It is 
 most dangerous in these circimistances to interfere much with the 
 mouth ; and it is not unusual for people who do not understand 
 the disease, to imagine there is something lodged about the 
 dog's jaws or throat that prevents the mouth being closed, 
 and to endeavour to relieve the animal by thrusting their 
 
 • Mr. Carlisle, the eminent teacher of surgery, writes to Dr. Gillman : " I 
 saw, on July 26th, 1810, a dog which had been bitten fourteen days since by a 
 reputed mad dog. This was the second day of the attack. He was walking loose 
 in a stable, reeled, and seemed feeble ; his eyes were bright but not fierce ; his 
 tongue protruded about an inch and a half beyond his lips, as if occasioned by a swell- 
 ing of the fauces and root of the tongue. The protruded part tvas dry, and covered 
 with a blackish crust ; his lips were covered with dusty dry horse-dung. He received 
 from my hand a piece of flesh quietly, and turned it about on the ground with 
 his nose as if pleased with it, but was unable to chew or receive it into his 
 mouth. The dog knew his feeders, and answered to their call, looking at them, 
 but not with expressions of pleasure ; he had gnawed the wooden stalls. July 
 27th. Saw the dog again ; he was lying on his side, with little use of his hinder 
 limbs, breathing with difficulty ; his tongue less protruded and less swelled. He 
 knew his master and lapped water ; he made several attempts to rise on his legs, 
 and at length succeeded, and ran forward against the wall." The dog died 
 next day.
 
 2o6 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 fingers into its mouth with the intention of removing the 
 obstacle. Should there be any scratch or sore upon the fingers, 
 or should an abrasion take place from contact with the teeth, 
 or through a convulsive efibrt of the animal to close its jaws, 
 inoculation may take place, and serious consequences follow.* 
 
 There is another indication of rabies which is apt to mislead, 
 and which is not unfrequent. This arises from the sensation 
 of constriction and astriction which the animal experiences at 
 the upper part of the throat, under the influence of the rabic 
 spasm, and also in consequence of the aridity of its mouth. 
 The creature acts as if a bone or some foreign body were 
 lodged between its teeth or in its throat, and uses its front 
 paws as if trying to remove the annoyance. This is a very 
 deceptive symptom, and is apt to induce any one witnessing it, 
 and who did not understand its real purport, to venture on 
 giving the animal assistance. This, without due precautions, 
 is even more hazardous than in the other case, as the dog in 
 this condition can bite ; and the opposition it oflfers to the 
 examination of its mouth may cause injury to the hands, and 
 result in inoculation. 
 
 Another symptom in the early period of rabies is the 
 appearance of the so-called " lysses," or eruption at each side 
 of the tongue ; but this is, according to the testimony of the 
 best observers, if at all present, too fugitive and concealed a 
 feature in the malady to be of any real importance in recog- 
 nising the presence of the malady. 
 
 In addition to these signs furnished by the digestive appa- 
 ratus at the initial period of the disease, there is another 
 somewhat exceptional one, and which for this reason is perhaps 
 
 * Numerous deaths have occurred, from hydrophobia through this mistake. 
 A very melancholy instance was that of M. Nicolin, a veterinary surgeon in 
 Lons-le-Saulnier, France, who, believing the owner of a dog that a bone was 
 lodged in the animal's throat, proceeded to remove it without first inquiring into 
 the beast's condition. Either through the paralysed jaw suddenly closing, from 
 the irritation caused by M. Nicolin's manipulations, or through the virulent 
 saliva obtaining access by a sore on the hand, he afterwards became affected 
 with hydrophobia, and of course perished.
 
 Syviptonis in the Dog. 207 
 
 more insidious than tlie others. This is vomiting ; and not 
 unfrequently the ejected matters are tinged with blood, or may- 
 even be entirely composed of that fluid : which is derived, 
 according to Bouley, from the wounds caused in the lining 
 membrane of the stomach by the hard, sharp-edged substances 
 the animal has swallowed — a symptom which, rare though it be, 
 it is well to associate with the probable existence of rabies in the 
 animal exhibiting it, and to be guarded accordingly.* Indeed, 
 in all internal diseases of the dog, it is prudent for amateurs or 
 vmskilled persons to consider the animal as in principle " sus- 
 pected," and, to avoid danger, to adopt every precaution until 
 it is positively ascertained that rabies is not present. 
 
 The blood vomited at the commencement of rabies is said to 
 be derived from wounds and abrasions in the interior of the 
 stomach, due to the foreign substances ingested by the sick 
 animal. This may be true in some cases, though certainly not 
 in all ; as the symptom has been observed in dogs whose 
 stomachs did not contain anything likely to produce such 
 injuries, and were even sometimes empty. Besides, this 
 vomiting of blood or a chocolate-coloured fluid is at times 
 noted in human hydrophobic patients, whose appetite is not 
 depraved like the dog's, and who do not swallow straw, stones, 
 glass, &c. "When we come to treat of the pathological altera- 
 tions found in rabid animals, we shall be able to account more 
 satisfactorily for the appearance of this symptom. 
 
 The barking of the rabid dog is very peculiar, and so charac- 
 teristic, that to those acquainted with it nothing more is needed 
 
 * The necessity for this caution is exemplified in a case that occurred to 
 M. Bouley at Alfort, in 1862. A dog was brought to the clinic of that school, 
 which had, according to the statement of the owner, vomited blood since the 
 previous evening. On seeing the animal, M. Bouley had no suspicion that it was 
 affected with rabies, and merely prescribing an alum potion, ordered it to be 
 confined in one of the kennels. No sooner was it removed from its master's 
 influence, by being shut up in the cage, than it denounced its real morbid con- 
 dition by unmistakable signs. The pupil charged with its supervision reported 
 the circumstance to the professor, and, most fortunately, the prescription had not 
 been executed ; so that the en-or in diagnosing the disease had not the terrible 
 consequences it might have had.
 
 2o8 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 to indicate the presence of the disease. It is not even neces- 
 sary to have heard it frequently ; for so strong an impression 
 does it make on the mind, that those who have heard it once or 
 twice never forget it or its signification. In health, as is well 
 known, the bark consists of a series of sonorous sounds or cries, 
 each distinct from that which follows, and equal in duration 
 and intensity. In rabies, the voice is frequently changed at an 
 early period of the malady, owing to the alterations occurring 
 in the larynx ; and, instead of the sharp succession of clear 
 tones, we have a noise which is neither a bark, howl, growl, 
 nor snarl, but a seemingly curious jumble of all these — the howl 
 being predominant. The tone is hoarse, altered in timhre, 
 indistinct, and lower in pitch ; a preliminary bark is made in 
 a somewhat elevated tone, and with open mouth ; this is imme- 
 diately succeeded by five, six, or eight decreasing howls, which 
 appear to come from the depths of the throat, the jaws not 
 coming together and closing the mouth during each emission, 
 as in the healthy bark. 
 
 The sound of the bark is altogether so peculiar, that it has 
 been likened to that of a cock-crow, and hence experienced 
 French veterinarians say that the rabid dog has " la voix de 
 coq ; " others again, as Blaine, have compared it to the " giving 
 tongue " of the old heavy Southern harrier ; while others have 
 imagined it to resemble the cough in croup. It is very difficult 
 to express in words the character of the voice in this howling, 
 which is frequently the first indication of the disease ; it is 
 emitted when the animal is sitting or standing, and always 
 with the nose elevated, and is usually most frequent at night. 
 To indicate its compass, M. Sanson has had recourse to musical 
 notation, which may give some idea of the three varieties of 
 sounds usually heard.
 
 Symptoms in the Dog. 209 
 
 In the three bars the C crotchet represents the bark, which 
 
 slides up into the howl indicated by the minims A, B, and C 
 
 the last, the octave, being incomparably more common than the 
 other two. 
 
 These prolonged bowlings have something so sinister and 
 lugubrious about them, that they strike those who understand 
 their import with a kind of terror ; and it is not improbable 
 that the presentiments of misfortune which, according to 
 popular tradition, are derived from dogs barking at the moon, 
 have had no other origin than the remembrance of the disasters 
 caused by mad dogs, which, some time before showing the 
 furious symptoms of rabies, were wont to exercise their vocal 
 organs during the night in the emission of the doleful sounds 
 that certainly presaged no good to other creatures. 
 I A sudden and strange alteration in the familiar voice of a 
 dog should at once attract attention and elicit inquiry ; the 
 rabic cry or howl is a sure warning, and affords just grounds 
 for alarm, as it is one of the precursory symptoms of the furious 
 stage of the disease. 
 
 To show the importance of recognising the modified bark of 
 a mad dog, Bouley gives the following authentic anecdote. 
 Some years ago, two veterinary students, returning to the 
 Alfort School about nine o'clock ^n the evening, heard the howl 
 of a rabid dog proceeding from a house in Charenton. They 
 felt impelled to knock at the door and warn the proprietor of 
 the danger that menaced him ; and he, fortunately taking the 
 warning as seriously as it was given, kept the animal, a watch- 
 dog, on the chain during the night, and the next day took it to 
 Alfort. The students had not been deceived, for M. BotJey 
 certified that the dog was mad ; and its master could scarcely 
 recover from his astonishment when told so — he could not 
 believe that the creature he held in his hand, and still as docile, 
 affectionate, and obedient as usual, could be attacked by so 
 redoubtable a disease. It was so, nevertheless ; and from the 
 time it occupied the cage destined for sick dogs, the symp- 
 
 p
 
 2 1 o Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 toms of rabies manifested themselves in fhe most evident 
 manner. 
 
 This dog was very large and powerful, and if it had been 
 detached from the chain, as it was customary for it to be, and 
 had contrived to escape, it might have caused some terrible 
 accidents. Too much praise cannot, therefore, be awarded the 
 two students for their presence of mind and promptitude, by 
 which they in all probability prevented serious mischief. 
 
 These rabic bowlings are emitted frequently by the majority 
 of mad dogs ; others only make them when excited, and in 
 very rare cases the voice is not modified. In dogs afiected with 
 that form of the disease termed " dumb madness " — which will 
 be alluded to hereafter — the voice is completely lost from the 
 commencement of the malady, a circumstance to which this 
 form owes its distinctive appellation. 
 
 The symptoms which proceed from the sentient faculties in 
 the dog are noteworthy and remarkable. Contrary to what 
 takes place in man in hydrophobia, the dog's sensibility appears 
 to be considerably blunted ; and the animal seems to have lost 
 the faculty of expressing, in its own language, the sensations it 
 experiences. The mad dog is mute under the infliction of pain. 
 No matter what amount of suffering it may be subjected to, it 
 never emits the slightest nasal sound — the first expression of 
 complaint in the dog — nor the acute yell by which it betrays 
 the perception of severe torture. Beaten, pricked, wounded, 
 even burned, the mad dog remains silent, though not insensible. 
 The sentiment of preservation still remains ; for when the litter 
 upon which it is lying is set on fire, it flies away from it and 
 gathers itself up in a corner to escape the flames. "When a bar 
 of red-hot iron is put before it, and, impelled by fury, it flies to 
 bite it, it nevertheless retires from it immediately. A red-hot 
 iron applied to its paws likewise makes it fly. These observa- 
 tions have been made by M. Bouley, who adds, that it is evident 
 in these diverse circumstances that the animal sufiers — the 
 expression of its figure proves this — but, notwithstanding, it
 
 Symptoms in the Dog. 2 1 t 
 
 never gives a cry or moan. If sensibility is not extinct in the 
 mad dog, as is evidenced by the results of the experiments 
 above cited, it is certainly less acute than in ordinary condi- 
 tions. When the blazing torch has been thrown beneath it, the 
 animal does not move at once, but takes time ; so that when it 
 really has decided to escape it is already seriously burned. 
 Certain dogs, though they are exceptions, will not let go the 
 bar of red-hot iron which they have seized between their teeth. 
 
 Thus Ellis, in his " Shepherd's Guide," mentions that the 
 grooms in the Godderden kennels held a red-hot poker before 
 a mad dog, which the animal furiously seized, and held in its 
 mouth until it was seriously burned. 
 
 It would then appear from these facts, that dogs attacked with 
 rabies do not perceive painful sensations so readily as in health, 
 and this explains why they may wreak their fury sometimes on 
 themselves ; for many facts in the history of the disease testify 
 to their insensibility to their own self-inflicted injuries. One 
 of the most curious and convincing is that recorded by Bouley. 
 He was called in by Count Demidoff", in Paris, to examine a 
 spaniel which had a small bleeding wound at the base of the 
 croup and commencement of the tail ; this wound had appeared 
 recently ; the animal was quite lively, obeyed the voice that 
 called it, and approached in the usual docile manner, wagging 
 its tail. There was nothing to give rise to the suspicion that it 
 might be affected yA\h rabies ; and, indeed, M. Bouley confesses 
 that as this incident happened very many years previously to 
 the time at which he was relating it, he was all the more easily 
 led astray, because at that period he only knew the disease at 
 its stage of exacerbation and fury — the only phase in which 
 it was described in those days. He looked upon the sore as one 
 of the skin diseases so common in the dog, and ordered an 
 appropriate treatment : recommending at the same time, as a 
 matter of cleanliness, that the animal should not be allowed to 
 lie in the room, nor yet on its master's bed, as it was accus- 
 tomed to do ; so it lay on the landing-place of the stairs. The 
 
 p2
 
 212 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 next morning a domestic found, on the first step, tlie tail of tlie 
 favourite spaniel completely separated from the body : the dog 
 had inflicted this mutilation upon itself. Astonished and dis- 
 gusted at the accident, the Count, without inquiring into the 
 motives which prompted the spaniel to perpetrate such an act, 
 put a collar upon it with a chain attached, and sent it off to 
 Alfort. The animal went the whole distance without exhibiting 
 any unusual sign, and without giving the servant cause to 
 suspect in the slightest degree that he was followed so closely 
 by a mad dog. On arrival at the court of the hospital, the 
 creature, with the remains of its tail raw and bleeding, its 
 mouth of a dusky bluish colour, and its eyes wild and wander- 
 ing, had now too characteristic a physiognomy to admit of any 
 mistake being made. It was prudently led to the kennel, 
 where, imder the influence of the excitation produced by the 
 barking of the other dogs, a fit of madness soon declared itself. 
 In two days it was dead. 
 
 This animal, therefore, exhibited in a striking manner the 
 principal features which belong to rabies in its initial stage : a 
 pet dog so dominated by the sentiment of affection and the 
 influences of domesticity, that, although the desire to bite was 
 already developed in it, yet it spared its master and the servants 
 of the house, and only attacked itself, without appearing to 
 feel its self-inflicted injuries ; during the whole distance from 
 Paris to Alfort it submitted itself to the man who led it, and 
 whom it knew, without evincing any access of the disease ; and 
 it, finally, did not exhibit rabies in all its fury until after being 
 separated from the conductor, and when it was left to itself and 
 its dehrium. 
 
 With regard to sensibility, then, suspicion should always 
 attach strongly to a dog which does not manifest a certain 
 degree of pain, and receives punishment without uttering 
 any cry or complaint. "When, for instance, a dog is pursued 
 in a locality because it is without an owner, and is a stranger, 
 if it remains mute notwithstanding the menaces and the
 
 Sympto7Us in the Dog. 2 1 3 
 
 ' blows to which it is subjected, there is every cause for sus- 
 ■ picion. 
 
 There is also reason for apprehension when a dog bites itself 
 persistently in any part of its body, and does not stop because 
 of the pain it should experience. True, it may act in this 
 manner from the presence of some skin disease accompanied 
 with itching ; but, on the other hand, it is possible that the 
 creature is impelled to use its teeth in this manner from the 
 instinct to bite already developed in it, or perhaps owing to 
 the peculiar sensation experienced in the cicatrix of the wound 
 by which it was inoculated. The latter may have been the 
 cause of Count Demidoff's dog biting its tail off. At any 
 rate, when this symptom appears, it is judicious to take pre- 
 cautions. 
 
 There is also another peculiar symptom of rabies in the 
 dog and other animals, though in man it is not frequent, 
 which is very important in a diagnostic point of view. This is 
 the impression made on a rabid dog at the sight of an animal 
 of its own species — an impression which is so powerful as to 
 excite at once a fit of fury ; so that it may be said that the 
 dog is the certain reagent by whose influence we may reveal 
 the presence of the disease yet latent in the creature we suspect. 
 
 In practice, this means is generally resorted to by M. 
 Bouley, in order to dissipate any doubts when the diagnosis 
 is otherwise imcertain ; and it is rare that it fails. As soon 
 as the suspected dog finds itself in the presence of another of 
 its species, if it is really mad it at once assumes an aggressive 
 attitude, and if it can reach the latter it will bite it furiously. 
 It is remarkable that this special excitability of the rabid state 
 is not peculiar to the dog alone, but that all mad animals 
 manifest the same sensibility when in the presence of one of 
 the canine species ; all become excited, exasperated, and furious 
 at the sight of a dog, and fly at it to attack it with their natural 
 weapons. The horse assaults it with teeth and hoofs ; the bull, 
 cow, and ram with their horns ; even the timid sheep, when
 
 214 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 rabid, so far from exhibiting fear at tbe vievv^ of a dog, under 
 the influence of the malady loses its natural pusillanimity, 
 becomes the assailant, and butts furiously at the enemy before 
 which, in health, it would have fled in abject terror. 
 
 This strange interversion of sentiment, — when the most 
 timorous of creatures becomes all at once animated with the 
 most bellicose spirit, — is a remarkable symptom of rabies, and 
 its diagnostic value is evidenced in the following anecdotes related 
 by Bouley. Some years ago, a fine sporting dog was brought 
 to Alfort in a cabriolet, in which it had lain beneath the legs of 
 its master and the coachman. During the journey, and not- 
 withstanding the excitement that may have been roused in it 
 by the presence of a stranger beside it, the dog remained 
 perfectly inofi'ensive. The carriage arrived at the courtyard of 
 the school hospital, and the owner lifted out the animal in 
 his arms and carried it to M. Bouley's consulting room. He 
 then informed the professor that for two days it had been dull 
 and refused to eat. Not being then so well acquainted with the 
 disease and its insidious modes of manifestation, M. Bouley 
 placed it on his knees to examine it more carefully. He was 
 opening its lips to ascertain the colour of the mouth, when a 
 poodle belonging to him entered the room. In a moment the 
 dog he was inspecting escaped from his hands without attempt- 
 ing to bite him, and set upon the new arrival, which endeavoured 
 to evade the attack. This unexpected, and also most unusual 
 behaviour on the part of the sporting dog, according to the 
 testimony of its owner, gave rise to a suspicion of rabies ; the 
 animal was immediately confined in an isolated place, and in 
 three days afterwards succumbed to the disease. 
 
 In another instance a horse was the subject of this peculiar 
 symptom. This creature had been brought to M. Bouley's 
 ■ notice in consequence of its having been unable to swallow 
 for a day or two. It appeared to be, and in fact was, of an 
 extremely mild temper. The professor was in the act of 
 examining the mouth, and had seized the tongue in his hand,
 
 Symptoms in the Dog. 215 
 
 when the same poodle appeared and commenced to ramble 
 about him. As soon as the horse perceived it, it disengaged 
 itself from his hands by a rapid movement, and dashed with 
 open jaws after the dog, which again had to take to flight. 
 What proved to be very remarkable in this case was that the 
 horse was very quiet with people ; it obeyed the voice of its 
 conductor, followed him in the most docile manner, and 
 without its being necessary to hold the rope of the halter ; 
 even after its aggressive demonstration against the poodle it 
 was perfectly inoffensive to the multitude of persons around 
 it. According to the man in charge of it, it was usually 
 very fond of dogs, but during the journey from Vitry to Alfort 
 that day it had attacked all those it met in the road. This 
 man did not attach any importance to this fact, and he would 
 not have mentioned it had the animal not again shown the 
 same tendency towards the poodle. 
 
 There were no other symptoms to guide one in forming an 
 opinion of the case ; yet the precaution was taken to thoroughly 
 secure the horse between two large trees in the park by a 
 double head-collar. Several times the experiment was re- 
 peated of exciting a fit of madness by the sight of a dog 
 brought before it ; and, under the influence of these, it was not 
 long before the rabies from which it was suffering reached its 
 most urgent paroxysms. In a few hours the disease had passed 
 through its stages, the animal became exhausted, and died a 
 short time after entering the hospital. 
 
 So common is this peculiarity that it may be said to be pre- 
 sent in every case of rabies ; and it should put people upon their 
 guard, as it is generally an early and striking indication of a 
 change in the dog's manner — appearing even before any other 
 very prominent symptom. Numerous proofs of this might be 
 given, in addition to those already furnished ; but it will suffice 
 to adduce the case of the dog which introduced the disease 
 into the Monreith kennels. My friend, Sir "William Maxwell, 
 informs me that towards the end of January, 1841, a large
 
 2 1 6 Rabies mid Hydrophobia. 
 
 Newfoundland dog, apparently completely worn out from 
 fatigue, and covered with mud, found its way into the kitchen 
 of the factor's house, near Monreith. The children played with 
 it, and after an hour or two the servants turned it out ; during 
 the whole time it never attempted to bite any one. On the 
 same afternoon it showed itself at the home-farm offices, and 
 the overseer, thinking it belonged to the gamekeeper, put a 
 rope round its neck and sent a lad with it to that functionary's 
 kennels, about a mile off. It went with him very qiuetly, and 
 arrived at the kennels just as the keeper returned from shoot- 
 ing, with a couple of pointers at his heel. The sight of the 
 latter seemed to put new life into the strange dog ; breaking 
 away from the lad, it savagely attacked one of the pointers and 
 rolled it over ; but receiving a blow or kick from the keeper, 
 without attempting to bite him, it ran away and was seen no 
 more in that neighbourhood — though a dog answering its 
 description was shot as mad next day at a place about twelve 
 miles distant. On examination, no wound was found on the 
 pointer, except a small scratch on the lip. No mischief 
 appeared, or was even suspected, vintil near the end of March, 
 when the animal showed symptoms of rabies, and in April the 
 disease commenced among the other dogs. 
 
 The nervous susceptibihty of rabid animals would thus 
 appear to be powerfully excited by the presence of one of the 
 canine species, which rouses them from the calm condition they 
 may yet be in, and produces aggressive manifestations more 
 and more furious in proportion to the intensity and number of 
 excitations produced. According to Bouley, this phenomenon 
 is so constant that it may be considered as the expression of a 
 fatal law whose secret is unknown to us. But as there are few 
 laws without an exception, so it appears this affords one in 
 the remarkable instance related . by the veterinary professor, 
 Eenault, of Alfort. A horse experimentally inoculated by this 
 talented gentleman with the virus from a rabid sheep, con- 
 tracted the disease, and in such a severe form that it turned
 
 Synnptoms in the Dog. 217 
 
 its fury upon itself, and tore the skin off its fore-arms with its 
 teeth. But though so violently rabid, the sight of a dog did 
 not produce any excitation. A dog thrown into its manger 
 during a paroxysm was not harmed, and it pushed it about 
 with its nose, as if to get it out of the way without doing it 
 any injury. But when a sheep was placed before it, all at 
 once it became terribly furious, sprang upon it at once, and the 
 poor inoffensive animal, seized between its powerful jaws, was 
 in an instant crushed by its teeth, and shaken as a terrier 
 shakes a rat. 
 
 It would almost seem from this fact, which is unique in the 
 annals of science, as if animals inocvJated with the rabid virus, 
 by a bite or in any other manner, were conscious of the cause 
 of their disease, and that this idea determined them to manifest 
 their fury at the sight of a creature belonging to the same 
 species as that which furnished the poison whose inoculation 
 produced the malady. 
 
 With this curious exception, it may then be laid down as a 
 rule that the sight of animals of the canine species prompts the 
 excitability of rabid creatures ; and the recognition of this fact 
 may prove of the greatest utility, if the owners of dogs only 
 know how to profit by it. Every day, says the same observant 
 author so frequently quoted in these pages, affords us a proof 
 of the truth of this ; when we interrogate the owners of dogs 
 which have become rabid, we find that, before directing their 
 assaults against mankind, these animals were very excitable 
 at the sight of another of their species. Unfortunately, how- 
 ever, in the majority of cases, this very significant peculiarity 
 has not attracted the attention of those who have observed it, 
 nor aroused suspicion in their mind, simply because as yet 
 there does not appear to be any other notable change in the 
 character of the irritable beast. 
 
 When a dog, therefore, contrary to its habits and natural 
 inclination, becomes suddenly aggressive to other dogs, it is 
 time to take precautions. Such manifestations are very signifi-
 
 2 1 8 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 cant, and, if understood, they may be utilised in averting danger 
 to other creatures. 
 
 From the enumeration of these characteristic symptoms it 
 will be seen that, in the majority of instances, the familiar 
 house-dogs remain inoffensive in the early period of their 
 rabid state to the persons around them, dominated as they are 
 by their affectionate regard for them. And the poor creatures 
 may only be obeying the dictates of these sentiments when, as 
 very often happens, they leave their owners' domicile and dis- 
 appear ; it might be said that they have a consciousness of the 
 harm they might do, and that to prevent it they fly from those 
 to whom they are so much attached. Whatever foimda- 
 tion there may exist for this interpretation, it is nevertheless 
 the fact that very frequently the rabid dog forsakes its master 
 and its home, and does not return again, either because it 
 soon dies in some retired corner ; or, which is ordinarily the 
 case in populous localities, it is recognised as mad by the 
 damage it inflicts on animals or people, and is killed.* 
 
 But in other instances, and they are only too numerous, the 
 unfortunate dog, after wandering about for a day or two and 
 escaping pursuit, returns to its home and its human com- 
 panions, in obedience to some fatal attraction ; and it is in 
 these circumstances more especially that misfortunes are to be 
 dreaded. The return of the poor wanderer attracts every one's 
 attention and excites the sympathy of the household, so that the 
 first impulse is to succour it ; for oftentimes what was the com- 
 panion and the pet comes back in a miserable plight, reduced 
 almost to a skeleton, and covered with mud, and even with 
 blood. Woe to any one who approaches the unlucky sufferer 
 
 * Hertwig says that during a period of forty years, whenever rabies assumed 
 an epizootic character, he always observed that dogs belonging to peasants or 
 other persons living in the country, and running unhindered and without super- 
 vision into the towns, were the principal agents in extending the contagion. 
 This desire to escape is one of the principal characteristics of rabies, and is so noto- 
 rious where the disease is frequent, that it is sometimes so designated. In 
 Illyria, for instance, it used to be, and may still be, popularly known as 
 "slecklina," or the escape disease.
 
 Symptoms in the Dog. 2 1 9 
 
 now ; as at this period of the disease the propensity to bite has 
 become imperious with it, and overrides its affection, however 
 strong this may yet be ; and for the caresses and care bestowed 
 on it, it is only too apt to return wounds inflicted by its 
 teeth.* 
 
 We shoidd always look with suspicion upon a dog which, after 
 being absent from its home for some days, returns again, and 
 especially if it be in the condition just described. 
 
 The above may be said to be the precursory symptoms of the 
 true mad or furious period ; and it will be observed that rabies is 
 not what it is usually imagined to be — a disease characterised 
 by a continual state of fury ; on the contrary, it has been shown 
 that, before this final stage is reached, there is a somewhat long 
 period dviring which the animal is inofiensive, although to the 
 experienced and observant eye the malady is present, and is 
 easily recognised. And this is the period when the majority, 
 if not all, of the dogs should be sequestrated, before they have 
 time to do mischief. The erratic dogs in the semi-delirium of 
 rabies, inflicting wounds on every animal and man they meet, 
 have not been suddenly seized with the disease ; but the largest 
 portion of them are dogs that have deserted their homes, and 
 which, before their flight, exhibited the unequivocal symptoms 
 above mentioned. Were these precursory indications sufiiciently 
 known and appreciated by the owners of dogs, and the proper 
 precautionary steps adopted, much would be done to prevent 
 the spreading of the disease. For there can be no doubt 
 
 * The maternal aflection for its young remains as strong in the rabid as it is 
 in the healthy dog. M. Defays, a professor at the Brussels Veterinary School, 
 gives an instance of a hitch that had three puppies, and two days afterwards 
 suddenly exhibited all the symptoms of rabies. Notwithstanding the severe 
 attacks of the malady, the poor creature continued to suckle its young, and run 
 anxiously to them when they emitted the slightest cry; not being able to 
 swallow any iiuid, however, the secretion of milk was suspended and the puppies 
 died. But this event did not alter its desii-e to be near and to fondle them, and 
 to cover them over with straw as if to hide them ; it was only when complete 
 paralysis had supervened that the unfortunate animal ceased to occupy itself 
 with its dead ofl'spring. (" Annales de Med. Veterinaire." Brussels, October, 
 1871.)
 
 2 20 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 whatever, that the agents which propagate it are the dogs that 
 have escaped from their owners, after having been nnwell for 
 a sufl&ciently long period to have afforded warning and the 
 adoption of preventive measures — so far as the extension of the 
 disease is concerned — if it were only known that the signs then 
 exhibited were precursory of rabies. It will be seen, then, how 
 necessary it is for the prevention of alarm and the preservation 
 of human and animal life, that an acquaintance with, or a 
 knowledge of, these initial symptoms should be acquired by 
 every one ; for who is there who is not more or less among dogs, 
 and who might at any moment have to do with an animal in 
 this condition ? The insidiousness of rabies, and its terribly 
 destructive character in man and beast, are surely sufficient to 
 impress upon us the necessity of learning all we can with regard 
 to its suppression ; and in no way can we more successfully con- 
 tend with the scourge than by knowing the earliest symptoms 
 which indicate its existence, for then we can adopt measures 
 which will most assuredly prevent its extending beyond the 
 animal affected. 
 
 After two or three days, frequently after only twelve hours, 
 the precursory or early signs of rabies have given place to those 
 which mark the confirmed malady or furious period — that in 
 which ferocious instincts are developed in the poor creature, 
 and the desire to bite is irrepressible ; there can scarcely then 
 be a doubt in the mind of the most inexperienced as to what is 
 the matter. In the first place, the physiognomy of the rabid 
 dog at this stage is terribly modified. Its confiding and affec- 
 tionate nature is no longer manifested in its glances, and we 
 have instead an indefinable expression of sombre melancholy 
 and cruelty. The eyes have their pupils excessively dilated, 
 and momentarily emit lightning-like flashes, produced by the 
 reflection of the light from the tdpetum lucidum at the back of 
 the organ, which in some aspects causes the eyes to look like 
 globes of fire. But when this scintillation ceases, then the eyes 
 become dull and heavy, and so fierce-looking as to excite a
 
 Symptoms in the Dog. 221 
 
 lively sentiment of fear in those who find themselves in the 
 presence of a mad dog : even when the animal is seen from 
 before the bars of a cage, where its symptoms and behaviour 
 can be most safely and attentively observed. As a general rule, 
 the conjunctival membrane of the eyes is red and injected, and 
 the eyes themselves are nearly closed ; their sensibility to light 
 is increased, and wrinkles which sometimes appear on the fore- 
 head above the eyes, add to the repulsive aspect of the animal. 
 No sooner does the mad dog become aware of your presence 
 than it springs at you, and emitting its characteristic howl or 
 bark, seizes the iron bars that hinder it from attacking any one. 
 If anything is presented to it, such as a walking stick, it flies 
 at it immediately with open mouth, and grasps and gnaws 
 it with its teeth, but without giving out a cry or a growl. 
 Water put before it, it is said, will also not unfrequently excite 
 a paroxysm, as will also light reflected from any polished 
 body ; these paroxysms can be produced when we choose, 
 according to Haubner. The water in these rare cases, how- 
 ever, will be readily drank in a dark place ; it is only when 
 shone upon that it is likely to be avoided. 
 
 But this fury is soon succeeded by profound lassitude ; the 
 animal becomes exhausted and retires to the furthest corner of 
 its den, where it remains for some time insensible to everything 
 that may be done to irritate it. Then all at once it wakens up, 
 springs forward again, and performs the same frenzied move- 
 ments if there is anything to excite it. The first paroxysm of 
 madness is usxially the most intense, and the fits altogether vary 
 in duration from some hours to a day, and even longer. They 
 are ordinarily shorter in trained and pet dogs than in those 
 which are less domesticated ; and in all the remission is so com- 
 plete after the first paroxysm that the animals appear to be 
 almost, if not quite, in perfect health at this time. 
 
 During the paroxysms, the respiration is hurried and difficult, 
 but it is calm in the remissions. The pulse, when it has been 
 examined — for there is danger in manipulating a rabid dog
 
 222 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 during one of its mad attacks — has been found quick and 
 hard. 
 
 In the early stages, it would appear from the thermometrical 
 observations already made that there is no marked increase of 
 temperature, and that it is only at a later period, when the 
 body begins to waste, that the heat becomes exalted. In all 
 febrile diseases, as a rule, there is an augmentation of tempera- 
 ture from the commencement. In one case of " dumb madness," 
 the temperature rose to 104"8°. 
 
 If, however, the dog is not excited, and is kept in a cage 
 away from all noises and objects that might rouse its nervous 
 susceptibility, these fits of fury are not observed. Sometimes 
 the suifering creature is agitated, and wanders here and there in 
 a restless, purposeless manner, turns over its straw, and appears 
 to pursue and bark at phantoms ; or it Avill remain crouching 
 for a short period in a drowsy state, xmtil suddenly it makes a 
 bound as far as the dimensions of its cage or the length of its 
 chain will permit, barking in its peculiar manner at the same 
 time ; then it will perhaps remain fixed for a few minutes 
 staring strangely at objects and persons with which it used to 
 be perfectly acquainted ; at other times it is calm, sleepy, 
 motionless, only moving now and then in a quick nervous 
 manner, but without getting up, as if it were haunted by a dis- 
 quieting dream. It never becomes really furious or aggressive 
 unless there appear external causes to excite it, and the most 
 potent of these is the presence of one of its own species. No 
 sooner does it behold another dog, even at a distance, than it 
 displays all the symptoms of advanced rabies in the most 
 painful and alarming manner ; it bounds towards the new 
 arrival and violently attacks the bars which hinder it from 
 inflicting serious injury on those arovmd it. But, strange to 
 say, if the dog is introduced into the cage, the first impulse of 
 the mad animal is not always to fly upon and bite it ; on the 
 contrary, the presence of the unlucky visitor seems to inspire 
 it with sentiments of affection, and it manifests this by caresses
 
 Syjuptoms in the Dog. 223 
 
 and amatory gestures wliose signification is not doubtful. Then, 
 almost in the same instant, moved by an antagonistic impulse, its 
 eyes appear to become inflamed ^A\h fury, and it madly throws 
 itself upon its victim and freely uses its teeth. The attacked 
 animal rarely retaliates, but usually responds to the bites by 
 acute yells which contrast strangely with the silent anger of 
 the aggressor, and it struggles to guard its head from the 
 attacks directed against it by burying it deeply in the litter, or 
 covering it with its fore paws. This period of violence is soon 
 over, and the mad dog resumes its caresses, which are as ardent 
 as at first ; but there is only a short interval before another fit of 
 rage ensues, and when these have been repeated several times, 
 the patient becomes exhausted and feeble, and falls ofi" into a 
 restless kind of somnolescence. No sooner, however, has it rested 
 sufl&ciently long to have regained a little strength than it recom- 
 mences its attacks, and continues them until paralysis ensues — 
 which is not long, for these fits repeated in this way have a 
 singular influence in precipitating the course of the malady. 
 
 As before mentioned, at this period the mucous membrane of 
 the mouth is most frequently dry, and sometimes even fissured 
 and cracked. The secretion of a great quantity of saliva, and 
 its flowing from the mouth, is usually only witnessed in cases in 
 which swallowing has become impossible, because of the morbid 
 condition of the pharynx. At times the tongue, nose, and also 
 the whole head, appear swollen. 
 
 It has been for a long time known that the mad dog is 
 shunned by other animals of its species, and though there are, 
 of course, exceptional cases now and again, yet it is none the 
 less a remarkable fact that dogs appear to know instinctively 
 the danger they incur at the approach of a rabid congener ; 
 and it has been frequently observed that the strongest and 
 most courageous manifests weakness and cowardice in its 
 presence.* Instead of attempting to fight with it, they usually 
 
 * The following is an old English translation of Ambrose Fare's description 
 of rabies, written in the sixteenth century : " The mad dog hath sparkling and
 
 2 24 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 endeavour to escape from its attacks by flight. If shut up in 
 a cage with it, even fighting dogs appear to lose their pug- 
 nacity, and seem to have a presentiment of the terrible danger 
 to which they are exposed : expressing their fear by tremblings 
 over the whole body, and seeking to crouch away in a corner.* 
 
 fiery eyes, with a fixed look, cruel, and squinting; lie carries his head heavily, 
 hanging down towards the ground, and somewhat on one side ; he gapes and 
 lolls out his tongue, which is livid and blackish, and being short-breathed, he 
 casts forth much filth at his nose, and much foaming matter from his mouth. In 
 his gait he appears as if he suspected and feared all things ; he keepeth no cer- 
 tain path, but runs one while to this side, and another while to that, and 
 stumbling like unto one that is drunk, he oftentimes falleth down on the ground, 
 and violently assails whatsoever he meets withal, whether it be man, tree, wall, 
 dog, or any other thing. Other dogs shun him ; but if another dog unawares 
 chances to foul on him, he yields with abject mission to his mercy, fawns upon 
 him, and privily labours to get from him, though he be the strongest and 
 greatest of the two. He is unmindful of eating and drinking ; he barks not, 
 yet bites all he meets without distinction, not even sparing his master, who at 
 this time he knows not from a stranger or enemy ; but when he sees water, he 
 trembles and shakes, and his hairs bristle up. In all cases dogs affected with 
 hydrophobia betoken a strange antipathy to other dogs, and particiilarly to cats ; 
 but as the disease makes its progress this antipathy is overcome, and the animal 
 not only bites other dogs and cats, but the surrounding persons, as well as 
 things — wood, stones, earth, glass, &c., have been found in their stomachs on 
 dissection." 
 
 Spackman, in 1613, gives the following symptoms: " When a dog is become 
 mad, he is commonly altered in the whole habit and temperature of his body, 
 growing leane, dry, and thirstie, yet refusing to drink, and fearing or flying from 
 water and bright things. He is sad and pensive, hanging down his head, or 
 bearing it more toward one side than another ; his eyes be red and fierie, his 
 countenance horrible and very unpleasant ; and Paulus saith hee is altogether 
 dumbe and seldom able to barke. Yet some say he will now and then barke at 
 his owne shadow, but with a very hoarse voice. His eares hang down, he 
 dreveleth and fometh at the mouth and nose, his tongue hangeth out, being of a 
 red or blackish colour, hee bloweth short, refuseth both meat and drinke, his 
 tayle hangeth loosely, or is clapt betwixt his legs : he goeth drowsilj^, and when 
 he runneth, he reeleth to and fro, yet runneth he then faster than he was wont. 
 Hee knoweth neither his master nor any of the household, but will bite them as 
 soone as any other. What creature soever he meeteth, either wilde or tame, he 
 will offer to bite it. In his nmning or going, he will stop sometime upon the 
 sudden. All other dogs are afraid of him, and runne from him if they may : but 
 if they meet him on the sudden, they will crouch down to him and flatter him for 
 feare. These are noted to bee the signes of an absolute mad dog, but many mad 
 dogs want some of these signes." 
 
 * A good instance of the danger of relying too implicitly upon this sign, and 
 also the fallacy of the worming operation, is afforded by a correspondent in the 
 Bath Herald for February 6th, 1808. " A hound, supposed to be mad, passed 
 
 ?
 
 Synipto7ns in the Dog. 225 
 
 One of the exceptions to the rule is afforded by a case that 
 occurred at Alfort, and which is alluded to by M. Bouley. One 
 day he introduced a bull terrier, a very good fighter, into the 
 cage of a mad dog. The first impression it experienced when 
 shut in was manifestly that of fear ; but this it soon overcame, 
 and instead of waiting to be attacked, it began it ; at a bound 
 it dashed upon its adversary, and seizing it behind the neck, 
 threw it upon the floor, and put it out of its power to inflict 
 harm. Twenty times this experiment was repeated with dif- 
 ferent mad dogs, at various times, in the hospital of the school, 
 and the terrier was always as successful. In all these en- 
 counters it contrived to escape bites, and did not contract rabies. 
 
 through my father's garden, skirmishing, as he passed, with several of my 
 father's dogs, and with my sj^aniel. The former were all destroyed; but as I was 
 not convinced that the hound was mad, I did not destroy the spaniel, and as he 
 had been wormed when a puppy, and had overtaken the hound, and had a second 
 bite with him, I tvas confirmed in my opinion that there was no danger , from the 
 general notion that dogs in health will not pursue a mad dog . I came up during 
 this battle, and separated the dogs, when the hound snapped at me and went ofl', 
 and I could never get any subsequent intelligence of him. This was in the 
 month oi August. About three weeks afterwards I went to the river to shoot 
 wild fowl, taking the spaniel with me, but soon observed that he would not go 
 into the water, as usual ; and when driven in a little way, he soon returned, 
 shivering, and I could not make him go in again. I had with me a young 
 pointer, which the spaniel made up to on his return from the water, turned him 
 on his back, and bit him several times. The next day, as the groom was trim- 
 ming my horse, the spaniel came out of the stable, jumped up to the horse's lip, 
 and left slight marks of his teeth, but which appeared like two mere scratches. 
 Both dogs were confined. The spaniel daily got worse. About the fourth or 
 fifth day he got loose, with his chain on, went into the kitchen, and lay under 
 the table while the servants were at dinner. He did not molest any one, nor at 
 all incline. Like dogs that are not wormed, to run away, and snap indiscriminately 
 at everything they pass ; but on being taken back, and fastened up near the 
 stable, he lay and bit the straw, refused food, and sprung from water as if it 
 would scald him. In a few days he died. The young pointer had aU the symp- 
 toms of the malady usually described. Being convinced that he was perfectly 
 mad, he was shot with a pistol. The horse was sent to an eminent farrier, who 
 burnt the bitten part of the lip, and gave him the Ormskirk medicine. I drove 
 him two or three months in a curricle, but observed that he continually rubbed 
 his lip on the manger. At length I found that he had imbibed the fatal poison. 
 The time that had elapsed from the day he was bitten till that when he was 
 taken mad was exactly six months and a fortnight. As his recovery was 
 evidently impossible, I soon had him killed." In all probability, the spaniel was 
 affected with "dumb madness." 
 
 Q
 
 226 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 But this and similar instances are quite exceptional ; and, as 
 before said, the mad dog is to others a source of dread. This 
 is very evident from what happens in packs of hounds. As 
 is well known, these animals are rather curious in their 
 behaviour sometimes, and should two of their number com- 
 mence to quarrel, woe to the one which manifests its faint- 
 heartedness by cries, for the others immediately set upon and 
 worry it in a most unmerciful manner. But, what is very 
 remarkable, if one of the two quarrelling dogs is rabid, the 
 whole pack holds aloof in a remote part of the kennel, and 
 should there be an open door or window, they will resort to 
 flight. Notwithstanding their cruel habits and somewhat 
 savage disposition, they become quite cowardly in the presence 
 of the threatened danger, and the mad dog is left to worry its 
 victim ; if, impelled by its rabid instincts, it selects another 
 out of the pack, the others also instantly leave this one to its 
 fate. M. Bouley vouches for the correctness of this statement 
 by his experience, and mentions that this remarkable pecu- 
 liarity was especially noted in the Prince of Wagram's pack at 
 Gros-Bois, This pack became infected by a strange dog one 
 day while hunting, and the disease spread so rapidly among 
 them that it was found necessary to destroy the whole ; though 
 not before they had given ample demonstration of the truth 
 of what has just been asserted. 
 
 Mr. Henderson, alluding to the outbreak in the Durham 
 County pack, in his letter to the Times of December 13, says : 
 " The night before the meeting of the members of the Hunt, 
 held in Durham, Dowdeswell, the huntsman, than whom a more 
 careful man does not exist, was much disturbed by the fighting 
 and noise of six hounds he had separated from the pack, they 
 having shown the usual premonitory symptoms. After trying 
 in vain to quiet them several times during the night, at day- 
 break he found three fighting and worrying each other, covered 
 with blood and furiously mad, the other three crouched up in a 
 corner, frightened and trembling."
 
 Sy?nptoms i?i the Dog. 227 
 
 I myself know of an instance in wliich a large mastiff, a 
 savage, aggressive brute that worried every dog that came 
 within its reach when on the chain, flew to the back of its 
 kennel and trembled at the approach of a mad setter, which 
 had bitten dogs, horses, and cattle. 
 
 If the mad dog is not confined in a cage, but kept in a room 
 where there is more liberty, it wanders about in every direc- 
 tion, and with all the greater agitation if not accustomed to be 
 separated from its human companions. It is continually on 
 the move, and rambles, seeks, smells, howls at the walls, flies 
 at the phantoms that seem to pursue it, gnaws at the bottoms 
 of doors, furniture, &c., and may at last make an escape through 
 glass doors or windows. If persons are only separated from it 
 by glass it does not hesitate to smash the fragile barrier : being 
 all the more determined to get through it when excited by 
 seeing them, and moved by the fatal desire to bite, which now 
 entirely dominates it. The larger the obstacles the wilder its 
 fury, and no sacrifice is too great to obtain liberty. House- 
 dogs are trying every moment to escape from their dwelling ; 
 and those which are kept tied up or shut in a room are con- 
 stantly endeavouring to break their attachment, or to destroy the 
 doors or partitions that confine them, in order to satisfy their 
 longing to be at large. 
 
 When a rabid dog makes its escape it goes freely 'forward, 
 as if impelled by some irresistible force — travelling considerable 
 distances in a short time, and attacking every living being it 
 meets on its way ; preferring dogs, however, to other animals, 
 and the latter rather than mankind. Cats also appear to be, 
 next to dogs, most liable to be injured. A mad dog that had 
 done a considerable amount of mischief in Lancashire in 1869, 
 was seen, in one part of its career, trotting along the road with 
 a cat in its mouth, which it had picked up from a cottage, and 
 which, some time afterwards, it dropped to attack a cow.* 
 Fowls, likewise, are particularly exposed to the assaults of the 
 * The Vcieriinirian, March, 1S70. 
 
 q3
 
 228 Rabies afid Hydrophobia. 
 
 rabid dog. When it attacks, and endeavours to tear its victims, 
 it does so in silence, never uttering a snarl or a cry of anger ; 
 and should it chance to be injured in return, it emits no cry or 
 yell of pain. Though it will not so readily assault mankind as 
 it will other creatures ; yet it is most prudent, when in the 
 presence of a mad dog, to allow it to pass, instead of attacking 
 it, unless there is a certainty of killing it without the risk of 
 being wounded by its teeth. The degree of ferocity would 
 appear to be influenced very much by the natural disposition 
 of the dog, and the training it has received. Some, for instance, 
 only snap or give a slight bite in passing ; while others, on the 
 contrary, bite furiously, and tear the objects presented to them 
 or which they meet in their way, and sometimes with such an 
 extreme degree of violence as to injure their mouths and break 
 their teeth, or even their jaws.* If chained up, they will 
 
 * A very remarkable instance of this kind occurred at the Lyons Veterinary 
 School in 1865, and as it affords a good example of the disease, no apology is 
 needed for referring to it here. A large watch-dog, five years old, was observed 
 to have lost its usual appetite for four days. It also tried to get hold of animals 
 passing it, especially those of its own species, springing at them and attempting 
 to bite them in such an unusual manner, that it looked as if it were naturally 
 vicious. At last it bit a milkman, with whom it had previously been on the 
 best of terms, and the owner of the dog then had it sent to the school. On its 
 arrival there, it was not under the influence of a paroxysm, and there was 
 nothing in its appearance to indicate that it was unwell. It was even lively, and 
 was so responsive to the caressings bestowed upon it, that the student de service 
 took it to a kennel, tied it up, and took off its muzzle without its showing the 
 least viciousness. The following day, however, the symptoms of rabies became 
 manifest in a most unmistakable manner. Finding itself shut up, it became 
 furious. At first sight, the unusual brilliancy of its gaze was most striking, 
 though it was fixed and haggard ; the pupils were more dilated than was natural ; 
 the conjunctivae were deeply injected and had a dark red colour. The tail was 
 carried close between the legs and kept immovable, whereas in health it was 
 carried curled over the back. It frequently barked, and any irritating cause, 
 such as the presence of a man, made it bark still more. The voice was brief, 
 jerking, and hoarse, and it alone would have indicated the existence of the 
 disease. It was very restless in the kennel, incessantly turning round ; if not 
 excited it did not attempt to bite, and showed a singular ])ropensity to gather its 
 litter into heaps in different places by means of its fore feet. From time to time, 
 even when apparently calm, it opened its mouth and sharply closed it again 
 with a champing noise, as if it were biting at flies. Bits of flesh were offered to it 
 at the end of a stick ; these it at once seized and swallowed without masticating. 
 Deglutition was nevertheless difficult, and it might have been the stick that
 
 Symptoms in the Dog. 229 
 
 gnaw the chain until their teeth are worn away and the jaw- 
 bones laid bare. 
 
 The rabid dog does not continue its progress very long. 
 Exhausted by fatigue, by the fits of madness excited in it by 
 the objects it meets in its way, by hunger, thirst, and also, no 
 doubt, as a consequence of the disease itself, its limbs soon 
 become feeble. Then it slackens its rate of travelling, and 
 walks unsteadily ; its drooping tail, its head inclined towards 
 
 excited it to seize the food. The following day the madness was quite extra- 
 ordinary. Every instant it darted at the door of the kennel, seized the bars 
 between its jaws, and tried to break them. A non-viscid saliva, abundant in 
 quantity, and foamy, flowed from its mouth, which was bleeding through contact 
 ■with the bars. It flew at a single bound towards everything presented to it 
 without appearing to mind the danger to which it might be exposed ; in this way 
 it seized a piece of red-hot iron, and even licked it. Its bowlings were more 
 frequent, interrupted, and hoarse. In one of its fits of fury, it got its lower 
 jaw fixed between the bars of the kennel, where it was retained by its fangs ; it 
 now began to struggle so much, and made such -^ngorous efforts to free itself, that 
 the jaw was broken, the fangs were torn out, and nearly all the incisor teeth 
 were smashed. The pain caused by this fracture, though it must have been 
 extreme, did not calm its fmy ; it was still seen with its mouth full of blood, 
 and the extremity of the jaw dangling about, howling, biting at everything 
 offered to it, and attempting to gnaw the bars, which seemed to be the principal 
 object of its fury. If food was thrown to it, it would still try to take it, though 
 it could not. This horrible scene lasted without interruption for nearly half a 
 day, when it was decided to destroy the poor brute. This was done by putting 
 five grammes of strychnine in a small morsel of meat, and giving it to the dog on 
 the end of a stick. It furiously seized this merciful bait, and soon died. — 
 Journal de Medecine Veterinaire de Lyon, 1865. 
 
 This case, it must be remembered, is somewhat exceptional. It is remarkable 
 for the intensity and persistence, even in the absence of all external excitation, 
 of the rahiA. furore, which was carried to the highest degree it could attain — even 
 to the fracture of its jaw. Professor Saint-Cyr adds, that it was truly a horrible 
 and pitiful spectacle to see the poor animal throwing itself with open mouth, the 
 blood streaming from it, and the jaw hanging in pieces, against the bars of the 
 cage, seizing them, and still gnawing at them, despite the pain of its broken jaw, 
 as if the excitement of its internal sufferings had overpowered all other sensa- 
 tions. " Certainly," he continues, " if rabies always showed such a fearful 
 assemblage of symptoms, it would well deserve its name. But in the great 
 majority of cases the mad dog, unless imprudently excited, is far from being 
 furious. Even this poor creature, whose end was so cruelly tragical, remained 
 three days with its master, quite rabid, without manifesting any other signs of 
 the horrible disease than an irresistible desire to bite, without any access of 
 fury. And at the time of its admission to the hospital it was yet calm, and 
 betrayed no disease until it was shut up in the kennel."
 
 230 
 
 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 the ground, the mouth open, and the protruded tongue of a lead- 
 blue colour, and covered with dust, — all this gives the distressed 
 creature a very striking and characteristic physiognomy. In 
 this condition, however, it is much less to be dreaded than in 
 its early fits of fury. If it is still bent on attacking, it is only 
 when it meets with anything directly in its track that it seeks 
 to satisfy its rage ; but it is no longer sufficiently excitable to 
 change its direction, or go out of its course to attack an animal 
 or a man not immediately in its path. It is extremely pro- 
 
 Furious Babies : Late Stage. 
 
 bable, also, that its fast failing vision and deadened scent 
 prevent its being so easily impressed by surrounding objects as 
 it previously was. 
 
 As has been said, to each paroxysm, which is always of 
 short duration, there succeeds a degree of exhaustion as great 
 as the fits have been violent and often repeated. This compels 
 the animal to stop ; then it shelters itself in obscure places, 
 frequently in the ditches by the roadside, and lies there in a 
 somnolescent state for perhaps hours. There is great danger, 
 nevertheless, in disturbing the creature at this period ; for, 
 when roused from its torpor, it has sometimes strength enough
 
 Symptoms in the Dog. 231 
 
 left to inflict a bite. Many people, and particularly children, 
 have perished from hydrophobia through having committed 
 such an imprudent act as disturbing a rabid dog in this condi- 
 tion ; indeed, this danger may have given rise to the old proverb 
 to "leave sleeping dogs alone." This period, which we may 
 term the second stage of the malady, is as variable as the 
 first stage, but it rarely indeed exceeds from three to four days. 
 The phenomena we have described insensibly merge into those 
 of the third or last period, when symptoms of paralysis appear, 
 which are promptly followed by death. 
 
 When the disease approaches its termination, and during 
 the remissions in the paroxysms, these symptoms of paralysis 
 become manifest, especially in the hind limbs, which look as if 
 they could not support the animal's weight, and cause it to 
 stagger about ; or the lower jaw becomes more or less drooping, 
 leaving the dry mouth partially open. Emaciation proceeds 
 rapidly, and the paroxysms diminish in intensity ; while the 
 remissions become less marked. The physiognomy assumes a 
 still more sinister and repulsive aspect ; the hair is dull and 
 standing on end ; the flanks are drawn up ; the eyes lose their 
 lustre and are buried in their orbits, the pupils are dilated, 
 and the cornea of the eye is dull and semi- opaque ; very often, 
 even at an early period, the eyes squint, and this strabismus 
 adds still more to the terrifying appearance of the poor crea- 
 ture. The voice is husky, if at all heard ; the breathing is 
 laborious, and the pulse hurried and irregular. Gradually the 
 paralysis increases, and the hinder extremities are dragged as 
 if the animal's back were broken, until at length it is general, 
 and is then the prelude of death. Or the unfortunate creature 
 remains lying in a stupor, and can only raise itself with diffi- 
 culty on the fore limbs when it is greatly excited. In this 
 condition it may yet try to snap or bite at objects within its 
 reach. At times convulsions of a tetanic character appear in 
 certain muscles, at other times throughout the body ; a comatose 
 condition ensues, and the rabid dog, if permitted to die in a
 
 232 
 
 Toadies and Hvdyophobia. 
 
 natural manner, perishes, in tlie great majority of eases, from 
 paralysis and asphyxia. 
 
 Such are the phenomena which usually go to make up the 
 category of symptoms appertaining to " furious rabies," as it 
 has frequently been named. But there are two other types or 
 forms of the disease which must be noticed, as their manifesta- 
 tions are peculiar ; and though they are accompanied by less 
 dangerous symptoms than that we have just been describing, 
 they are none the less worthy of attention. These types 
 
 — — ■ C— - 
 
 " Dumb Madness." Drawn from Life. (Sanson.) 
 
 have been designated " dumb madness " and " tranquil mad- 
 ness." 
 
 " Dumb madness," as already mentioned, owes its name to 
 the diseased creature being unable, perhaps from the com- 
 mencement of the disease, to emit the characteristic howl or 
 bark of rabies, because of the paralysis or inflamed condition 
 of the vocal organs ; as well as, in all likelihood, the paralysis 
 of those muscles of the lower jaw which close the mouth. 
 This paralysis imparts a curious and a very characteristic 
 physiognomy to the poor dog : which is not only unable to 
 utter any sound, but is also incapable of eating and drink-
 
 Symptoms in the Dog. 233 
 
 ing, and remains with the jaw pendant and the mouth open, 
 showing the flaccid or swollen tongue covered with a brownish 
 matter, and a stringy, glutinous saliva lying between it and 
 the lower lip and coating the fauces, which sometimes appear 
 inflamed. Indeed, it may be said that it is only in this form 
 of rabies in the dog that there is slavering. There is, of 
 course, a total inability to lap or to swallow fluids ; though the 
 desire to drink is intense, and the creature will thrust its face 
 into the vessel in futile efibrts to obtain relief, even until the 
 approach of death. Water may be poured down its throat 
 without inducing a paroxysm. The general physiognomy and 
 demeanour of the poor creature inspires the beholder with 
 pity rather than fear, and almost impels one to afibrd it 
 assistance. The symptoms due to cerebral excitement are less 
 marked than in the raging form of rabies; the agitation is 
 not so considerable, and the restlessness, tendency to run away, 
 and desire to bite, are also not nearly so great ; generally the 
 animal is quite passive. Not unfrequently one or both eyes 
 squint. It is only when very much excited that the creature 
 may rarely contrive to close its mouth. Sometimes, also, 
 there co-exists a certain amount of tumefaction at the back 
 part of the throat (pharynx), and even at the neck ; and when 
 the tongue shares in this compHcation it hangs out of the 
 mouth. In certain cases, according to Roll, there is also a 
 catarrhal condition of the membrane lining the nasal cavities, 
 the larynx, and the bronchi ; sometimes the animal denotes, 
 by its attitudes, the existence of abdominal pain, and in this 
 instance the faeces are soft or quite fluid. The other symptoms, 
 such as the mental disorder, rapid and prompt exhaustion, 
 paralysis of the posterior regions of the body towards the 
 termination of the disease, as well as the rapidity with which 
 it runs its course, are the same as in the other type of rabies. 
 
 The simultaneous occurrence of cases of " dumb " and "furious 
 madness " is frequently observed in packs of foxhounds. We 
 have already given instances in our History, especially in
 
 234 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 the outbreak at Guadaloiipe, in 1776, and lately in the 
 Albrightou pack, in 1871. The epizooty among the Durham 
 County foxhounds, already alluded to, furnishes us with 
 another notable instance, for the details of which I am 
 indebted to Mr. Farrow, M.E-.C.V.S., of Durham. He informs 
 me that the first case of rabies occurred on October 20, and the 
 second on November 1, eleven days afterwards ; the third was 
 noticed on November 3 ; and from this time the disease became 
 more general through the pack, three or four rabid hounds 
 being reported every week, until eleven couples had either died 
 or been destroyed. The first animal was attacked with 
 " furious " rabies in the most marked form, and the commence- 
 ment of the disease was indicated by its flying at, and attempt- 
 ing to bite, several hounds after a severe run. It was led home 
 and carefully isolated from the pack. Mr. Farrow saw the 
 animal on the 22nd, and it did not then exhibit much ferocity, 
 though it was not deemed safe to approach within seizing 
 distance ; it evinced a certain amount of irritability by con- 
 tinually shifting its position and seeking a fresh resting-place. 
 Some fluid food was set before it, of which a portion was taken. 
 On the following morning it was again seen by this gentleman, 
 and it was then in a very excited state, incessantly biting and 
 tearing to pieces the furniture of the box, &c. It was imme- 
 diately shot as rabid. The next two cases assumed the "mild" 
 or " quiet character," as Mr. Farrow designates the " dumb 
 form ; " there was not the slightest tendency to do harm to any 
 one who came in contact with them, and they died on the 
 fourth day from " exhaustion and sufibcation combined." The 
 symptoms in these and other cases of dumb madness that fol- 
 lowed were, he says, a disinclination for food, dulness, and 
 moving from place to place. On the second day these symp- 
 toms were more marked, and the peculiar brilliancy of the 
 eye was very conspicuous ; deglutition was performed with 
 difficulty, and there was partial paralysis of the lower jaw, 
 accompanied by a hoarse peculiar sound in the windpipe, with
 
 Symptoms in. the Dog. 235 
 
 a discharge of frothy saliva from the mouth. After several 
 cases of "mild" rabies had occurred, the malady again assumed 
 the violent form in the kennels, the hounds affected becoming 
 so furious that it was extremely dangerous to approach them. 
 And Mr. Henderson of Durham, in the letter which appeared in 
 the Times on December 20, amply corroborates this statement, 
 especially with regard to the later cases. " The huntsman, on 
 visiting a few hounds separately confined, opened the door of 
 the kennel, when a bitch he had brought up from a pnppy flew 
 at him most savagely, and had he not fortunately held the 
 door in his hand and caught her between that and the post, he 
 would most certainly have been bitten. It is needless to say, 
 the bitch was perfectly mad .... Again, a day or two after, 
 before leaving home for a rest, Dowdeswell went to take a last 
 leave of such of his pack as remained, when Playmate, a 
 favourite hound, who was accustomed to show his afiection by 
 standing up and placing his paws on his master's neck, some- 
 times being even permitted to lick his face, made his usual 
 demonstration of licking ; he was gently put aside and seemed 
 disappointed. The day foUawing Playmate, with three others, 
 went perfectly mad ; and would not permit those who were 
 accustomed to feed and attend them to come near." 
 
 The "dumb madness" difiers, therefore, in its more pro- 
 minent features, from the form just described by reason of the 
 paralysis of the lower jaw, which hinders it from biting, except 
 in very exceptional circumstances ; and also because the fero- 
 cious instincts are in abeyance, and there is no tendency to 
 aggression. Nevertheless, there is every cause for circumspec- 
 tion in approaching a dog sufiering from this type of rabies, 
 and especially if it has to be handled ; for, as has been pointed 
 out, though it may be said to be quite inoffensive, yet its 
 saliva is none the less virulent ; and as the peculiar symptom 
 which gives the disease its prenomen, is liable to lead those 
 unaccustomed to rabies to imagine some foreign body is fixed 
 in the creature's throat, and induce them to use their' fingers
 
 236 Rabies atid Hydrophobia. 
 
 for its removal, great danger is incurred. Therefore it is well 
 to remember that if dumb madness is benignant, so far as its 
 symptoms are concerned, it is not so with regard to its viru- 
 lence. 
 
 It has been calculated that from 15 to 20 per cent, of rabid 
 dogs have this peculiar form. It is uncommonly rare in other 
 animals, and has really never been seen in swine or in mankind. 
 
 " Tranquil rabies " was, I believe, first described by Berndt,* 
 and has been certified as not imfrequently present in dogs by 
 Professor Lafosse. In this form of the disease the dog lies 
 rolled up, and does not pay the slightest attention to any noises 
 or movements around it ; remaining indifferent even to the food 
 and drink offered to it. Plunged in a kind of coma, it gradually 
 wastes away, and dies quietly about fifteen days after the first 
 symptoms have shown themselves. 
 
 This form of rabies has not, to my knowledge, been alluded 
 to by any other comparative pathologists ; which would lead 
 us to suppose that it is rare. The disease most commonly 
 assumes the furious type, and it is somewhat remarkable that 
 puppies and young dogs nearly always have it in this form. 
 
 Thus far, then, we have endeavoured to depict the symptoms 
 of rabies in the dog, from the initial manifestations to the ter- 
 mination of the disease in death. It only now remains to add, 
 before alluding to the duration of the disease, that it is not 
 necessary, nor is it likely, that all the signs above enumerated 
 should be present in every case. One or more of the most 
 characteristic may be absent now and again, and others may 
 be more or less modified ; yet there will always be sufficient 
 evidence of the kind we have adduced present in every instance 
 to indicate the existence of the malady to the careful, or even 
 the casual, observer.']' 
 
 * " Nouvelle Experiences sur I'Hydrophobie." 
 
 t Professor Saint-Cyr makes some very excellent remarks on this subject ; and 
 they are so apposite and useful that I make no apology for translating them.
 
 Diagnosis in the Dog. 237 
 
 Diagnosis. 
 
 The diseases or conditions with which rabies may be, and 
 has been, confounded, are, nevertheless, somewhat numerous. 
 The following are the chief: — 
 
 " Epilepsy," in which there are sudden convulsive fits, with 
 loss of consciousness, and accompanied by a flow of foamy saliva 
 from the mouth ; at the same time the animal emits cries of 
 distress, lies on the ground, and struggles. There is very 
 
 Speaking of the rabid or suspected dogs brought to the Lyons Veterinary School, 
 he says : " These dogs are not always sent at the commencement of the malady. 
 Often, very often, they remain with their owners, every moment in contact with 
 the people of the houses in which they reside, and especially the children, for one, 
 two, three, and even four days, and generally without the slightest suspicion of 
 the terrible danger to which they are exposed. Every day there come to our 
 cUnique persons, and particularly females, carrying in their arms, without even 
 the precaution of a muzzle, dogs said to be affected with something or another, but 
 whose real disease is nothing but rabies. One dog had a iveakness of the hind 
 quarters, believed to have been caused by a blow vnih. a stick over the back ; it still 
 eats a little, does not show any disposition to bite, and is even more affectionate 
 than usual. Received into the infirmary on the 24th March (1864% it dies of un- 
 mistakable rabies on the 26th. Another had employed itself pulling shavings about 
 a joiner's shop for two days, and no attention had been paid to this singular, but 
 significant occupation, until, on its owner scolding it, it flew at and bit him ; it 
 also attacked a boy, but did not wound him. It was only then that some an.xiety 
 was raised as to its condition, and it was brought to the school. It was mad. 
 Another is dull for three days, but it should not be rabid, as it still ate and drank, 
 though less than usual. In three days it was dead from rabies. And another, 
 for three days, constantly kept its mouth half open; it must hare a bone in its 
 throat. This bone was — rabies ! These examples might be multiplied, but I 
 will only add one more. In the autumn of 1858, a person of a certain age 
 brought to the school, in his arms, and without being muzzled, a small American 
 poodle. This dog had a paraphymosis, and I was requested to give an opinion. 
 Not suspecting anything, I was about to put my hand on the diseased part, 
 when it darted at me, and bit me severely in the index finger of the right hand. 
 Still dreading nothing, and attributing this movement as merely a defensive one, 
 I went into an adjoining apartment to wash the two or thi-ee bleeding and some- 
 what deep wounds. When I returned to the place where I left the proprietor 
 and the dog, the noise I made in opening the door caused it to bark in the 
 hoarse and broken voice peculiar to the rabid dog. Enlightened by this sinister 
 and pathognomonic sound, I hastened to cauterise deeply each wound, and the 
 accident had no further result. The dog was immediately put in a safe place, 
 and it perished, mad, in two days. Its owner had known it to be ill for three 
 
 days previous to bringing it to me Truly the fear of the mad dog is the 
 
 beginning of wisdom." — Journal de Med. Vet. de Lyon, vol. xxi. p, 74.
 
 238 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 rarely any attempt to bite, tliougli the dog frequently champs 
 with its jaws ; and immediately the fit is over there is a return 
 to consciousness, and the creature is the same as before. There 
 is nothing like this in rabies — no loss of consciousness, no con- 
 vulsive struggles on the ground, and meaningless champings 
 with the jaws. 
 
 "Angina," or sore throat, in which all the symptoms of 
 rabies are absent, except the difficulty in swallowing. Besides, 
 there is much sensibility on pressure about the upper region of 
 the throat or pharynx. 
 
 "Gastritis" and " Enteritis" (inflammation of the stomach 
 and bowels) may easily be distinguished from madness by the 
 presence of fever, vomiting, abdominal pain, and the absence of 
 nervous symptoms, as well as in the different attitude assumed. 
 "Spasmodic Colic" does not at all present the same symp- 
 toms as rabies. The dog cries from pain while the spasms last, 
 and very rarely at this period it is so irritable as to be disposed 
 to bite, though not purposely. The animal retires, and never 
 barks or howls as in rabies ; the moans or yells it makes are 
 those of pain, and are only emitted at uncertain intervals ; 
 there is pain on pressing the abdomen. 
 
 " Plica Polonica." In certain countries — from the source of 
 the Vistula to the Carpathian Mountains — Lithuania, Red and 
 "White Russia, Tartary, Silesia, Bohemia, Suabia, Prussia, 
 Saxony, and other parts of Germany — there is a disease named 
 the " Plica Polonica," which attacks mankind, horses, cows, 
 sheep, wolves, and foxes ; and when it affects dogs these exhibit 
 nearly all the symptoms of rabies, so that a large number, 
 according to Lafontaine, are put to death by people who believe 
 them to be mad. They carry the tail between their legs, foam 
 at the mouth, scarcely ever bark, bite every one, — even their 
 owners, whom they do not recognise ; they lose their appetite, 
 appear to be blind, and run against the walls; but at this 
 period they drink more than usual, and their bite is not 
 followed by hydrophobia. Foxes, wolves, and sheep offer
 
 Diagnosis in the Dog. 239 
 
 analogous symptoms. The hair over the body becomes matted, 
 and a vegetable parasite developed in it. Horses have only 
 the mane and tail affected.* 
 
 ** Distemper" is a disease that might sometimes, by the 
 uninitiated, be confounded with rabies. There is frequently a 
 discharge from the nose and eyes in the latter disease as in the 
 former, and this is particularly apt to mislead. Paralysis, also, 
 of the hinder extremities occurs as a sequel of both. But 
 otherwise there is a wide difference. The commencement of 
 distemper by sneezing and coughing, then a thin and watery 
 discharge from the nose and eyes, becoming eventually puru- 
 lent ; the fever, disinclination to rove — so marked in rabies 
 — absence of irritability and desire to bite; the lassitude, 
 debility, and emaciation attending this malady — are the chief 
 distinguishing features to be noted, in addition to the infre- 
 quency of a depraved appetite. 
 
 Some nervous symptoms which frequently supervene upon 
 the more acute ones of this catarrhal fever, have at times been 
 mistaken by the inexperienced for those of rabies ; but to any 
 one who has paid attention to the maladies of dogs, and who 
 has seen one or two cases of the latter malady, such a mistake 
 coTild not occur. Besides, the history of the case would at once, 
 in nearly every instance, decide the question as to which 
 disease it was. 
 
 The presence of " foreign bodies " in the mouth and throat has 
 often given rise to symptoms which, in some few respects, simu- 
 late those of rabies. The animal refuses food and water, has 
 a great difficulty in swallowing, the voice is altered, and there 
 is anxiety and restlessness. But the foreign body can generally 
 be felt or seen, and there is always abundant salivation. The 
 creature is usually making constant attempts to remove the 
 obstacle with its paws ; there is cough and expulsive efforts 
 which are almost continuous, and the dog is quite conscious. 
 The extreme agitation and furious delirium are absent, as well 
 * Lafontuinc, "Traits de la I'lique Polonaise," Taris, 1808.
 
 240 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 as the other notable signs of rabies ; and the few symptoms 
 present disappear as soon as the body is removed. 
 
 Not long ago a small pet dog was brought to me, said to be 
 mad, and which had caused a great amount of excitement and 
 alarm in the household to which it belonged. For some days 
 it had been very uneasy, wandering about from room to room, 
 attempting to vomit, and incessantly gulping, as if trying to 
 swallow ; holding up its head and smacking its lips, as if lick- 
 ing something ; retiring to obscure corners, where it lay 
 rubbing its mouth with its paws, and performing other sin- 
 gular manoeuvres. There was not much salivation, and the 
 absence of the peculiar physiognomy led me to infer that 
 rabies was not present. No foreign body could be felt in the 
 throat, and a somewhat superficial examination of the interior 
 of the mouth did not lead to the detection of anything that 
 could give rise to the symptoms this dog oflFered. The fidgeti- 
 ness, salivation, anxious look, and gulping efibrts, however, gave 
 the animal a somewhat suspicious appearance ; so much so, that a 
 professional friend who chanced to be with me at the examina- 
 tion, and who had made rabies his study for several years, 
 warned me to be careful in handling it, as its condition was 
 very doubtful. Feeling satisfied, however, that there must be 
 something lodged about the throat, and that it was not a case 
 of rabies, I made a closer inspection of the mouth and fauces, 
 and was not long in discovering a fine thread twisted around 
 one of the upper canine teeth ; seizing this with a pair of for- 
 ceps, it was disengaged from around the tooth, and on pulling 
 it away, it was found to be attached to a piece of rag some 
 inches from the end that had been wrapped round the fang ; 
 this rag had been lodged about the pharynx, or upper end 
 of the oesophagus, and had been the cause of the strange 
 symptoms the animal manifested. Being a fixture to the 
 tooth, the piece of cloth, which no doubt had been in its food, 
 could not be swallowed, though it was in the situation in which 
 it could excite the act ; while the thread passing along the roof
 
 Diagnosis in the Dog. 24 r 
 
 of the mouth, occasioned that kind of convulsive champing 
 which might have been mistaken for the snapping in the air 
 observed in mad dogs. In a second the annoying substance 
 was removed, all the symptoms at once disappeared, and the 
 delighted animal testified its gratitude and its joy by capering 
 about and barking in a very lively manner. 
 
 " Tetanus " is a rare malady in the do^, and can scarcely be 
 mistaken for rabies. There are rigid afid painful muscular 
 spasms, and the dog does not manifest any inclination to do 
 mischief; the body is contorted, and the jaws usually firmly 
 fixed against each other. 
 
 The presence of "worms" {pentastomata tcenio'ides) in the 
 frontal sinuses, or of a very large number of worms (fcenia echi- 
 nococcus) adhering by their hooks to the lining membrane of 
 the small intestine, may also occasion the manifestation of 
 symptoms analogous to those of rabies ; but there are other 
 characteristic symptoms of that disease which are absent, and an 
 examination of the body after death demonstrates the nature 
 of the malady. Worms in the nostrils or sinuses of the head 
 will frequently cause the dog to rub his nose incessantly with 
 his paws, against the ground, wall, posts, &c. 
 
 The pain and itching consequent on inflanmiation and ulcera- 
 tion of the inner part of the ear (vulgarly known as " canker ") 
 may occasion symptoms which some people might mistake for 
 those of rabies. The ear of the dog is very frequently bitten 
 by mad dogs, and when the disease is about to become de- 
 veloped, it sometimes happens that intense itching is set up 
 in the wound or cicatrix, the animal rubs it against every- 
 thing, and tries to scratch it with its paws ; but in rabies it 
 usually tumbles over while attempting this, and there are the 
 other symptoms to assist in forming an opinion. In disease 
 of the ear we have the symptom continuing for weeks or 
 months, and no material change in the habit of the animal ; 
 and from the way in which it constantly carries its head 
 towards the affected side, and the information a cursory 
 
 R
 
 242 
 
 Rabies and HydropJiobia. 
 
 inspection of the ear affords, there can scarcely be any mistake 
 made. 
 
 To distinguish rabies from the other maladies and accidental 
 conditions we have just enumerated, the peculiarities exhibited 
 in the course of the disease, and which have been alluded to 
 in detail, ought to be kept in memory : more especially the 
 nervous and mental phenomena — the great anxiety, restlessness, 
 irritability, and halliJcinations, even while the animal's mind 
 is as yet but little affected ; also the peculiar bark or howl, 
 tendency to rove, depraved appetite, desire to bite, — and with a 
 purpose, — the subsequent paralytic symptoms, and the difficulty 
 in swallowing. 
 
 Duration of Rabies in the Dog. 
 
 The progress of rabies in the dog is always very rapid, and 
 the termination, it may well be said, invariably fatal. 
 
 Its duration, in no case, appears to have exceeded ten days ; 
 and in the majority of instances death takes places about the 
 fourth, fifth, or sixth day after the appearance of the first 
 morbid symptoms. Of course, it also occurs much earlier. 
 Out of several tables we will only refer to those of Professor 
 Saint-Cyr and Peuch, of the Lyons School, as they afford a 
 fair idea of the duration of the disease in a number of cases. 
 In 1864, fifty-four rabid dogs were reported. Death took place 
 at the following periods : — 
 
 days 
 
 Two 
 Three 
 Four 
 Five 
 
 Six 
 Seven „ 
 Eight „ 
 Twelve „ 
 Thirteen „ 
 
 
 The last case recovered spontaneously 
 remaining eight cases coidd not be satisfuctor 
 
 4 instances. 
 o 
 10 
 8 
 7 
 8 
 2 
 
 1 instance. 
 1 
 
 » 
 
 The duration of the 
 ily determined. 
 
 k. L. 
 
 a (- 
 
 i. 1
 
 Duration of Rabies in the Dog. 243 
 
 In the sixty-eiglit dogs that were rabid at the school in 1865, 
 the duration of the disease was : — 
 
 Two days 1 instance. 
 
 Three ,, . . • . .6 instances. 
 
 Four „ 15 „ 
 
 Five „ 20 „ 
 
 Six „ 12 „ 
 
 Seven „ ..... 8 ,, 
 
 Eight „ 4 „ 
 
 Nine „ 2 „ 
 
 In 1868, in seventeen cases at the same school, it was : — 
 
 Two days 2 instances. 
 
 Four „ 8 „ 
 
 Five „ 4 „ 
 
 Six „ ..... 1 instance. 
 
 Seven „ 2 instances. ' 
 
 Resume of the Symptoms in the Dog. 
 
 As it is most important that the symptoms of rabies in the 
 dog should be remembered, the following resume of the most 
 notable are given for the guidance of those who keep dogs, or 
 who may have more or less to do with them. 
 
 1. The disease is not characterised by fits of fury at its 
 commencement ; but is, on the contrary, to all appearance a be- 
 nignant malady, though even then the saliva or foam is virulent 
 or poisonous. The dog is at this period very dangerous by its 
 licking rather than biting ; for as yet it has no tendency to use 
 its teeth. 
 
 2. At the commencement of the disease the animal's temper 
 becomes changed ; it is didl, gloomy, and silent, seeks solitude, 
 and withdraws into the most obscure corners. But it cannot 
 rest long in one place ; it is fidgety and agitated, goes here 
 and there, Kes down, and gets up, prowls about, smells, and 
 scratches with its fore paws. Its movements, attitudes, and 
 gestures at times would indicate that it is haunted by, and sees, 
 phantoms ; it snaps at nothing, and barks as if attacked by 
 real enemies. 
 
 r2
 
 244 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 3. Its appearance is altered ; it has a gloomy and somewhat 
 ferocious aspect. 
 
 4. In this condition, however, it is not aggressive so far as 
 mankind is concerned, but is as docile and obedient to its master 
 as before. It may even appear to be more affectionate towards 
 those it knows, and this it manifests by a greater desire to lick 
 their hands and faces. 
 
 5. This affection, which is always so marked and so enduring 
 in the dog, dominates it so strongly in rabies that it will not 
 injure those it loves, not even in a paroxysm of madness ; and 
 even when its ferocious instincts are beginning to be manifested, 
 and to gain the supremacy over it, it will yet yield obedience 
 to those to whom it has been accustomed. 
 
 6. The mad dog has not a dread of water ; but, on the con- 
 trary, will greedily swallow it. As long as it can drink it will 
 satisfy its ever-ardent thirst ; even when the spasms in its 
 throat prevent its swallowing, it will nevertheless plunge its 
 face deeply into the water, and appear to gulp at it. The 
 dog is therefore not hydrophobic, and hydrophobia is not a sign 
 of madness in this animal. 
 
 7. It does not generally refuse food in the early period of the 
 disease, but sometimes eats with more voracity than usual. 
 
 8. When the desire to bite, which is one of the essential 
 characters of rabies at a certain stage, begins to manifest itself, 
 the animal at first attacks inert bodies, gnawing wood, leather, 
 its chain, carpets, straw, hair, coals, earth, the excrement of 
 other animals, or even its own, &c. ; and accumulates in its 
 stomach the remains of all the substances it has been tearing 
 with its teeth. 
 
 9. An abundance of saliva is not a constant symptom in 
 rabies in the dog. Sometimes its mouth is humid, and some- 
 times it is dry. Before a fit of madness the secretion of saliva 
 is normal ; during this period it may be increased, but towards 
 the end of the malady it is usually decreased. 
 
 10. The animal often expresses a sensation of inconvenience
 
 Resimit of Sympto7ns i7i the Dog. 245 
 
 or pain during the spasm in its throat, by using its paws on the 
 side of its mouth, Kke a dog which has a bone lodged there. 
 
 11. In "dumb madness" the lower jaw is paralysed and 
 drops, leaving the mouth open and dry, and its lining mem- 
 brane exhibiting a reddish-brown hue ; the tongue is frequently 
 brown or blue-coloured, one or both eyes squint, and the 
 creature is ordinarily helpless and not aggressive. 
 
 12. In some instances the rabid dog vomits a chocolate or 
 blood-coloured fluid. 
 
 13. The voice is always changed in tone, and the animal 
 howls or barks in quite a difierent fashion to what it did in 
 health. The sound is husky and jerking. In "dimib mad- 
 ness," however, this very important symptom is absent. 
 
 14. The sensibility of the rabid dog is greatly blunted 
 when it is struck, burned, or wounded, it emits no cry of pain 
 or sign as when it suffers or is afraid in health. It will even 
 sometimes wound itself severely with its teeth, and without 
 attempting to hurt any person it knows. 
 
 15. The mad dog is always very much enraged at the sight 
 of an animal of its own species. Even when the malady might 
 be considered as yet in a latent condition, as soon as it sees 
 another dog it shows this strange antipathy, and appears 
 desirous of attacking it. This is a most important indication. 
 
 16. It often flees from home when the ferocious instincts 
 commence to gain an ascendancy ; and, after one, two, or three 
 days' wanderings, during which it has tried to gratify its mad 
 fancies on all the living creatures it encountered, it often returns 
 to its master to die. At other times it escapes in the night, 
 and after doing as much damage as its violence prompts it to, 
 it will return again towards morning. The distances a mad 
 dog will travel, even in a short period, are sometimes very 
 great. 
 
 17. The furious period of rabies is characterised by an ex- 
 pression of ferocity in the animal's physiognomy, and by the 
 desire to bite whenever an opportunity offers. It always
 
 246 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 prefers to attack another dog, though other animals are also 
 victims. 
 
 18. The paroxysms of fury are succeeded by periods of com- 
 parative calm, during which the appearance of the creature is 
 liable to mislead the uninitiated as to the nature of the malady. 
 
 19. The mad dog usually attacks other creatures rather than 
 man, when at liberty. When exhausted by the paroxysms 
 and contentions it has experienced, it runs in an unsteady 
 manner, its tail pendant and head inclined towards the ground, 
 its eyes wandering and frequently squinting, and its mouth 
 open, with the bluish-coloured tongue, soiled with dust, pro- 
 truding. In this condition it has no longer the violent 
 aggressive tendencies of the previous stage, though it will yet 
 bite every one — man or beast — that it can reach with its 
 teeth, especially if irritated. 
 
 20. The mad dog that is not killed perishes from paralysis 
 and asphyxia. To the last moment the terrible desire to bite 
 is predominant, even when the poor creature is so prostrated as 
 to appear to be transformed into an inert mass.* 
 
 Symptoms in the Cat. 
 
 The cat, like the dog, is our life-long companion, and lives 
 on terms of the closest intimacy with us in our dwellings. It 
 is also liable to contract rabies either spontaneously or by 
 inoculation ; though, happily, it is rarely aifected, for a rabid 
 cat is even more terrible and dangerous than the dog. In fact, 
 when the cat becomes mad, its tiger-Kke nature is thoroughly 
 awakened, and its bites are more death-dealing than those of 
 the dog.f 
 
 * Bouley, "La Rage," p. 80. 
 
 t In Algeria, Dr. David, of Lestrade, saw a dog dying of rabies transmit the 
 disease to a cat by biting it. This cat, in its turn, bit two persons, who suc- 
 cumbed a short time afterwards to hydrophobia. Cats are not unfrequently 
 affected with rabies in that coimtry. Roucher mentions foiir instances, three of 
 which had been caused by bites. One died ; another was killed after attacking a
 
 Sympto7ns in the Cat. 247 
 
 The furious symptoms are preceded by precursory signs 
 wHcli are not to be overlooked, if we wish to guard against 
 serious accidents ; though they are not so easily and exactly 
 observed as in the dog, because of the different habits and 
 disposition of the animal. 
 
 At the commencement it evinces alteration of the appetite, a 
 gloomy dulness, objectless agitation and restlessness, which is 
 all the more striking as this creature is in its nature some- 
 what inclined to sleep, and passes the greater part of its life 
 in repose. Frequently the appetite is depraved, and there is 
 thirst, with a strong tendency to bite — which is somewhat 
 unusual, as the cat in a domesticated condition is much more 
 disposed to use its claws than its teeth. There is, then, reason 
 to be suspicious when an animal of this species, contrary to its 
 ordinary habits, becomes all at once restless, offers to attack 
 people without being provoked, moves about evidently without 
 cause, has a tendency to keep aloof, refuses to eat or drink for 
 several days, or has a depraved taste and great thirst, and 
 expresses by its attitudes and its physiognomy that there is 
 something unusual affecting it. In such circumstances it is 
 not too soon to take precautions, and to become master of the 
 creature by a close and sure sequestration. 
 
 When the furious symptoms of rabies appear in the cat, its 
 great eyes sparkle with an unnatural light, and express a 
 startling degree of ferocity. There is nothing more terrible 
 than to see a mad cat in a cage, says Bouley ; the mouth is 
 partly open and foamy, the back arched, and the tail beating its 
 flanks ; its claws are so rigidly protruded as to cause it to walk 
 
 man who subsequently perished from hydrophobia ; the fate of the third was not 
 known. The fourth instance was that of a cat at Orleansville, which communi- 
 cated the disease, apparently without having been bitten itself. After an 
 absence of several days, it returned home, and wounded the woman who owned 
 it ; the latter was soon affected with hydrophobia and died. The animal then 
 disappeared, and in a few days after two dead cats were found in a street of the 
 town in the colony where it had taken refuge. No case of hydrophobia was 
 reported from this town. — Bttssourt.
 
 248 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 with difficulty, and they penetrate the floor, leaving their im- 
 print there. When any one presents himself before it, it flies 
 towards him at a single bound, as high as the cage will permit, 
 as if to attack the person's face ; for this always appears to be 
 the part of the body for which the mad creature has a special 
 predilection when it is at liberty. 
 
 The rabid cat no longer knows its owner. Tamed rather 
 than thoroughly domesticated, it in this condition reassumes 
 all its ferocious instincts, and freely abandons itself to them. 
 In this, as in so many other respects, the cat difiers widely 
 from the dog. The latter is intensely devoted to its master, 
 and finds in its afiection for him a power sufficiently strong to 
 dominate, for a comparatively long time, the fierce desires that 
 rabies fatally develops in it ; rather than obey them, it will fly 
 from its home when it can, and vent its involuntary rage on 
 any one rather than those it loves. The cat will also leave the 
 domestic roof when rabid, though rather through the influence 
 of its savage nature than its devotion to its human companions ; 
 and will retire to some obscure loft, cave, or out-of-the-way 
 place to die. It often wanders far from home. The claws are, 
 at times, more frequently brought into use than the teeth, 
 though both are unsparingly employed when the animal is 
 in one of its paroxysms. As with the dog, the cat soon 
 becomes haggard-looking and emaciated; the voice becomes 
 changed, and assiunes a special character — hoarse, sinister, 
 and so disagreeable, that it is not unlike the sounds emitted 
 in the midnight serenades of this creature, though the muscles 
 concerned in swallowing are not so much involved as in the 
 dog ; paralysis is not long in appearing, and death puts an 
 end to this miserable condition in from two to four days. 
 
 Symptoms in the Fox and Wolf. 
 
 The fox and wolf, and indeed all the wild carnivores, when 
 rabid, quit their usual habitations, and have no hesitation or
 
 Symptoms in the Fox and Wolf. 249 
 
 dread in entering towns and villages, or encountering men, 
 dogs, and other creatures ; on the contrary, when these attempt 
 to obstruct them, they attack in a furious fashion, biting and 
 tearing them, and then pursue their course in an unsteady 
 manner, appearing as if unconscious of their acts. They 
 attack horses, herds, and flocks, on the roads or in meadows 
 and parks, biting them usually about the head and lips ; they 
 also ordinarily fly at the face of the human species. We have 
 already observed that among these creatures rabies sometimes 
 prevails on an extensive scale, without its being satisfactorily 
 determined whether this extension is due to some particular 
 atmospheric condition or " epizootic constitution," or to succes- 
 sive transmissions by bites. 
 
 If a wolf bites people or animals without attempting to 
 kill and devour them, it is usually admitted that it may be 
 suspected of rabies. 
 
 Symptoms in Man. 
 
 We will now consider the symptoms in man and those domes- 
 ticated animals which receive the infecting element from the 
 creatures we have just referred to. 
 
 In many respects there is a striking similarity in the 
 symptoms manifested in the hydrophobic patient and the rabid 
 dog, while in others there is a wide dissimilarity. These 
 resemblances and difierences we will note, as we proceed to 
 briefly sketch the phenomena of the disease in our own species. 
 
 The period of incubation or latency has been already alluded 
 to, and it has also been mentioned that not unfrequently in 
 man and the dog the earliest indication of approaching indis- 
 position is a sense of pain in, or near, the seat of the wound, 
 extending towards the body should the injury have been 
 inflicted on the limbs. If not acute pain, there is some unusual 
 sensation, such as aching, tingling, burning, coldness, numbness, 
 or stifihess in the cicatrix ; which usually in these circumstances 
 swells, becomes of a red or lurid colour, sometimes opens up,
 
 250 Rabies a?id Hydrophobia. 
 
 and, if yet unhealed, assumes an unhealthy appearance, dis- 
 charging a thin ichorous fluid instead of pus. In the dog, as 
 we have observed, the peculiar sensation in the seat of the 
 inoculation has at times caused the animal to gnaw the part 
 most severely. 
 
 With these local symptoms, some general nervous disturbance 
 is generally experienced. The patient becomes dejected, morose, 
 irritable, and restless ; he either does not suspect his complaint, 
 or, if he remembers having been bitten, carefully avoids men- 
 tioning the circumstance, and searches for amusement away from 
 home, or prefers solitude ; bright and sudden light is disagreeable 
 to him;* his sleep is troubled, and he often starts up ; pains 
 are experienced in various parts of the body; and signs of 
 digestive disorder are not unfrequent. 
 
 After the continuance of one or more of these preliminary, 
 or rather premonitory, symptoms for a period varying from a 
 
 * We have seen that light is unpleasant to the rahid dog, and causes it to seek 
 dark corners and obscure places. The intolerance of the hydrophobic patient to 
 the excitement produced by any shining body, or the sudden effects of a bright 
 light, is well known, and may be one reason why, in Syria and El Hejaz, the 
 popular idea is to keep the person affected with hydrophobia in a darkened apart- 
 ment. Dr. Slarchal, of Calvi, France, relates an instance in which this intolerance 
 to light revealed the nature of the disease. A friend of his, Dr. Lelouis, a surgeon 
 in the Algerian ambulances, was requested to proceed into the enemy's countiy 
 by an Ai-ab chief, who sent an escort to accompany him. On his arrival, he was 
 ushered into the chief's tent, which was darkened, and found himself in the 
 presence of a tall, noble-looking man, who appeared to be greatly agitated, but 
 yet endeavoured to give himself an air of calmness. After reciprocal salutes, 
 the chief motioned that the doctor should have coffee, after which he showed him 
 his swollen hand as the seat of the disease which had caused him to be sent for. 
 Lelouis made him open his mouth, and was depressing the tongue in order to 
 examine that cavity, when at that moment an Arab entered the tent, and a streak of 
 bright light fell upon the patient, who instantly made a bound backwards, exhibit- 
 ing the greatest agony and trembling all over. This was a veritable gleam of light 
 on the nature of the case. The chief recovered himself again, passed his hand 
 over his face, and smiled softly, as if to excuse himself. The doctor, in a minute 
 or two after, and in the course of conversation, inquired if the dogs belonging 
 to his tribe were vicious ? if they ever bit any one ? and if he had ever been bitten ? 
 With the greatest indifference, and apparently without attaching the slightest 
 importance to it, the chief showed him his hand, where there was to be seen the 
 cicatrix of a bite, a little more than a month old. This man had no knowledge of 
 hydrophobia. Lelouis left him some opium pills, and departed. In a few days 
 afterwards he learned that the chief was dead.
 
 Syinptoms in Man. 251 
 
 few hours to five or six days, and, thougli very rarely, without 
 all, or even many, of them being observed, the patient becomes 
 sensible of a stiffness or tightness about the throat, rigors 
 supervene, and, in attempting to swallow, he experiences some 
 diflBculty, especially with liquids. This may be considered as 
 really the commencement of the attack in man. 
 
 The difficulty in swallowing rapidly increases, and it is not 
 long before the act becomes impossible, unless it is attempted 
 with determination ; though even then it excites the most painful 
 spasms in the back of the throat, with other indescribable 
 sensations, all of which appal the patient, and cause him to 
 dread the very thought of liquids. Singular nervous paroxysms 
 or tremblings become manifest, and sensations of stricture or 
 oppression are felt about the throat and chest. The breathing 
 is painful and embarrassed, and interrupted with frequent sighs 
 or a peculiar kind of sobbing movement ; there is a sense of 
 impending suffocation, and of necessity for fresh air. Indeed, 
 the most marked symptoms consist in a horribly violent con- 
 vulsion or spasm of the muscles of the larynx and pharynx 
 (gullet), by which swallowing is prevented, and at the same 
 time the entrance of air to the windpipe is greatly retarded.* 
 
 * Dr. Deroy, of Beton-Bazoches. furnishes a good illustrative case : " On 20th 
 March, 1862, Ch. . . . aged thirtj--eight years, in robust health, was slightly 
 bitten in the hands by his dog, which disappeared from the house the same day, 
 and was killed the next day in an adjoining village, after having set upon several 
 dogs. Ch. . . . took no precautions with regard to his wounds, which appeared 
 to him to be insignificant. Nevertheless, six days afterwards, tormented with 
 the idea that his dog had been mad, he came to me. The few excoriations on his 
 hands were completely cicatrised. I reassured him as well as I could, and, to 
 calm his mind, cauterised the scars and gave him a simple prescription, being 
 well persuaded that I had then, unfortunately, no means of averting the danger 
 which he dreaded no less than myself. After this I lost sight of him imtil the 
 1st of May, forty-two days subsequent to the injury. He was then seized with 
 well-marked symptoms of hydrophobia, and died at two o'clock in the morning of 
 the 1 3th, in the midst of crises so terrible, that, dui'ing the last evening, notwith- 
 standing the strait-jacket I was compelled to put on him, all the articles com- 
 posing his bed, to which he was firmly fixed, from the coverlet to the paillasse, 
 were torn into fragments. The foUowitig are the most salient features I noted 
 in the case : Intelligence definite ; consciousness of his condition ; speech 
 ierking ; extreme agitation ; horrible difiBculty in respiration, especially during 
 the access ; almost continual spitting ; the sight of shining objects did not
 
 252 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 Shuddering tremors, sometimes almost amounting to general 
 convulsions, run through the whole frame ; and a fearful expres- 
 sion of anxiety, terror, or despair is depicted on the countenance. 
 
 The paroxysms are brought on by the slightest causes, and 
 are frequently associated with an attempt to swallow liquids, 
 or with the recollection of the sufferings experienced in former 
 attempts. Hence, anything which suggests the idea of drink- 
 ing to the patient will throw him into the most painful agita- 
 tion and convulsive spasms. The morbid sensibility of the 
 auditory nerves has long been known, for Coelius Aurelianus 
 cautioned practitioners, when bleeding hydrophobous persons, 
 to prevent the noise or sound of the blood flowing into the basin 
 being heard by them lest they should be affected by it {ne 
 sonitu perculsi commoveantur)* The sound of water poured 
 from one vessel into another, the sight of liquids or of objects 
 which chance to come before them, the shining surface of a 
 mirror, a current of cold air, or any cold substance applied to 
 the skin, may have this effect. 
 
 This is particularly observed when the patient carries water 
 to his lips ; then he is seized with the terrors characteristic of 
 the disease, and with those convulsions of the face and the 
 whole of the body, which make so deep an impression on the 
 bystanders. He is perfectly rational, feels thirsty, tries to 
 
 appear to irritate him, but tlie difficulty in respiration was such that he could 
 not tolerate any one near him. Every moment he was saying, ' Go away ; do 
 not come near me ; it is not because I am afraid of biting you ; I have no 
 desire to do so, but you stifle me, and prevent my breathing. Open the windows, 
 or allow me to go out that I may respire easily.' . . . The sight of water, wine, 
 or any other liquids did not produce any disagreeable effect on him, and he told 
 us that what tormented him was swallowing. I poured slowly, and at a good 
 height, water from a jug into a plate within two paces of him without his 
 objecting. I said to him, 'If you cannot drink out of a glass or a cup, perhaps 
 you can easily do so out of a saucer.' But he answered sharply and angrily, * I 
 am not afraid of the liquid you offer rne, but how can you expect me to swallow 
 water or anything else, when I cannot even swallow air ! ' Does not this reply, at 
 once so simple, energetic, and sensible, indicate that, in this disease, the larynx and 
 pharynx are equally affected with the same spasmodic contractions?" — Gazette 
 des Hopitaux, Jime, 1868. 
 
 * " Acut. Morbi.," book iii. chap. 16.
 
 Symptoms in Alan. 253 
 
 drink, but the liquid has no sooner touched his lips, than he 
 draws back in terror, and sometimes exclaims that he cannot 
 drink; his face expresses pain, his eyes are fixed, and his 
 features contracted ; his limbs shake and body trembles. The 
 paroxysm lasts a few seconds, and then he gradually becomes 
 tranquil ; but the least touch, nay, mere vibration of the air, 
 is enough to bring on a fresh attack, — so acute is the sensibility 
 of the skin in some instances. A case is mentioned by Trousseau, 
 in which the senses were so exquisitely exalted that the scent 
 of some lilac flowers, distant about thirty metres, greatly dis- 
 tressed a soldier who was hydrophobic ; and the least movement 
 of the air, as by the opening of a door, made him complain of 
 a disagreeable sensation, as if his face were slapped, and caused 
 him to jump up in bed. Majendie describes the case of a deaf- 
 and-dumb child who heard distinctly in this stage of the disease. 
 The patient, in some instances, cannot wash his hands or comb 
 his hair without being at once threatened- with convulsions. 
 
 During the intervals of calm, he sometimes complains of pain 
 in the stomach and of nausea ; when he is actually sick, he 
 vomits greenish-coloured matters. In some cases he is seized 
 with sudden terror, and turns abruptly round, fancying that 
 somebody calls to him; and there are hallucinations of sight 
 and of hearing. One patient alluded to by Trousseau, heard 
 the ringing of bells and saw mice run about on his bed. In 
 the dog, we have noted that it is also the victim of hallucina- 
 tions ; but a special difierence between rabies and hydrophobia 
 is in the frequent dread of water in the latter, as well as 
 the hypersesthesia of the skin and exaltation of the other 
 senses. But in another particular there is a similarity. 
 
 We have alluded to the presence, at times, of sexual desire 
 on the part of the rabid dog. Since the days of Boerhaave, 
 satyriasis has been noted as occasionally present in men afiected 
 with hydrophobia, especially during the period of excitation ; 
 indeed. Van Swieten stated that Galen mentions this symptom, 
 and cases are by no means rare nowadays. Nymphomania
 
 254 Rabies a7id Hydrophobia. 
 
 has also been sometimes witnessed in women suffering from the 
 disease, according to Trousseau. 
 
 Another characteristic feature of the disease in man, is a 
 copious secretion of a viscid tenacious mucus in the fauces — 
 the "hydrophobic slaver;" this the patient spits out with 
 a sort of vehemence and rapidity upon everything around him, 
 as if the idea of swallowing occasioned by the liquid induced 
 this eager expulsion of it, lest a drop might pass down the 
 throat. This, to a bystander, is sometimes one of the most 
 striking phenomena of the case. In the last hours preceding 
 dissolution, the patient's mouth is often full of this mucus or 
 froth, which is, in some cases, tinged with blood. The lower 
 jaw would appear to be sometimes partially paralyzed, and then 
 the saliva flows from the corners of the mouth. 
 
 Acute and, as it were, electric shocks of pain are now and 
 then felt in the region of the stomach, the back of the neck, 
 and other parts of the' spine. 
 
 The mind is sometimes calm and collected in the intervals 
 between the paroxysms, and consciousness is generally retained ; 
 but, in most cases, there is more or less irregularity, incessant 
 talking, excitement, and occasionally fits approaching to insanity 
 come on. Not unfrequently the victim is aware of the approach 
 of these attacks, and, fearful of doing injury to those around 
 him, begs that he may be restrained. The mental aberration 
 is often exhibited in groundless suspicion or apprehension of 
 something extraneous, which is expressed on the face and in 
 the manner of the patient. Sometimes, on the contrary, he 
 takes a curious fancy to individuals, and lavishes on them 
 marks of fondness and confidence. 
 
 In comparatively rare instances he gives way to a wild fury, 
 like that of the dog in one of its fits of rabies ; he roars, howls, 
 curses, strikes at persons near him, rends or breaks everything 
 within his reach, bites others or himself, till, at length ex- 
 hausted, he sinks into a gloomy, listless dejection, from which 
 another paroxysm rouses him.
 
 Sympto7ns in Man. 255 
 
 The tongue is usually somewliat furred ; there is often a sense 
 of burning in the throat, with thirst which cannot be gratified. 
 Sometimes there is a sense of hunger; and sometimes, as already- 
 mentioned, nausea with vomiting, the fluid being generally of 
 a dark colour. In a case in the Nottingham County Hospital 
 in 1870, " gushes of ' cofiee ground ' matter were constantly 
 being ejected from the patient's mouth." In the Peruvian 
 epizooty of 1803 (see page 37), " vomiting of dark bilious 
 matter," was a symptom of the transmitted hydrophobia. 
 Before death, black blood is not unfrequently vomited. The 
 pulse is quickened and excited, sufficiently strong at first, but 
 weaker as the disease progresses, and extremely feeble and 
 frequent before death. The skin is warm or natural in the 
 beginning, but becomes cool towards the end, and is often 
 covered with a viscid, offensive sweat. An eruption has now 
 and again been observed on the body. 
 
 Paralytic symptoms manifest themselves before death in a 
 few instances, as in the dog. 
 
 The urine, at first limpid, becomes red, sanguinolent, and 
 flows in a small quantity after the paroxj^sms. It contains renal 
 epithelium and much albumen. The researches of M. Gubler 
 at the Beaujon Hospital, France, show that in hydrophobia 
 the urine is acid; nitric acid added to it develops a thick 
 coagulum of albumen, and determines the formation of a 
 diaphragm of uric acid, mucus, and an abundance of earthy 
 phosphates and carbonates. Heated in a tube, and cleared 
 by filtration of the albuminous precipitate, the urine of hydro- 
 phobic patients, when submitted successively to the action 
 of caustic potass and the cupro-potassic fluid, gives reactions 
 which indicate the presence of a notable quantity of sugar. 
 The presence of this sugar would appear to be mainly due 
 to the congestion of the brain and spinal cord, as well as the 
 kidneys, according to some authorities. Bazin says that if 
 the albuminuria and glycosuria were noted at a stage of the 
 disease when asphyxia had not yet commenced, or during the
 
 256 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 period of incubation, they would be of importance as symptoms ; 
 they would demonstrate, in fact, that before the outbreak of 
 the malady grave alterations, due to the passage into the blood 
 of some virulent matter, are taking place.* 
 
 Remissions of the symptoms sometimes occur in the course of 
 the complaint, during which the patient can drink, though with 
 some difficulty, and can take food. Towards the close such a 
 remission is not uncommon, with an almost complete absence of 
 the painful symptoms ; so that the patient and the physician 
 begin to entertain some hope. But if the pulse is now felt it 
 is found to be extremely feeble, and sometimes almost, if not 
 quite, imperceptible. During this apparent relaxation of the 
 disease, the patient occasionally falls into a sleep, from which 
 he only awakes to die.f 
 
 * r Union Meclimle, 1869. 
 
 t I have selected the three following illustrative cases, as exemplifying the 
 different stages of the malady, and as being of recent date. 
 
 M. Malherbe gives the first case — that of a man admitted to one of the Paris 
 hospitals on the 12th of August, 1869. On admission, there was only pain in 
 the left arm, the hand of which had been bitten six weeks previously. This 
 pain was ascribed to fatigue. Otherwise, the man was calm, though his gnze 
 was somewhat fixed. On the same day, at five o'clock, he complained of sleep- 
 lessness, as for three nights he had not slept ; there was a painful sensation 
 about the heart, as if of stifling. The pulse was tranquil, but the sounds of the 
 heart a little obscure. He could not drink out of a glass, and whenever he saw 
 one he had convulsions of the face and pharynx ; yet he could take some water 
 out of a spoon, though at the price of much agony. Some shining objects were 
 presented to him, but he did not perceive any painful sensations, neither did he 
 display any manifest hypenesthesia of any of the organs of sense. Next day, 
 at the morning visit, it was reported that he had passed a quiet night, but at six 
 o'clock, he had a violent access of fury, threatening the other patients, and 
 begging that he might be restrained. He was placed in a suitable apartment, 
 and a strait-jacket put on him. When the room was entered by one of the 
 surgeons, he exhibited much fear, observing attentively evei-ything going on 
 around him, as he felt persuaded that those about him wished him to die as soon 
 as possible. The horror of fluids had greatly increased, and he could no longer 
 swallow, even from a spoon. He dipped his finger in a cup containing milk, and 
 after some convulsions carried it hurriedly to his lips. The nurse presented him 
 with a little water in a goblet ; the patient took it, thinking it contained milk, 
 but when he' perceived it was water, he furiously rejected it, scolding the nurse, 
 and complaining that her behaviour augmented his sufferings. When he 
 attempted to take a drop of milk from his finger, it was not at the moment he 
 swallowed it that he sufi"ered most, but when he plunged his finger into the 
 liquid. He was then seized with con-s'lilsions of the face and the pharynx,
 
 Symptoms in Man. 257 
 
 The temperature is increased from the commencement of the 
 disease, and rises as high as 105° or 106^ (Fahr.) in the later 
 
 gathered himself up, and seemed to require a great effort of the will in order to 
 carry the fluid to his lips. The -window being thrown open, a bright light shone 
 into the room, but he at once demanded that it should be closed again. Never- 
 theless, the sight of shining objects was not so distressing to him as to certain 
 other patients ; for instance, he could look at the bulb of the thermometer when 
 it was about to be placed in his arm-pit. He was afraid of cold, and insisted 
 that he should not be uncovered. The sense of smell was probably more acute, 
 for he complained greatly of the odour of the strait-jacket he wore, though no 
 one present could perceive anything imusual. His pulse was 108. He asked for 
 a little brandy, and rum was given to him, a small quantity being poured into 
 his hand ; but he could not swallow it any better than the other fluids he had 
 tried. From 12 to 15 centigrammes of hydrochlorate of morphine were injected 
 beneath the skin of his thighs, and he soon experienced buzzing of the ears, and 
 commenced to be a little drowsy. He was put in a fumigating box, where the air 
 was heated to 60° (Reaumur), and was left in charge of two men, who omitted to 
 fasten him in the chair; in about an hour, when the surgeon returned, the 
 patient was labouring under an access of furj"-, uttering fearful cries, calling the 
 attendants assassins and hangmen, and trying to spit in their faces while they 
 attempted to hold the cover of the box through which his head projected over 
 him. He dashed himself about, uttered di-eadful imprecations, and altogether 
 acted so violently that he could not be removed, and presented a horrid spectacle. 
 In about a quarter of an hour, his face, which had gradually become of a blue 
 colour since the commencement of the attack, became more and more of a violet 
 hue, until at length he sank back in the chair. In a few minutes he was 
 removed ; some foam covered his beard ; the respiration became gradually 
 more feeble, and he soon died with the most marked signs of asphyxia. 
 
 The other two cases were reported from the Leeds Infirmary in 1871, during 
 the prevalence of rabies in that town. 
 
 S. B , aged thirty-seven, was admitted on the morning of February 7th, 
 
 1871. It appeared that, on the 26th December, he had received from his dog a 
 small bite or scratch on the thumb ; this was cauterised with nitrate of silver, 
 and, as it soon healed up, no more was thought about it. Later, however, the 
 dog became distinctly rabid, and was killed. Five weeks after receiving the 
 bite, the man began to feel unwell, and was thought to be suffering from a cold 
 in the head. On the 3rd of February he took to his bed, and complained of pain 
 which extended from the situation of the bite as far as the shoulder ; having also 
 some pain in the other shoulder, he attributed his symptoms to rheumatism. 
 On the following morning he felt no worse, and took his food as usual. At four 
 o'clock in the afternoon, being thirsty, he was in the act of lifting a cup of 
 water, when he discovered that he could not raise it to his lips, in consequence 
 of a spasm which drew back his head. He raved slightly during the night, and 
 the next morning became noisy and violent. On the morning of the 6th, his 
 delirium was still more violent, in spite of several hypodermic injections of 
 morphia. 
 
 When brought to the infirmary on the following day, he was so excited and 
 violent that it required several persons to restrain him ; but having been isolated 
 for a time in a padded room he became quiet, and was able to give a rational 
 
 S
 
 258 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 stages. In one of the Nottinorliam cases recorded in the 
 British Medical Journal for December 2, 1871, iiye post-mortem 
 
 account of himself. At times lie tecame the subject of delusions similar to those 
 of deliiium tremens. He fancied that a boy under his bed was stabbing and 
 attempting to murder him. He complained also that there were hairs in his 
 mouth, and spat out small quantities of viscid saliva. He likewise complained of 
 his breath being short, and it was noticed that about every quarter of an hour 
 there occurred a spasm of the respiratory muscles, which fixed his chest. Hia 
 pupils were dilated, his eyes rolled from side to side, and his face had a wild look. 
 His pulse was feeble, and the beat numbered 120 per minute. Priapism fre- 
 quently occurred. When asked whether he was thu'sty, he replied that he was, 
 but that it was of no use for him to try to drink. His tongue, which he could put 
 out without difficulty, was thickly coated with white fur all over, except at the 
 edges. When, yielding to persuasion, he took a cup of water and endeavoured 
 to raise it to his mouth, he was unable to bring it within less than three inches 
 of it, though he apparently made a great effort to do so. When the cup was 
 placed to his lips, he drew back his head with a frightened look, apparently on 
 account of a spasmodic contraction of ihe muscles of the jaw and the back of the 
 neck. He was ordered half a grain of morphia hypoderinically, and continued 
 in much the same state till 6 p.m., when he became more violent and shouted 
 "murder!" continually, at the top of his voice. Chloroform was then adminis- 
 tered. A pint of beef-tea, with two ounces of brandy and a drachm of bromide 
 of potassium, was given by the stomach-pump. He soon recovered from the 
 chloroform and became as violent as ever. At 10.30, a teaspoonful of water was 
 poured into his mouth, but he spat it out violently, and his breathing became 
 arrested to such an extent that he appeared for a few minutes to be about to die. 
 He rallied, however, and continued to be violent imtil midnight, when he became 
 quiet. He died, apparently asphyxiated, at 3.30 on the following morning, just 
 eighty-six hours after the development of the first distinct symptoms. 
 
 Emma E , aged thirteen years, was admitted on February 13th, 1871. Her 
 
 mother stated that she was quite well up to the preceding Wednesday, when she 
 stayed away from her work. On the following day she was induced to resume 
 her occupation, but on the third day she was again obliged to remain at home. 
 She then complained of pain in the back, restlessness, and intense thirst. On 
 the fourth day she continued in much the same state, but was somewhat excited, 
 and drank largely, to quench her biirning thirst. On the fifth day she was 
 seized with the first distinct symptoms of hydrophobia. She tried to drink 
 some milk, but was unable to do so, though she made several attempts. She was 
 very talkative during the whole of the succeeding night and day, and was 
 seized with convulsive spasms at the sight of water, and whenever a breath of 
 air played over her face. In the evening, her mother carried her in her arms to 
 the infirmary, turning away her face in so doing, as she found that if she breathed 
 on her the child became violently convulsed. On questioning the mother, it was 
 ascertained that she had kept a dog, with which the girl often played, till six 
 weeks before, when it became savage and fretful, and finally ran away and had 
 not been heard of since. At about the same time the girl had several cuts on 
 her fingers. 
 
 On admission, she was found to be a pale, wild-looking girl, with a peculiar 
 frightened expression of comitenance, dilated pupils, a pulse of 130, and tenipe-
 
 Symptoms in Ma?i. 259 
 
 thermometrical observations were made (per rectum), which 
 proved, beyond a doubt, the intensity of the chemical change 
 taking place in the body, at least during the last period of the 
 malady. The temperatures were as follows: — At 11,30 a.m., 
 106-2° ; at 12.45 p.m., 103-4'' ; at 1.45, 101-2^^ ; at 2.45, 98.4° ; 
 at 3.45, 91-2°. 
 
 This increased temperature is coincident with the great waste 
 that takes place in the tissues. Sometimes within a few hours, 
 the body of a hydrophobic patient, from being plump and well 
 nourished, is shrunken and emaciated ; and the face of a young 
 person quickly becomes transformed into the shrivelled visage 
 of an old man. 
 
 The closing scene is generally marked by an excessively feeble 
 or absent pulse, a cold skin, involuntary evacuations, and wan- 
 
 rature of 99-8°. She complained much of pain in the hack, and of having hairs 
 in her mouth, which she continiially attempted to take out, clawing away with 
 her fingers thick viscid saliva. The tougiie was drj-, and red hoth in the centre 
 and at the edges, but thickly coated with a white fur between the centre 
 and sides. Feeling thirsty, she asked for some milk, and with a great effort 
 swallowed a teaspoonful, but was unable to take more, and prayed that it might 
 be taken away. She also swallowed a sop of bread soaked in milk. The 
 slightest breath of air brought on a violent spasm, which threw back her head 
 and fixed her chest. Sometimes the mention of water, or of any liquid, brought 
 on a similar convulsion. She was ordered one-eighth of a grain of morphia, 
 hypodermically injected, and became somewhat quieter. Later, she asked for 
 wine,lDut when it was brought she was unable to take it. She then asked to 
 have it placed by her bedside, and when she thought she was not observed she 
 was able to take a small quantity ; but soon after, while again trying to drink 
 it, she was seized with a violent convulsion, which threw her completely out of 
 bed. She dozed at intervals during the night, and the next morning was in 
 much the same condition, but talked more, and less rationally. She fancied that 
 she was at home, at work, &c. Some sops were given to her, which she swal- 
 lowed with greater difiiculty than on the preceding night. An enema of beef- 
 tea and brandy was administered. By the evening her rapid talking 
 had become a continuoiis and incoherent gabble ; she imagined she saw her 
 friends about her, and addressed them by name. At 8.30 p.m., Mr. Jessop dis- 
 sected down on to the median basilic vein, and injected into it, with a hypo- 
 dermic syringe, fifty minims of a solution 'of the liqueur ammoniaa fortis (1 in 3). 
 This caused her to squint, and to perspire freely, but had no perceptible effect on 
 the pulse or on the general sjnnptoms. She died at midnight (forty-six hours 
 after the appearance of the first distinct symptoms), having talked incessantly 
 for six hours. The immediate cause of death was asphyxia, due to an accumu- 
 lation of saliva, of which she had secreted large quantities, and which, pouring 
 over her chin, had moistened the bed-clothes. — The Lancet, April 22, 1871. 
 
 s2 •
 
 26o Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 dering delirium ; and death approaches either quietly, as a con- 
 sequence of complete exhaustion, or in strong convulsions ; 
 though most frequently the sufferer succumbs with well-marked 
 symptoms of asphyxia, due to convulsion of the respiratory 
 muscles during a paroxysm ; in rare cases, however, this asphyxia 
 appears to come on gradually. 
 
 Left to himself, the patient has somewhat long intervals of 
 rest : the paroxysms when they appear having much analogy to 
 those of epilepsy or hysteria, but without having always the 
 same degree of intensity or duration. Trousseau says that to- 
 wards the close the voice becomes hoarse, and the patient keeps 
 constantly spitting, the convulsive seizures becoming more and 
 more frequent, and recur spontaneously, without any deter- 
 mining cause. The termination of each seizure is attended with 
 spasms of the respiratory muscles, and signs indicating some 
 obstruction to the breathing. On this spasm lasting a long 
 time in one of the seizures, the patient dies asphyxiated, " mors 
 convulsiva eum summa in respirando augustia." 
 
 The desire to bite is rare. 
 
 The disease generally terminates, according to "Wood, be- 
 tween the second and fifth day, though it sometimes runs on to 
 the seventh, eight, or ninth day.* 
 
 According to Boudin, the duration of the malady in tw*enty 
 patiehts was : — • 
 
 Two days 
 Three „ 
 Four „ 
 Six „ 
 
 In fifty- three patients it was :- 
 
 One day 
 Two days 
 Three „ 
 Four „ 
 Five „ 
 Six „ 
 Seven „ 
 
 In 6 
 
 cases. 
 
 8 
 
 » 
 
 5 
 
 ?> 
 
 1 
 
 case. 
 
 In 3 
 
 cases. 
 
 2 
 
 
 20 
 
 
 13 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 1 
 
 case. 
 
 * Wood, "Practice of Medicine," vol. ii.
 
 Diagnosis in Man. 261 
 
 Eight days 3 cases. 
 
 Ten „ 1 case. 
 
 Fifteen to twenty days .... 5 cases. 
 
 Tardieu found the duration of hydrophobia not to exceed, in 
 161 cases, the following periods: — 
 
 34 cases ....... 2 days. 
 
 98 „ 4 „ 
 
 24 „ 6 „ 
 
 2 „ 7 „ 
 
 2 » 8 „ 
 
 1 case 9 » 
 
 In Algeria the mean duration of the confirmed disease is from 
 three to four days ; but it may in rare cases extend to ten. 
 
 In ninety instances reported by Professor Bouley, death 
 occurred in seventy-four during the first four days, the largest 
 portion of these being in the second and third day. In only 
 sixteen cases was life prolonged beyond the fourth day. This 
 inquiry, adds the Professor, establishes the fact that now, as 
 always, death has been the inevitable termination of rabid 
 accidents ; and that the unfortunate individuals who have been 
 its victims have passed through those dreadful moral and phy- 
 sical tortures which fully explain and justify the terror that 
 the bare idea of hydrophobia inspires among persons in all 
 grades of life. 
 
 Diagnosis in Man. 
 
 When hydrophobia is fully developed, its peculiar symptoms 
 are so striking and characteristic that it cannot be confounded 
 with any other disease. Those maladies which it most closely 
 resembles are hysteria, and tetanus or " locked-jaw." In hysteria 
 the difficulty of swallowing is present, but none of the other 
 symptoms of hydrophobia. Though tetanus is the disease 
 which, in some of its features, approaches nearest to that under 
 consideration, yet the distinction between them is very marked. 
 The spasm of the muscles is more continued in tetanus, less remit- 
 ting, and never intermitting. The jaw is usually much in motion 
 in hydrophobia, in the frequent attempts to clear the mouth
 
 262 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 and throat from the peculiar tenacious mucus ; in tetanus it is 
 fixed. Tetanus is rarely attended with aversion to liquids ; on 
 the contrary, the bath is grateful ; nor are the tetanic paroxysms 
 increased by the sight, hearings or touch of fluids. Also, tetanus 
 makes its ajipearance usually at u much earlier period after the 
 infliction of the injury. Physiologically, while tetanus is a dis- 
 ease of the true spinal system of nerves, hydrophobia involves 
 the brain also, as evinced by the disorder of intellectual function 
 and special sense, even early in the disease. Further, the two 
 diseases difler greatly in their mode of induction. Tetanus in 
 the traumatic cases (arising from an injur}^) is caused by 
 irritation of a nerve, and by disease of the spinal marrow in 
 those which are idiopathic (without any injury). Hydrophobia 
 is the result of a specific poison introduced into the circulation, 
 and thence afiecting the nervous system as a poison would. 
 While in tetanus the stimulus which excites the paroxysms 
 operates through the true spinal cord, in hydrophobia it is 
 often conducted from the ganglia of special sense, or even from 
 the brain ; so that the sight or sound of fluids, or even the idea 
 of them, occasions, equally with their contact, or with that of a 
 current of air, the most distressing convuloions.* 
 
 Though tetanus may be attended with a profuse secretion of 
 mucus or saliva, there is not present the characteristic hydro- 
 phobic manner of excreting these fluids. 
 
 There is a peculiar hysterical afi'ection, or mental hydro- 
 phia, as Dr. Trousseau named it, which simulates the malady, 
 and is brought on by emotion on seeing hydrophobic individuals, 
 through fear of the disease, or, in nervous people, on hearing a 
 description of real cases of it. Dr. Michie, of Shanghai, 
 informs me that when rabies was prevalent there in 1867, he 
 was called up one night to attend a young man, who assured 
 him that he had been unable to drink fluids since the pre- 
 vious afternoon, and who looked excited and haggard. By 
 impressing upon him that the dilficulty was imaginary, the 
 * Aitken, "Science and Practice of Medicine," vol. i. p. 727.
 
 Diag)iosis in IVlan. 263 
 
 doctor succeeded in getting hiin to drink some soda-water, 
 and his hydrophobia soon disappeared.* 
 
 In this imaginary malady there is only dysphagia, or diffi- 
 culty in swallowing, and no general convulsions, — the spasm 
 aflecting the pharynx alone, while the breathing goes on with 
 regularity. The sudden invasion of the complaint, generally 
 coming on through the person recalling to mind, or hearing 
 the relation of, a case of true hydrophobia, and the duration of 
 the dysphagia over four days without any more urgent symptom 
 
 * Dr. Trousseau relates the two following examples of this pseudo-hydrophobia. 
 " In the spring of 1828, I was engaged with my colleague at the Academy, 
 LI. Leblanc (veterinary surgeon, Paris), and Dr. Ramon, in investigating the rot 
 disease which was rife among the sheep of the Sologne. He had just inoculated 
 with the disease three hundred sheep, belonging to M. Joupitre, mayor of the 
 department. Whilst talking of virulent diseases in general, this gentleman told 
 us that he had been affected with hydrophobia. A farm dog had tried to bite his 
 arm, and about the same time it had bitten a good many beasts, which died of 
 rabies. A few months afterwards, on Easter Sunday, after service, and at a 
 breakfast at which every one had done his best to make up for the rigid absti- 
 nence of the past Lent, M. Joupitre exclaimed suddenly that he was seized with 
 hydrophobia. He could not eat or drink any more, and was already beginning 
 to rave, when his wife^ who only believed that he had eaten too much, persuaded 
 him to tickle his throat with his fingers. The advice was good, for copious sick- 
 ness was brought on by the manoeuvre, and nothing more was said about hydro- 
 phobia. That same year I happened to relate M. Joupitre's case to a presiding 
 judge in chambers, who, in his turn, told me that he also had once believed him- 
 self to be seized with hydrophobia. He used to go out riding frequently, and a 
 sporting dog, which generally accompanied him, often jumped to lick the hand 
 with which he held his whip. During one of these rides they met a flock 
 of sheep, after which the dog ran, biting all those he could catch. The animal 
 still heard and obeyed his call, but it had a strange aspect. Again it ran after, 
 and bit dogs, cows, and oxen, and lastly swam across a river ; a few hours 
 later it died. A short time after this, the judge heard that many of the beasts 
 that had been bitten by his dog had perished of rabies. This news alarmed 
 him, because he recalled to mind that on the same day the dog had 
 licked his right hand several times. On examining this hand, he found several 
 small scars on it, and, seized with terror, he no longer dared touch water to 
 shave himself, and fully believed he had hydrophobia. A medical man, who 
 was sent for from Orleans, tried in vain to calm his fears ; for several days he 
 was excited and delirious. At last, being told over and over again that persons 
 seized with the disease died very rapidly, and that he could not, therefore, be hydro- 
 phobic, since his dread of water dated abeady ten days back ; and after reading 
 in books about the duration of confirmed hydrophobia, he allowed himself to be 
 persuaded, and his dread of water vanished as soon as he became convinced that 
 he would have died long ago if he had been infected."
 
 264 Rabies and HydropJwbia. 
 
 » 
 
 appearing, are amply sujQficient to characterise the aiFection, 
 and to enable the patient's medical adviser or friends to per- 
 suade him that he is suffering from mere nervous symptoms, 
 which will vanish as soon as he ceases to fear. 
 
 Cases have been recorded of what were believed to be outbreaks 
 of spontaneous hydrophobia in man, and which, certainly, so 
 far as the description of the symptoms goes, and the fatal 
 results, appear to have resembled very closely the transmitted 
 disease. But inoculation sometimes takes place in such an 
 obscure manner, that one would almost doubt whether these 
 instances were not due to the introduction of the contagious 
 element. At any rate, we have no proof that a virus was 
 generated in these outbreaks, and cannot accept them as be- 
 longing to the malady we are now considering ; which is due 
 to inoculation with the poison of a rabid animal, and which 
 ought to be distinguished from the spontaneous malady by 
 some such name as toxico-rabies — a designation proposed by 
 Baumes, — or virulent hydrophobia. 
 
 Maniacs also sometimes evince a dread of liquids, and refuse 
 to drink, according to Trousseau. Like all persons suffering 
 from hydrophobia in the second stage, they are exceedingly 
 agitated and loquacious, and have hallucinations ; but they 
 never have general rigors and spasmodic convulsions. They 
 ai'e, besides, delirious on all subjects, whilst a rabid individual 
 retains all his reason, although he may occasionally have tran- 
 sient hallucinations. He is anxious to get well, and, believing 
 that his complaint is merely due to his inability to drink, he 
 submits to any treatment ; and once the paroxysm of excite- 
 ment is over, he allows a strait-jacket to be put on him without 
 offering the least resistance. A maniac has lost his reason ; in 
 hydrophobia, on the contrary, as Boerhaave stated long ago, 
 even in the last stage of the disease, the patient retains his 
 firmness and common sense, and requests the persons about 
 him to keep some distance from him, because he dreads lest he 
 should communicate his complaint to them.
 
 SymptojHs in the Horse. 265 
 
 Indeed, it is not possible to mistake hydrophobia for any 
 other malady, or to doubt its existence when it is present ; for 
 if, during the stage of incubation, doubts and fears may exist, 
 all uncertainty comes to an end when the disease really appears. 
 The muscular debility complained of in many cases, the restless 
 sleep out of which the patient starts up, his continual fidgeti- 
 ness, his suspicious breathing, his sadness and search after 
 pleasure, and then his love of solitude, must awaken terrible 
 fears in the physician : especially if there be no moral causes or 
 organic lesions to satisfactorily account for these symptoms. 
 The intense thirst, and general muscular pains and rigors, which 
 might at first be ascribed to some grave febrile afiection, are 
 followed by a symptom that is almost pathognomonic of 
 hydrophobia — namely, a sudden difiiculty in swallowing liquids, 
 water in particular. When there is complete inability to 
 drink, and when this dysphagia is immediately succeeded by 
 tremor on the patient carrying some liquid to his lips, all 
 illusion is dispelled, and it becomes clear that he is under the 
 fatal influence of the virus of rabies. 
 
 Symptoms in the Horse. 
 
 However much the sj^mptoms of rabies may vary in the 
 animals not naturally liable to it, but to which it has been 
 transmitted by wounds inflicted by the dog, cat, fox, or wolf, 
 the same nervous derangement and excitability are nevertheless 
 predominant, and many of the symptoms are analogous and 
 referable to the same morbid changes. 
 
 The commencement of rabies in the horse is marked by rest- 
 lessness ; biting at the seat of injury, as if it itched; changing 
 its position frequently ; starting suddenly as if frightened ; 
 much more susceptible to external influences than usual, and 
 very irascible ; the eye is more sensitive to light, the gaze is 
 fixed ; the pupil, in the majority of cases, is dilated ; the ears 
 are moved as if the animal heard strange sounds, and it appears 
 to be the victim of mental hallucinations. Venereal desires
 
 266 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 in the mare and stallion are generally considerably aug- 
 mented. The latter has priapism frequently, and neighs in a 
 harsh tone, while the former stands with its hind legs wide apart, 
 and shows signs of "horsing." As the disease progresses, cuta- 
 neous quivering is observed, which is soon followed by convul- 
 sions ; loss of appetite and difficulty in swallowing are frequently 
 noticed. During the paroxysms, the animal kicks viciously, 
 and bites so furiously at any objects in its way, that sometimes 
 its teeth, and even jaws, are broken. It will even bite its own 
 body. The respiration becomes accelerated, and the voice 
 hoarse and unpleasant. There is rarely much salivation. 
 
 The duration of the paroxysms, which are generally excited 
 by the presence of a dog, is variable, and in the remissions 
 the animal more or less regains its faculties, but is weak and 
 exhausted. The succeeding fits are usually more intense, and 
 the intervals shorter. The horse rapidly becomes enervated 
 and sinks ; towards the close, paralysis of the hinder extremi- 
 ties ensues, and it then ordinarily maintains the recumbent 
 position. From the second to the fourth or sixth day after the 
 appearance of the first symptoms, it perishes in a convulsive 
 paroxysm.* 
 
 * The following interesting cases are here noted as examples of rabies in the horse. 
 " On the 31st May, 1869, a heavy draught horse, fourteen years old, was admitted 
 to the clinic of the Lyons Veterinary School. On the 2oth of the previous 
 March, while drawing a light cart, it was attacked in the street by a bulldog, 
 which sprang at its face, and inflicted two bites — one on the inner, the other at 
 the outer surface of the upper lip. The dog, which appeared to be a wanderer 
 without a master, was immediately killed, and its body conveyed to the school, 
 when it was found to have been suffering from rabies. The horse itself was con- 
 ducted to the school, and the two wounds made by the fangs of the dog were 
 cauterised deeply by a red-hot iron, an hour and a half after their wjliction. Two 
 months passed away without anything unusual being observed, and the animal 
 worked as usual until the 30th of May, when all at once, and without any assign- 
 able cause, it became irritable. It was then remarked that its mouth was foamy, 
 the eyes brilliant and a little haggard-looking, and that at times it was so rest- 
 less as to give rise to the idea that it was suffering from colic. It was therefore 
 led to its stable, in the hope that these colicky symptoms would disappear ; for no 
 one thought of the accident on the 25th March. The next day, however, the 
 symptoms, instead of disappearing, were aggravated, and fearing a brain affec- 
 tion, it was now sent to the school to be treated. On its arrival there, it was in
 
 Symptoms in the Horse. 267 
 
 In November, 1870, a case occurred at II udder sfield, York- 
 shire, in which the symptoms were unusual liveliness when in 
 
 an extreme state of excitement, as if it had been terribly frightened ; the eyes 
 were sparkling, restless, and haggard, and the ears continually in motion. It 
 was never quiet for a moment ; everything around it appeared to disturb or 
 frighten it, and it snorted loudly. The mouth was filled with a frothy saliva 
 that escaped by the commissuies of the lips ; the jaws were moved incessantly in 
 a champing fashion. At intervals it widely opened its mouth, as if to yawn, 
 when it made a dull, hoarse, guttural sound. Then it shook its head from side 
 to side, as if it had something unpleasant in its throat ; at the same time it pawed 
 violently with its fore feet. Placed in a stall and secured, it at first sprang back, 
 as if startled by something before it, then opened its mouth and emitted the 
 peculiar sound already mentioned, and struck the ground violently with its 
 fore feet, but without tearing it up. It soon appeared to recover from its 
 fear, approached the part to which it was attached, on which it placed its nose, 
 and then commenced to rub this region of its head energetically, as if it expe- 
 rienced there — the seat of the injury — a violent itching. A handful of forage 
 offered to it was seized with convulsive haste, and masticated and swallowed 
 without any apparent difficulty. On a pailful of water being presented, it 
 approached it with fear, snorting and snuffing in a very loud manner. After 
 a few moments' hesitation, it plunged its nose in it and swallowed some mouth- 
 fuls without manifesting any pain or difficulty. Then it sprang back, widely 
 opening its mouth and pawing with its foot. A stick being held before it was 
 seized in its teeth and crushed. The sight of a dog placed in front of it did not 
 cause much disturbance ; it smelled energetically at it, but without attempting to 
 do it any harm. The skin was covered with perspiration; the pulse frequent 
 and hard (fifty per minute) ; the respiration accelerated (thirty per minute) ; the 
 loins were insensible to pressure by the fingers. After a short period, the 
 symptoms became momentarily exaggerated, either spontaneously, or through 
 the influence of some external excitation; these exacerbations were separated by 
 intervals of relative calmness. It was remarked, however, that these intervals 
 became more and more brief, while the paroxysms became more frequent and 
 serious. During their existence, the patient at times seized, with a kind of 
 fui-y, the border of the tourniquet to which it was tied between its incisor 
 teeth, and rubbed it so viciously as to make a deep groove. 
 
 These symptoms persisted during the night, and the next morning it was 
 found that the horse, biting constantly in the same place, had made a large 
 irregular cavity in the tourniquet. At five o'clock in the morning (Ist June), the 
 animal, completely exhausted by suffering, fell down, struggled and plunged 
 violently for two hours, and died in the midst of frightful convulsions at seven a.m. 
 
 This case is noteworthy from the period of incubation — sixty-five da>s — being 
 accurately ascertained ; from the fact that cauterisation of the wounds within a 
 short period after their infliction did not prevent the appearance of the malady, — 
 showing that, to be safe, not an instant must be lost in destrojdng the virus ; 
 the prominent symptoms were those of cerebral excitation, with fear or fright, 
 a tendency to bite or gnaw, and the manifestation of intense pruritis in the 
 seat of the injmy. The horse had neither a horror of liquids, nor was it 
 impossible for it to swallow them : though there was a certain degree of fear on 
 ofl'eriug it the pail, and perhaps pain in deglutition, as evidenced by the
 
 268 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 harness, soon succeeded by violent trembling, and fury, during 
 which it laiocked the stable window out. When the breast or 
 flanks were touched, the animal screamed. It seized the groom 
 
 movements of the head, which took place as soon as it had drank, hut which, 
 nevertheless, were also produced at other times. The animal was irritable, so 
 far as mankind was concerned, but not Aacious ; as it did not kick or bite when 
 any one was examining it. The course of the disease was very rapid, the animal 
 succumbing through nervous exhaustion, and perhaps also by asphjrxia, in 
 forty-eight hours after the appearance of the first symptoms. — Journal de Med. 
 Veterinaire de Lyon, 1869, p. 541. 
 
 The cases reported by Zahn, of the Vienna Veterinary School, are perhaps 
 still more interesting, so far as the symptomatology is concerned. 
 
 A dog belonging to a carman, after biting several pigs and another dog, 
 entered its owner's stable during the night of the 29 — 30 September, 1867, 
 where it was captured the following day, and conveyed in a carriage to the 
 hospital of the Veterinary School. It was there recognised as affected with 
 rabies, from which malady it soon died. On his return, the owner remarked 
 that one of his horses was wounded on the right thigh. This horse — a gelding, 
 seven years old — was immediately sent to be taken care of at the Veterinary 
 School. A minute examination of the wounds showed that they were produced 
 by dog bites ; their depth extended to the cellular tissue, and the surface was 
 covered with coagulated blood. After being well cleaned, they were at once 
 cauterised with quick-lime. The following day, some superficial woimds, covered 
 with blood, were discovered in the right nostril ; these were treated like the 
 others. The carman, having inspected all his horses, sent three more to the 
 school on the 1st of October. One of these had a superficial wound on the right 
 shoulder, covered with coagulated blood ; but it could not be asserted that this 
 had been caused by the dog ; it was therefore dressed with the quick-lime, and the 
 horse was sent back to the proj^rietor. The second animal — a mare, twelve years 
 old — had a deep, partly-torn wound on the right lip of the vulva, and was kept 
 at the school. The third was a gelding aged six years ; it had also a deep wound 
 on the heel of the left hind foot. These two animals were submitted to the 
 same treatment as the first two. The cauterisations with the quick-lime were 
 repeated whenever the eschar fell off ; this was also carried out in the horse that 
 had been sent back to the proprietor ; on the 8th October, the three horses 
 received into the hospital were, by permission of the police, returned to the 
 owner, on the understanding that they should be kept in a separate stable and 
 exclusively employed for short journeys. 
 
 On the loth of November, forty-seven days after the bite, the mare was again 
 brought to the hospital of the school. According to the proprietor, this animal 
 fell in draught the previous evening, and since then she walked unsteadily. On 
 inspection, feebleness was only manifest in the lumbar region, and on the 16th in 
 the joints of the posterior limbs. On the 17th it could no longer stand, the 
 posterior extremities being paralysed, and it was necessary to remove the fteces 
 and urine. The pulse was raised to fifty-six pulsations per minute ; one-half the 
 ration of forage was eaten, and nothing abnormal was noticed in drinking. The 
 pulse was the same on the 18th; the animal was tranquil, though it ground its 
 teeth, and on several occasions tried to bite the student who was ministering to 
 it. It died on the 20th. The blood was black, thick, and not coagulated ; the
 
 Symptoms hi the Horse. 269 
 
 by the shoulder with its teeth, and would not release him until 
 beaten off by another man. In the paroxysm, it tore its cloth- 
 ing, which was removed with difficulty and danger. No sooner 
 
 spinal cord was greatly softened, and the spleen offered characters of an acute 
 inflammation. 
 
 On the 14th December, seventy-six days after the bite, the horse that had been 
 wounded on the right thigh was brought to the hospital. The driver said that 
 it was quite well until the 13th December, when it began to show loss of appe- 
 tite. On the morning of the 14th, it also refused a portion of its ration, and, 
 contrary to its habits, snapped at the neighbouring horses ; on which it was led to 
 the school at eight a.m. It was put in a strong loose-box. At the seat of the 
 bites in the thigh and nostril were dry cicatrices ; the pulse was fifty-six, and the 
 respirations irregular and numbering twenty-four per minute. Percussion 
 of the chest did not reveal anything abnormal, but auscultation discovered a 
 crepitant sound. The mucous membrane of the mouth was foul, and that cavity 
 was filled with foam. The animal often ground its teeth, flexed its knees several 
 times, and fell down in a quarter of an hour after being put into the box ; it made 
 some struggles, and after some difficultj^ it got up again. While standing, it 
 appeared to be very attentive, moved its ears frequently, and passed much urine, 
 but with regularity. When the box door was opened, it neighed with unaltered 
 voice ; at the approach of any one it prepared to kick, put back its ears, and tried 
 to bite. From time to time it pawed the ground with the right fore leg, and 
 rested sometimes on one, sometimes on the other posterior limb; then it bent 
 its knees, and at last fell on the left side. The increasing weakness of its hind 
 quarters prevented its rising; while it lay, and during its efforts to rise, its 
 teeth continued to be ground ; it pushed with its head against the floor on 
 which its mouth rested, and bit at the soil and litter ; at length it rose again. 
 The falls became more frequent, and were repeated at closer intervals, while 
 rising became more difficult. While it was standing, the respiration was quicker 
 and more ii-regular than during the decubitus; sweat covered the body; the 
 bread that was offered to it was seized with avidity, but mastication was slow 
 and swallowing difficult. It woiild not drink the water put before it, but amused 
 itself by laving its mouth in it. The difficulty in moving the hind quarters 
 increased, and the animal stood stretched out ; the eye was haggard, the con- 
 junctiva greatly injected, and the cornea slightly opaque. The grinding of the 
 teeth persisted, as well as the flexing of the knees. At ten o'clock, the horse 
 fell for the fifth time, attempted several times to roll and to rise, but in vain. It 
 seized the skin of the right knee with its teeth, folding it up and holding it ; at a 
 later period, it grasped the right fore arm between its jaws and held it so for 
 half an hour. The respiration became irregular, very quick, and jerking ; all the 
 body was covered with an abundant perspiration, and a large quantity of foam 
 ran from the mouth. At half-past ten, the animal sprang up, remained tranquil, 
 but went down in a few minutes on the right side. It tried again to roU and 
 get up, and continued to bite the groimd and its fore legs. It remained in this 
 condition until mid-day, when a calm supervened — the foam came from its 
 mouth in streams, it appeared quite paralysed, the respiration became stertorous, 
 and at length it succumbed at half-past one. 
 
 On the loth December, seventy-seven days after the bite from the mad dog, at 
 three in the afternoon, the third horse, which had been bitten in the heel, was
 
 270 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 was this taken away than it commenced to tear its own body, 
 striking violently with its fore legs against a manger. After a 
 while it seized this manger, which was a strong one, with its 
 teeth, tore it away from its fixtures, and shook it " as a dog 
 would shake a rat ;" then rushed into the next stall, where it 
 
 taken to the hospital, and put in a strong loose-box. This animal, since it was 
 bitten, although in good health, was not so familiar as before. On this day a 
 great weakness was manifested in the hind quarters, and while being shod it 
 fell. On admission to the hospital, the respirations were from sixteen to twenty 
 per minute, and the pulse forty-four to forty-eight. The membrane of the 
 mouth was pale, hot, and dry. The animal rapidly devoured one-half of 
 the ration put before it, drank regularly, was very sensitive to the touch, 
 especially about the throat, often flexed the knees, relieved alternately the pos- 
 terior members, manifested pain on pressure to the loins, and the hind quarters 
 swayed from side to side in walking. The next day, the 16th, there was no 
 change. The sensibility in the cicatrix of the wound in the hind leg was very 
 great ; the animal often essayed to micturate, but only a small quantity was voided. 
 It ate and drank regularly. On the 1 7th, however, it did not eat all its food, 
 and the respirations were thirty-six and the pulsations fifty-six per minute. The 
 horse was very attentive and its ears kept moving in a very lively manner. Mas- 
 tication was slow, and deglutition difficult. On the 18th, at eight o'clock, the 
 patient lay down for the first time, but soon arose again after several attempts. 
 The weakness of the hind quarters had increased, the fajces and urine were often 
 expelled with difficulty, and always in small quantities. The eye was sometimes 
 haggard, the conjunctiva injected, and the horse ground its teeth while eating, 
 and towards the evening it tried to bite those who, having attended it, were 
 leaving it. On the 19th, the paralysis of the hind quarters was diminished, and 
 it would allow none to approach it ; it reared against the wall of the box, and 
 when hay was put in the manger by means of a shovel, it darted suddenly at 
 this instrument and held it between its incisor teeth ; in the same manner, with its 
 ears back, it endeavoured to soize any onewho approached it. The pieces of bread 
 that were thrown to it from a distance were snatched up with avidity' masticated, 
 and swallowed. It refused water, and fiercely gnawed the bucket. Restlessness 
 came on towards midnight, and the body was soaked in perspiration. At four 
 o'clock in the morning, it fell down for the last time, and expired. The fourth 
 horse remained healthy. — CEsterreichische Vierteljahresschrift fur Wissenschaftliche 
 Veterincerkunde, vol. xxx. 
 
 In 1871, a horse which had been bitten some time before by a dog supposed to 
 be mad, was brought to the hospital of the Royal Veterinary College at Berlin. It 
 had been suffering from an imcontroUable propensity to bite not only men and 
 other animals, but any hard substance it encountered, and even its own body ; 
 by which it had severely injured its mouth and broken several of its teeth. 
 After its admission to the hospital, this propensity was manifested in the most 
 violent manner in fits, preceded by remarkable convulsive movements ; after 
 which it would fall suddenly, and remain for a time perfectly motionless, 
 becoming gradually weaker after each attack. It had refused food for two days, 
 and died without a struggle on the evening of the day on which it was 
 admitted. — Zeitschrift fxir ParasitenJimuIe.
 
 Diagnosis iji the Horse. 2 7 1 
 
 demolislied the manger in the same manner. " Then he knocked 
 the boarding down which separated the two stalls, and rushed 
 about the stable worrying everything he came near, every now 
 and then stopping to paw with his fore leg, and tearing at it 
 with his teeth."* 
 
 Diagnosis in the Horse. 
 
 The history of the case will, in this animal, as in others, 
 prove of service in establishing a diagnosis. The only disease 
 with which it might be confounded by the inexperienced is 
 inflammation of the brain (phrenitis) and paralysis. The 
 furious symptoms occurring in paroxysms, with no loss of 
 consciousness ; as well as the methodical manner with which 
 the animal commits its depredations, and its antipathy to dogs, 
 will distinguish this from the first-named disease, while the 
 same symptoms will distinguish it from paralysis. 
 
 Symptoms in the Cow. 
 
 The symptoms of rabies in the cow are analogous to those 
 observed in the horse. Loss of, or depraved appetite ; prostra- 
 tion ; great restlessness ; increased excitability ; muscular 
 tremblings ; a flow of saliva nearly constantly from the mouth ; 
 exaltation of the sexual desires, especially in the bull ; difiiculty 
 in swallowing ; and the manifestation of disagreeable sensations 
 in the seat of the wound, as well as hallucinations, are the first 
 signs ; though sometimes the commencement is very insidious. 
 During the paroxysms, the eyes are staring, brilliant, haggard- 
 looking, and injected ; the pupils are dilated ; the mouth hot and 
 foamy ; and the voice is changed to a dull hoarse sound. The 
 animals are very excited, bellow frequently, agitate their jaws, 
 paw with the fore feet, throw behind them the earth or their 
 litter ; they fall down, roll about, or try to get away from 
 their fastenings. There are tremblings and twitchings of the 
 
 * The Veterinarian, vol. xliii. p. 918.
 
 272 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 muscles ; in the cow, the secretion of milk is suspended ; and 
 frequently there is a disposition to attack other animals and 
 people. They strike with their horns —or their forehead if they 
 have no horns — at obstacles in their way ; and with such fury 
 that the horns are often fractured, and the forehead a mass of 
 extravasated blood. They do not always, however, seek to 
 strike with their horns, and very rarely attempt to bite. They 
 sometimes jump on other cattle in a frenzy, if at large. The 
 appetite is nearly always lost, and rumination entirely ceases » 
 the appetite, when present, is often depraved ; the faeces, at 
 first expelled at long intervals and in small quantity, become 
 at a later period liquid, and are often passed involuntarily. At 
 other times the expulsive efforts are so great that the rectum 
 is protruded. 
 
 Emaciation becomes extreme, and, finally, paralysis of the 
 posterior extremities ensues. The cattle then lie, are incapable 
 of getting up, and perish in a profound coma.* 
 
 * The Austrian Military Veterinary Surgeon, Fiala, reports that on the 18th 
 July, 1868, Josef Mescevie, of Josefthal, observed one of his cows, aged five 
 years, refusing its food and drink, frequently bellowing, and discovered that the 
 lacteal secretion had diminished, while the animal had become very irritable. On 
 the 21st, when visited by the veterinary surgeon, it was extremely restless ; the 
 ocular globes, protruding from the orbits, were slightly injected, the nostrils dilated, 
 the ears in constant motion, and the flanks retracted ; a viscid saliva flowed from the 
 mouth ; no appetite ; the lacteal secretion suppressed ; the vulva tumified ; the 
 excretion of fajces and urine freqiiently made, but in small quantity ; the excre- 
 ments were hard and slimy ; at the sight of the house-dog it was very agitated, 
 bellowed in a hoarse voice, and sprang at it. There was no wound or cicatrix 
 visible on its body, and no one knew how or when the cow had been bitten. On 
 the 23rd July, it was lying, the eyes sparkling and haggard, the conjunctiva 
 injected, the hair erect, an abundant salivation, and the general condition had 
 become one of emaciation. The animal tried to avoid the light, refused food, but 
 drank plenty of water, though it swallowed with difiiculty; it arose several 
 times, but only to fall down again, and trembled all over. The presence of the 
 house-dog excited its fury, and made it bellow in a jerking, hoarse tone ; but it 
 did not seek to bite or strike. It was killed. — (Esterreich. Vierteljahres. fiir 
 VeterincBrhinde, vol. xxx. 
 
 A rabid dog had been caught by a groom, who was ignorant of its condition, 
 and who imperfectly secured it by a chain to the ring of a manger in a building 
 where a number of calves and sheep were confined. During the night it broke 
 loose, and repeatedly bit several of the animals. A goat among the number 
 escaped by jumping upon some empty packages, at a considerable height beyond
 
 Diagnosis in the Cow. 273 
 
 The duration of the disease in the bovine species seldom 
 exceeds from four to seven days ; and, as in other creatures, 
 the termination is always fatal (Roll). 
 
 Diagnosis in the Cow. 
 
 The nervous disturbance that sometimes marks the com- 
 mencement of " cattle plague " (rinderpest) in cattle offers a 
 
 the reach of the dog, and a small calf was protected by creeping beneath the 
 manger. Of the number, four calves and two sheep were bitten ; but as one of 
 the former had sustained a compound fracture of the fore leg, it was destroyed. 
 The others were kept under observation. Twenty-three days afterwards, a calf 
 exhibited an inordinate desire for water, but experienced a difficult}^ in swallow- 
 ing. The appetite and rumination were suspended, and diarrhoea set in. Saliva 
 flowed profusely from the mouth, and the animal regarded the movements of a 
 stick or piece of paper held towards it with the most intense watchfulness, and 
 after a time would rush violently at it. Twenty-five days after being bitten, a 
 second calf became affected, and about the same time one of the sheep — a ewe ; 
 in a few more days the thii'd calf and the second sheep — a ram. The first calf 
 exhibited the most perfect quietude when any person stood near it ; but when left 
 alone it bellowed furiously, and, as far as the chain would allow, it moimted the 
 manger or stall partition, or would sometimes jump with all feet at once from the 
 ground to a considerable height, and fall helplessly on the ground, Ij'ing a few 
 seconds upon one side, and rising with difficulty after several ineffectual attempts. 
 The second and third animals were considerably more vicious ; they would kick 
 and run at all persons who approached them. Their loud bellowing became con- 
 stant and annoying, and, in the end, difi'ered little from the braying of an ass. 
 .... It is to be particularly remarked that the wounds inflicted by the rabid 
 dog had in every case healed up ; but, contemporaneously with the first signs of 
 rabies, loss of appetite and difficulty in swallowing, &c., there arose such an 
 intolerable itching or irritation in the parts, that the animals commenced to rub 
 them violently against the nearest object, until they were raw and bleeding. 
 (Armatage, " Clater's Cattle Doctor," p. 453.) During the epizooty of rabies in 
 Lancashire in 1869, Mr. Worthington, veterinary surgeon, of Wigan, reported 
 four cases of the disease transmitted to cattle. On Sunday, November 2Sth, he 
 was called to inspect a heifer, two years old, and in calf, which had been 
 observed to be dull and to separate from the herd in the field on the preceding 
 Thursday. On the Friday, the owner's attention was again attracted to it by 
 observing its face and horns covered with soil ; it was then labouring under great 
 excitement, had a wild and startled look, bellowed frequently, and occasionally 
 charged furiously at its companions ; a great change was also observed in the 
 abdomen, which presented an extremely hollow — almost emaciated — appearance, 
 as if it had been starved. It was placed in a loose-box, and the excitement and 
 restlessness were almost continuous. The creature was ever on the alert, and 
 would instantly charge at any one who entered. A large quantity of frothy 
 saliva hung from the lips, and the bellowing was almost incessant. All food was 
 refused, but the thirst was groat, and when gruel or water was .sujuilicd oager 
 
 T
 
 2 74 Rabies and Hydrophobia, 
 
 certain analogy to the symptoms of rabies in that animal. The 
 fits of delirium that now and again appear in that disease, as well 
 as the great depression and apathy, and the unsteady gait, have 
 
 attempts were made to drink, but swallowing was impossible. On Monday, the 
 wild excitement had almost completely subsided, and was succeeded by com- 
 parative quietude and extreme exhaustion. The eyes had a peculiarly anxious, 
 but watchful, look ; the pulse was slow and feeble ; and the debility was so great 
 that the cow could scarcely walk, though it manifested much anxiety to escape 
 from confinement. The thirst continued undiminished, and on a bucket of gruel 
 being presented, the poor beast eagerly plimged its nose in it, and made repeated, 
 but vain, efiforts to drink, the liquid at each attempt returning by the nostrils. It 
 rapidly sank during the day, and died early next morning ; but its restlessness 
 only diminished with the fast-failing strength, and was observable to the last. 
 Throughout the disease there was little or no action of the bowels, and every- 
 thing except fluids was persistently refused from the commencement. 
 
 The second case was a two-year-old heifer, in calf. The owner had noticed it 
 first from its strange appearance and conduct in the field ; it looked remarkably 
 hollow, and instead of grazing with the other cows, stood with head erect, 
 looking wildly towards various parts of the meadow, apparently intently 
 watching some imaginary object. It would stand in this way until its com- 
 panions had grazed some distance, when it would walk up amongst them, and 
 again resume its attitude of siispicious watchfulness. As yet there was no desire 
 to do mischief, and throughout the disease it would permit any of its companions 
 to approach ; but on the following day it made a fierce attack on some yoimg 
 calves, and became perfectly furious on seeing a dog which was kept at the farm 
 for the purpose of driving cattle to and from pastui'e, and towards which it had 
 never before displayed anj- indication of animosity. At length it manifested 
 such alarming symptoms of violence that it had to be secured. Before entering 
 the place where it was, the owner advised Mr. Worthington to be cautious in 
 approaching it, as any attempt to do so strangely excited it ; and this precaution 
 was necessary, for they were almost deafened with the bellowings that greeted 
 them as they opened the door. Their entrance had thrown it into a state of 
 the wildest excitement, which, however, subsided after their quietly watching 
 it for a few minutes ; but the slightest movement, or even an attempt at con- 
 versation, instantly brought on a paroxysm of bellowing. The eyelids were 
 widely dilated, and the eyes bright and prominent, giving the cow an extremely 
 ■wnld and startled expression ; a quantity of frothy saliva adhered to the lips, and 
 with head erect and ears iDointed forward, it stood keenly sensitive to every- 
 thing around. In its struggle to liberate itself, one of its boms had become 
 fractured, and the blood streaming over the face considerably increased its 
 startling appearance. There was no disturbance of the pulse ; and both bowels 
 and kidneys were acting naturally. From the commencement all food had been 
 refused, and there was also an indifference to fluids. The paroxyms increased in 
 intensity, and the remissions were of short duration ; the bellowing could be 
 distinctly heard at a distance of two or three miles. The animal was destroyed 
 three days after the appearance of the first symptoms. 
 
 A fortnight afterwards, this veterinary surgeon was called to see another cow, 
 older than the others. It had been unwell for two days, and had not eaten any-
 
 Diagnosis in the Cow. 275 
 
 a resemblance to those present in a certain stage of rabies. But 
 this resemblance is very superficial ; tbe existence of the "plague" 
 in the district, the appearance of the visible mucous membranes, 
 
 thing. The principal symptoms were extreme coldness of the ■whole body, a 
 small, quick, feeble pulse, drowsiness, and great nervous depression, and a strange 
 desire to eat its clothing. Although food of every description was persistently 
 refused, this cow had deliberately masticated and swallowed a large portion of the 
 horse rug and some sacks that had been placed upon it. Two days afterwards it 
 was seen again, but it was then dying. The pulse was almost imperceptible, 
 very quick, and irregular ; the breathing slow and slightly stertorous ; the whole 
 surface of the body icy cold ; a copious flow of saliva from the mouth, and 
 intense depression. Though evidently fast sinking, there was still the same 
 depraved appetite and unnatural desire to eat the clothing. It died a few hours 
 afterwards. Five weeks before its death this animal, whilst being driven 
 to a neighbouring field, was attacked by a large dog that was passing along the road 
 with a half- worried cat in its mouth, and bitten rather severely on one ear. The 
 wound did well, but two daj's before the cow was seen by Mr. Worthington it was 
 observed to be chasing a nimiber of sheep, and bellowing in a strange, unnatural 
 manner. From this time till death ensued, paroxysms of bellowing, accompanied 
 by great restlessness and excitement, would come on at intervals. These periods 
 were succeeded by the greatest depression. 
 
 The fourth case was a bull calf, nine months old, on a farm near where the 
 other cases occurred, and to which Mr. Worthington was called the day after the 
 death of the last case. Since the Monday — three days previously — it had exhi- 
 bited unusual symptoms. The Croston harriers had on that day passed through 
 the field in which the calf was grazing along with about a dozen other calves, and 
 shortly afterwards it was found bellowing and rambling over the field in a state 
 of the greatest excitement. It was supposed at the time that this had arisen in 
 consequence of having been alarmed by the hounds, and would subside in a short 
 period ; not being a valuable calf, it was neglected until the arrival of the veteri- 
 nary surgeon, three days afterwards. It had then separated from its com- 
 panions, and could not be found until diligent search was made, when it was 
 discovered lying dead on the bank of a small pit, with its nose just immersed in 
 the water, having apparently expired in the act of drinking. Since the Monday 
 it had been in a state of the wildest excitement, incessantly bellowing and 
 rambling round the field, and charging furiously at any one who approached it. 
 Shortly before daybreak on the 8th November, the shepherd, on going his 
 morning rounds, had observed a large black dog, which he described as looking 
 " fearfully hollow and hungrj'," in a field adjoining the Hall, and which, after 
 attacking his own dog, crossed the fence into the contiguous field where the 
 calves were grazing, and ran in among them. It was not sufficiently light to 
 observe whether it attacked any of them, but he thought it probable it might 
 have done so, as he could distinctly observe all the calves running from it in a 
 state of alarm. About the same time this dog also severely wounded a sheep- 
 dog at a farm about a mile off; the owner, apprehensive of rabies, tied this 
 animal up, and two or three weeks afterwards it died, presenting unmistakable 
 symptoms of rabies. 
 
 This black dog, which had been seen with a cat in its mouth, had bitten case 
 
 T 2
 
 276 Rabies and HydropJwhia. 
 
 and other definite symptoms during life, as well as the patholo- 
 gical alterations found after death, are sufficient to establish a 
 distinction. We will hereafter refer to the diagnosis of rabies 
 from the various forms of " Anthrax " in this and other 
 animals. 
 
 Symptoms in the Sheep. 
 In sheep, the early symptoms of rabies are, — diminution of 
 the appetite, cessation of rumination, itching of the skin, and 
 exaltation of the sexual desires. There soon ensues agitation ; 
 the voice is modified, the eyes staring, with dilated pupils and 
 reddened conjunctivae ; and the nasal secretion is augmented. 
 During the paroxysm, the sheep make unusual jumps, paw with 
 their fore feet, grind the teeth, and butt with their horns or 
 forehead at other sheep, people, dogs, or any objects within 
 their reach, and bite utensils when they can get hold of them. 
 It is not at all unusual for them to show a disposition to bite 
 people and animals, and the disease has been transmitted by 
 them in this way. The presence or the bark of a dog will often 
 make them furious, and they are not at all afraid of attacking 
 that animal. At intervals they emit a kind of dull bellowing. 
 The exacerbations alternate with intervals of quiet ; emacia- 
 tion sets in, and- feebleness with paralysis ensues. The animals 
 are then most frequently lying ; saliva usually flows from the 
 mouth, large quantities of mucus are discharged from the 
 nostrils, and death usually occurs in a convulsive paroxysm 
 in from the fifth to the eighth day.* Rabid sheep have been 
 known to drink blood (Haubner). 
 
 three ; and several dogs, a pig, and other animals were afterwards attacked hy 
 it in different parts of the country (the whole of the bitten ones were imme- 
 diately destroyed), and it was ultimately killed, three days afterwards, by a 
 labourer who was fencing, and upon whom it made a fierce and unprovoked 
 assault ; but the man being fortunately armed with a hedging hook, was enabled 
 quickly to despatch it. — The Veterinarian, vol. xliii. p. 195. 
 
 * In the sheep affected with rabies, observed by Mr. Armatage, there was 
 quietness, the head being generally elevated and held to one side ; one ear and 
 the eyelid of the same side drooping — the latter nearly closed. Any sudden
 
 Sympto))is in the Goat and Pig. 277 
 
 Symptoms in the Goat. 
 
 The symptoms of rabies in the goat are analogous to, if not 
 absolutely identical with, those observed in the sheep. The 
 only difference observed is in the desire to bite, which is always 
 more marked in the former than the latter. 
 
 Symptoms in the Pig. 
 
 It appears to be no very great flattery to the " lord of the 
 creation " to say that, with regard to diseases and the general 
 action of medicine, no creature is so closely related to him as 
 the pig. In fact, they have several maladies in common, which 
 are scarcely, if at all, known to other species, and drugs, as a 
 
 movement or unusually sharp noiae would cause them to drop awkwardly, as the 
 calves were described to do, and rise in a similar manner. There was no 
 viciousness, diarrhcea, or slavering. Temporature before death 107°. The 
 ewe gave birth to two fine lambs about one week before the attack ; but the 
 milk rapidly diminishing, they had to be fed from a bottle. They were fattened, 
 and after some months went to the butcher, without having shown any sign of 
 the malady being inherited. 
 
 Mr. Worthington saw a rabid sheep at Parbold HaU in April, 1870. It will 
 be remembered that rabies had appeared there in November among the cattle. 
 This sheep was supposed to have been bitten at the same time. Throughout the 
 disease the animal evinced great restlessness, by frequently stamping and scraping 
 the ground with the fore feet, and riding on its companions' backs ; with wildly 
 glaring eyes it would go back several paces, and then butt furiously at any one 
 who approached it ; even a stone thrown towards it on the groimd was sufficient 
 to bring on a paroxysm of fury. In three days after the appearance of these 
 symptoms it was destroyed. — The Veterinarian, vol. xliii. p. 607. 
 
 On June 5, 1841, Eckel inoculated a sheep at the nose, lip, and tail with the 
 warm saliva from a he-goat suffering from rabies induced by the bite of a mad 
 dog ; this goat immediately afterwards died. On July 1, the sheep had partially 
 lost its appetite, rumination was suspended, the urine was scanty, and there was 
 constipation. On the 2nd, the animal greedily seized a mouthful of hay ; it was 
 restless and afraid of the slightest noise ; the eyes were haggard-looking ; the 
 visible mucous membranes were injected ; there was a discharge fi'om the nostrils, 
 and the mouth was foamy. It must have been very uneasy on the following- 
 night, for on the morning of the 3rd tufts of wool were adhering to the wood- 
 work of its stall. It was then lying on its right side ; the pupils of the eyes 
 were widely dilated, and these organs were dull, haggard, and deeply retracted 
 within their orbits ; an abundant viscid discharge flowed from the nostrils and 
 mouth ; the respu-ation was accelerated ; paralysis had set in, and the circulation 
 was inexplorable. The animal died at eleven o'clock that morning, without con- 
 vulsions. The rigor mortis appeared instantaneously.
 
 278 Rabies a7id Hydrophobia. 
 
 rule, in almost the same quantities, liave similar physiological 
 effects. The same is the case with the disease now under 
 consideration, particularly with respect to the exaltation of the 
 senses, and more especially the morbid sensibility of the skin. 
 Pigs are not so much exposed to the disease, from their being 
 usually confined in enclosures, and when they are affected it is 
 due to the bite of a rabid dog or cat. 
 
 When the pig is about to be attacked with rabies, the 
 already cicatrised wound usually becomes more sensitive, and 
 the animal rubs or gnaws it until it is raw. When the disease 
 appears, the pig seems to be suffering from malaise ; it becomes 
 savage, frightened, and restless ; the gaze is fixed, and the 
 pupils widely dilated ; the respiration is very accelerated ; an 
 abundance of saliva streams constantly from the mouth, and 
 the voice is husky and emitted in frequently repeated grunts or 
 groans, though sometimes the animal is mute. During the 
 paroxysms the foamy saliva increases ; the desire to bite is 
 sometimes intense, and the unfortunate creature not only attacks 
 inanimate bodies, but also animals, — even its own species, and 
 mankind. It burrows and hides its head beneath the litter, 
 jumps about in a fantastic manner, or tries to tear up the 
 ground in order to conceal itself. These fits are followed 
 by a sensible diminution of all the morbid phenomena ; and 
 during the remission the animal, if a sow, will suckle and 
 caress its young even more affectionately than in health. At 
 a later period, the mouth and snout become dry ; the animal 
 rapidly wastes, and paraplegia (paralysis) supervenes. It is 
 not uncommon to see the lower jaw more or less paralysed, and 
 though there may be hunger and thirst manifested, yet the 
 poor creature cannot swallow. Sometimes the taste is de- 
 praved, and the animal eats all kinds of unusual substances, 
 some of which it has previously torn or gnawed in its access of 
 fury. The senses of hearing and seeing are more acute, and 
 the sensitive function of the skin is strangely exalted. 
 
 Death ordinarily takes place in from the second to the fourth
 
 Symptoms in the Pig. 2^() 
 
 day (Roll). Benion says it never exceeds eight days^ that 
 paralysis ensues ordinarily towards the fifth or sixth days, and 
 death about the eighth day.* 
 
 * "Traite des Maladies du Pore," Paris, 1872, p. 270. 
 
 No better illustration of rabies in tbe pig could be given than the cases wit- 
 nessed by Gillman, in 1811. On June 22nd, a yard-dog belonging to a gentle- 
 man at Highgate, killed, the previous day, one of his fowls, \?hich it carried into 
 its kennel. Its master, when he saw it, put his hand into the kennel, took it 
 out, and beat the dog, which did not attempt to bite him. The dog was not 
 observed to be out of health, and, as was the usual practice at night, was 
 unchained and suffered to run about the stable yard in which its kennel stood ; 
 on the following morning it was found in the pig-sty, worrying an old sow and 
 her two store pigs, about ten weeks old, which were much bitten, particularly 
 about the ears. The dog afterwards died rabid, though it lapped milk until 
 shortly^ before death. One of the young pigs, which had been bitten least, 
 and that only about the ears, on the morning of the tenth day after the bite, 
 refused its food. When offered to it as usual by placing it in the trough, 
 after smelling it, it ran back, pointed its nose in the air, and was much 
 agitated ; in the evening it had a conwilsive movement and twitching of the 
 limbs. The eleventh day — the second of the attack — when Gillman saw it, there 
 was a considerable quantity of frothy saliva about the mouth ; it started and 
 threw itself about in a most extraordinary manner ; sometimes it sprang at least 
 three feet from the ground ; then beat itself forcibly against the wall ; and some- 
 times ran round on its hind legs, as dogs do when playing with their tails. This 
 it continued to do till exhausted, when it would fall down and pant ; but soon 
 again it became convulsed, and leaped from the ground as before, falling with 
 considerable violence on its back or sides. About noon, the person who fed it 
 gave it a slight blow on the head and killed it. The head had suffered such 
 injury from the violence of the convulsions that no dissection could be made, 
 and the skull and lower jaw were fractured. 
 
 The other pig was seized on the noon of the fourteenth day after the bite. 
 This animal was considerably torn by the teeth of the dog, and had a deep 
 wound on the back, between the shoulders. It was first seized with rigors and 
 stood shivering besides its trough, rubbing the bitten parts, which Gillman had 
 observed it to do on the previous day. It refused its food and appeared debi- 
 litated, moving languidly and feebly. On the second day it became paralysed in 
 the hind legs, and after crawling in the morning from the sty, in a few hours 
 was 80 much worse as to be unable to return. It lay on its side, foaming at the 
 mouth, rubbing its nose on the ground, pulling the straw about and breaking it 
 with its fore feet and teeth the whole day : it made frequent attempts to swallow 
 some of the bits of straw, in which it very seldom succeeded. The eyelids were 
 much separated, which gave it a staring appearance ; the conjunctiva was much 
 inflamed. When the old sow went near, it made the same familiar noise or 
 grunt ; it did not appear to have the least inclination to bite at anything, 
 and in this it was repeatedly tried. The pupils of the eyes appeared to be 
 dilated, but it could see very well, and was alarmed at the motion of a stick 
 within two yards of it. On the third day, it lay the whole time on its side, 
 and, except occasional slight twitchings in the legs, it remained perfectly still
 
 28o Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 Diagnosis in the Pig. 
 
 With regard to the diagnosis of rabies in the pig, we may- 
 apply the same remarks as we did to the disease in the other 
 animals already referred to. 
 
 Symptoms in Poultry. 
 
 • As has been mentioned, rabies is developed in poultry as a 
 consequence of bites received by them from other rabid creatures. 
 
 and unable to rise, having lost all power in its extremities ; it shrieked when 
 touched, as if the skin were more than usually sensitive, and particularly when 
 the mother went near or touched it. Towards evening the breathing was 
 scarcely discernible, and the conjunctivje of the eyes were so turgid as to project 
 beyond the palpebrte. It died late that evening. Two rabbits were unsuccess- 
 fully inoculated with its saliva. 
 
 Twenty-seven days after the bite, the old sow was observed taking up in its 
 
 mouth the dirty straw and filth that lay about the sty, which at once gave rise to 
 
 a suspicion that this particular disease was approaching. The following morning 
 
 it refused food, but was perfectly quiet and harmless ; came from its bed when 
 
 called, and was seen to rub the wounded part upon its ears very frequently 
 
 during the day. In the evening, as it had not eaten its usual food, a few ripe 
 
 gooseberries were offered, which it took, but had much difficulty in swallowing 
 
 them. The next morning there was nothing else noted, except that the pig was 
 
 dull and there was some inflammation about the parts which had been woundt d 
 
 by the dog's teeth, especially about the ears. Milk was ofl'ered, but though 
 
 eager attempts were made, it could not drink ; there was a peculiar convulsive 
 
 motion of the head and twitching of the lower jaw, but no dread of fluids, as it 
 
 took up with its teeth, apparently observing much caution, some small pieces of 
 
 cabbage leaf that swam on the top of the food ; though after moving them two 
 
 or three times between its teeth they were suddenly dropped, as they could not 
 
 be masticated or swallowed. It walked steadily but very slowly. In the evening 
 
 the disease had made much progress ; the convulsive twitchings of the head 
 
 were much increased, and the animal was extremely restless; for when this 
 
 peculiar motion of the head from side to side had increased, it was busily 
 
 employed in grubbing up the earth with its nose, as if in search of food. When 
 
 the spasmodic fit returned — which it did once in a quarter of an hour or twenty 
 
 minutes — it became alarmed, and screamed when any one approached. On the 
 
 fourth morning all the symptoms were aggravated, and every hour the paroxysms 
 
 returned more frequently and with more violence. The poor pig frequently 
 
 jumped up suddenly on its hind legs, and threw itself back with considerable 
 
 violence ; it was aff'ected by the slightest noise, and when any one stamped his 
 
 foot it was thrown into the most violent convulsive state and shrieked horribly. 
 
 To such a degree, in short, did the morbid excitability of the nervous systcia 
 
 anive, that the distressed creature was affected by the least touch, which seemed 
 
 to be torture. In the evening the symptoms were still more aggravated ; the 
 
 animal beat itself against the walls, and sprang up against the roof of the sty.
 
 Symiptoms in Poultry. 281 
 
 When the disease has manifested itself, the birds appear to be 
 influenced by the same nervous excitability and restlessness 
 shown in other animals. They seem to labour under similar 
 mental hallucinations ; they perform all kind of frenzied 
 movements, avoid the light if they can find shelter ; their voice 
 is husky, and at times they also appear to be moved by the 
 same mischievous impulse to bite which generally marks the 
 course of the malady in the lower animals, and forms one of its 
 characteristic features. A staggering gait, . and ultimately 
 paralysis, indicate the approach of death. 
 
 These attacks continued and were repeated about once every ten minutes, till 
 about two o'clock in the morning, when it was found dead. — A Dissertation on 
 the Bite of a Rabid Animal (London, 1812, p. 28). 
 
 Schliepe describes a case of rabies in the pig, in which the first symptoms 
 showed themselves twenty-eight days after being bitten by a mad dog. It 
 refused all food, was dull, and champed the straw. Two or three days after this 
 it became very weak in the loins, and when seen by Schliepe it was standing 
 with its hind legs widely apart to prevent its falling. The feebleness in the 
 loins was so great that it could scarcely move ; it had no appetite ; and from time 
 to time it gave out a grunt or moan resembling the voice of a dog whining 
 during its sleep. It showed no disposition to bite, and it died on the eighth 
 day. — Mogazin fiir die Gessamte Thierlteilkunde, 1866. 
 
 In October, 1861, M. Dubois of Chatre saw a pig which had become rabid from 
 the bite of a mad dog. The animal was lying with its nose buried in the straw, 
 and made an incessant, but peculiar, grunting. It could scarcely be made to 
 move, even by beating, but if any white body was placed before it, such as tt 
 piece of paper tied to a long stick, it immediately sprang up in a furious state, 
 and ran about its sty, grunting loudly, and appearing to be very agitated. 
 Every time the experiment was made the same effect was produced, until at last 
 it became so mad that those persons who were looking on became afraid. It waa 
 paralysed on the sixth day and died on the seventh. — Benion, op. cit.
 
 282 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 MOEBID APPEAEANCES AFTEE DEATH. 
 
 As in most other nervous affections, the pathological changes 
 observed in animals and persons who have died of rabies and 
 hydrophobia are not generally at all in proportion to the 
 severity of the symptoms manifested during life ; and, indeed, 
 it may be said that in very many cases it would be difficult 
 to express an opinion as to the existence or non-existence of 
 tte disease in the lifetime of an animal, if the morbid appear- 
 ances displayed by it after decease were alone to be relied upon. 
 There is often nothing to be found in the dead body that will 
 account for the strange behaviour and the peculiar symptoms 
 that were present during the paroxysms of the disease. 
 
 The following may be accepted as the principal lesions noted 
 in necroscopial examinations of the bodies of dogs which have 
 died of rabies ; though it must be mentioned that some of the 
 alterations are less frequent and less marked than others, and a 
 few are but rarely observed. 
 
 There is congestion of the brain, particularly at the base, 
 as well as the spinal cord, and sometimes a serous effusion into 
 these organs. Eckel reports that, in his examinations, the cerebral 
 oedema occurred most frequently in the months of August, 
 September, and October. The muscular system shows conges- 
 tion (Jiypercemia), as well as the cellular tissue, the liver, and 
 the kidneys. The lungs are not unfrequently greatly gorged 
 with blood, as in animals that die of asphyxia. The spleen is 
 also more or less congested and frequently enlarged, and it 
 is sometimes completely black and pulpy from extravasation 
 of blood ; at times, black salient patches stud its surface and 
 give it a tuberculous aspect, and these, when incised, are found
 
 Plate 11 
 
 ':% 
 
 i 
 
 
 j2^^;i,im^lL££^in.^..iniiLiIiLS££l^£n^£Z££2L2E^^^ t/tr rym/7f'<r^f'f/ ^-m/7frrff^^r^v///rffr^\
 
 Morbid Appearances after Death. 283 
 
 to contain a black grumous blood. The blood in the vessels is 
 black and pitch-like, and furnishes little or no clot. 
 
 The mucous membranes exhibit, perhaps, the most constant 
 alterations ; these are — redness of more or less intensity ; ex- 
 treme congestion of the vessels ; thickening of the membrane, and 
 haemorrhagic effusion to a greater or less extent on its surface. 
 These hsemorrhagic patches are met with in the mucous mem- 
 brane of the digestive organs, particularly in the stomach, 
 where they are most numerous on the duplicatures of the 
 membrane ; in this situation they are veritable extravasations 
 of blood, frequently accompanied by erosions [koemorrhagic 
 erosions). This condition is, in some instances, very con- 
 spicuous, and cannot fail to attract attention. It is delineated 
 in a drawing carefully made from nature by my friend, Mr. 
 H. Coates, M.R.C.V.S., and represented in Plate II. fig. 2 {bb),' 
 which exhibits the inflamed and congested state of the lining 
 membrane of the stomach and bowels so often observed in 
 rabies. A still more extraordinary illustration of this con- 
 dition is given by Gillman, who discovered the alteration in 
 the dog already referred to as having bitten the pigs. He 
 says: "The stomach contained a chocolate-coloured, gelatinous- 
 like fluid ; the villous coat was very generally inflamed, and 
 several of the rugae were livid and of a chocolate colour ; there 
 were a great number of mortified spots, some having the 
 appearance of flattened black currants ; some were raised like 
 pustules ; and in some parts the villous coat was ulcerated and 
 destroyed " (p. 31). The appearance was so striking that he 
 gave a drawing of it. No foreign substances were found in this 
 animaFs stomach. In the pharynx this hsemorrhagic condition 
 is not so conspicuous. These appearances have been more 
 especially remarked in dogs that have died of "dumb-mad- 
 ness." The tongue is not unfrequently observed to be wounded 
 by the teeth ; it is deeply congested or inflamed, especially its 
 papillae; as are also the tonsils and the salivary glands (Plate I., 
 Frontispiece, a c). The mucous membrane of the air passages,
 
 284 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 commencing with the larynx, and passing to the trachea and 
 bronchia, is in a similar condition ; the latter often contain a 
 frothy mucus. In " dumb-madness," the upper air passages 
 are found to be most seriously implicated, particularly the rim 
 of the glottis, and the vocal cords. The tongue, fauces, and 
 larynx are also coated with a considerable quantity of tenacious 
 mucus, and the follicles are enlarged. 
 
 The pneumogastric nerve, the lingual or hypoglossal nerve, 
 and the cervical and thoracic ganglia of the sympathetic nerve, 
 have been stated by certain authors to be in a congested con- 
 dition. Others, however, have not remarked this. 
 
 The contents of the stomach, and also sometimes of the small 
 intestines, are usually abnormal, and this is very noteworthy. We 
 have seen that, in the dog and some other animals, the appetite 
 during the course of the malady, and particularly at its com- 
 mencement, is very depraved, and the animal devours all kinds 
 of substances which it does not seek to do in health, and which 
 are not at all necessary as food. These are straw, hay, hair, 
 wood, excrement, string, nails, earth, stones, sand, grass, glass, 
 with the remains of food, &c. (Plate II., fig. 1). If such-like 
 matters are met with in the stomach of a dog, it may almost 
 be affirmed without hesitation that it has been rabid ; for 
 it is only the depraved taste which characterises this disease 
 that woidd cause an animal to swallow matters so foreign to 
 its nature. Bouley appears to attribute the condition of the 
 lining membrane of the stomach to the contact of these sub- 
 stances, and adds that these may have been rejected by vomit- 
 ing. " In such a case, the interior of the stomach preserves 
 traces of their passage ; it is greatly injected with blood, so 
 as to be almost black, and it contains blood mixed with 
 bile." It must be remarked, however, that this appearance 
 of the stomach has been seen in other animals than the dog, 
 and which have not swallowed any matters likely to injure 
 the mucous membrane of that organ. 
 
 The liver and spleen, as already mentioned, are generally
 
 Morbid Appearances after DeatJi. 285 
 
 full of blood, and the surface of the latter is not unfrequently 
 studded with hasmorrhagic tumours. 
 
 Reynal has insisted upon the value of the vacuity of the 
 bladder as a sign of rabies. In fifty-three cases noted by 
 Lafosse, there was only one exception. The lining membrane 
 of this organ is also very often studded with haemorrhagic spots. 
 
 The able veterinarian, Dupuy, examined innumerable dogs, 
 horses, cows, and sheep that had perished from rabies, and 
 usually found the following lesions : The lungs and almost 
 every part of the brain gorged with blood ; traces more or less 
 marked of inflammation on the mucous surface of the bronchi, 
 oesophagus, stomach, and sometimes even on that of the intes- 
 tines, vagina, uterus, and bladder ; the air-passages were filled 
 with a foamy mucosity ; there was a more or less abundant 
 quantity of serum in the ventricles of the brain, and sometimes 
 between the membranes of the spinal cord ; frequently there 
 was an extraordinary redness in the covering of the pneumo- 
 gastric and splanchnic nerves for a portion of their extent, but 
 more particularly at their entrance into the chest ; there was 
 also an infiltration as of blood into the cellular tissue sur- 
 rounding these nerves, whose pulpy substance was of a bluish 
 colour. 
 
 Another very constant sign is the presence of a brownish 
 coating on the tongue, which gives it an altogether peculiar 
 appearance, and this nearly always coincides with a violet 
 colour of the membrane of the mouth. 
 
 With regard to the presence of the " lysses " insisted upon 
 by Marochetti, they have been sought for in vain by the 
 veterinarians Bouley, Barthelmy, Henault, Colin, Leblanc, 
 Delafond, Rey, Lafosse, Haubner, Pillwax, Roll, Eckel, and 
 other careful comparative pathologists. Even when they, or 
 similar appearances, do exist, no value, it would appear, can be 
 placed upon them ; as, according to other veterinarians, — among 
 them Prinz, — they may be observed in healthy dogs; and Spinola 
 says he has found them in dogs afiected with anthrax.
 
 286 Rabies^ and Hydrophobia. 
 
 Saint-Cyr mentions having found, in a horse that died rabid, 
 the sublingual glands congested, and a patch of ecchymosis the 
 size of a twenty centime piece at the base of each sublingual 
 duct. Bruckmiiller found a deep ulcer at the root of the 
 tongue of a mad dog ; in another he observed the lymphatic 
 glands of the throat very red and swollen. And Peuch 
 examined very carefully a dog that had perished from rabies, 
 and found the laryngeal mucous membrane slightly inflamed 
 and covered with mucus. On the right side of the tongue, 
 and a little behind the base of the organ, beneath the epithe- 
 lium, were two pustules of a white colour and different in size 
 — one was of the volume of a grain of millet, the other smaller. 
 They were surrounded by a slight inflammatory areola, and 
 both showed in the centre a minute opening visible to the 
 naked eye ; inspected with a lens the opening appeared to 
 be that of the lingual gland. Anteriorly, there were four 
 pustules — two on the frsenum of the tongue. They were about 
 the size of a grain of millet ; each had an inflammatory circle 
 surrounding it, and when they were compressed a few drops 
 of liquid escaped that looked like pus. On the frsenum of the 
 tongue on the left side was a seventh pustule, quite isolated, and 
 the most developed and conspicuous. It was as big as a large 
 millet seed, appeared to be perfectly closed, and was circumscribed 
 by the inflamed ring like the others. The epithelium covering 
 it was thin and slightly raised by a purulent fluid, which was 
 not in sufiicient quantity to practice an inoculation with. 
 
 In twenty- seven examinations of dogs that had died from 
 rabies, Peuch found lesions of the tongue in fourteen — twelve 
 as ulcerations, and two with pustules. The ulcerations were in 
 dogs that had been affected with furious rabies, and were most 
 frequently situated on one or other of the sides of the tongue — 
 sometimes on both ; at other times they were near the fraenum, 
 and nearly always occupied a region where the teeth could not 
 reach them. In diameter from three to five millimetres, they 
 either had irregular or perfectly circular borders ; they were
 
 Morbid Appearances after Death. 287 
 
 always superficial, and did not extend beyond the mucous 
 membrane ; there was no induration of the neighbouring parts, 
 and the sublingual glands did not exhibit any alteration. The 
 pustules had an opaline hue, and were situated in the same 
 parts of the tongue as the ulcerations ; they were about the 
 size of a millet seed, did not project manifestly beyond the 
 surface of the organ, and were always surrounded by a reddish 
 areola. 
 
 It must not be forgotten that Marochetti did not contend for 
 the existence of the lyssi after death, but only asserted that they 
 were to be searched for during the incubation of the malady — 
 a circumstance that appears to have been overlooked by those 
 who have contended for and against the presence of these 
 vesicles. 
 
 According to E.611, the cadaveric lesions observed in the rabies 
 of the dog offer a certain analogy to those which, in this animal, 
 are the consequence of anthrax, or acute poisoning by narcotic 
 substances — Prussic acid, nux vomica, nicotine, &c. Pillwax, 
 following Heusinger, admits a resemblance, or a certain degree 
 of identity, between spontaneous rabies and " typhus " {anthrax 
 or febris carbunculosa). In the examinations he made of 
 thirty-two bodies of dogs, he found one in which the most cha- 
 racteristic lesions of this disease were present — redness and en- 
 largement of the solitary and aggregate glands of the intestines, 
 &c. ; and he remarks that " it is perhaps only in those cases in 
 which the symptoms of rabies noted during life have typhus for 
 their point of departure, that a contagium, transmissible to man 
 and animals, is developed ; while in other cases where typhus 
 does not appear, the rabific virus may not be produced." We 
 shall again allude to this subject presently. 
 
 Dr. Bruckmiiller, of the Veterinary Institute of Vienna, an 
 excellent authority on the pathological anatomy of the domestic 
 animals, has, in a recent work,* entered at some length into 
 
 * "Lehrbuch der Pathologischen Zootomie der Hausthiere." Vienna, 1869, 
 2nd part, p. 274.
 
 288 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 the alterations that occur in this disease, particularly in the 
 dog. Referring to the fact that many veterinary authorities 
 believe in a similarity, if not an actual identity, between 
 "milzbrand," or typhus, and rabies, he states that a very large 
 proportion of mad dogs do not show any alterations charac- 
 teristic of the first-named malady ; but, on the contrary, that 
 dogs dying of typhus have during life exhibited no symptoms 
 of rabies. He also states that in difierent epizootics or out- 
 breaks, varying pathological changes are observed. In the 
 Vienna epizooty of 1868, to which we have already alluded, 
 there was scarcely a case in which extreme congestion of the 
 capillaries of the stomach and the presence of foreign substances 
 therein was not noted ; whereas in other years this had not been 
 particularly observed. For a long time enlargement of the 
 spleen had not been observed in mad animals, but in later years 
 it had become somewhat common. In some outbreaks oedema 
 of the brain and inflammation of the bowels were the chief 
 alterations noticed; in others one or other of these features 
 would be absent. 
 
 The result of the careful examination of 375 mad dogs, car- 
 ried on for a period of twenty years, were tabulated by Bruck- 
 
 miiller as follows : — 
 
 1. Injury to the roof of the skull, with superficial hsemorrhage into the 
 
 membranes of the brain ......... 2 
 
 2. Haemorrhage into the brain substance •without indications of mechanical 
 
 agency 3 
 
 3. Hyperaemia (congestion) of the brain .26 
 
 4. ffidema of the brain, usually accompanied by great softening [starker 
 
 dicrclife?ickttcitff) oi the Taevahranes ....... 74 
 
 5. Acute hydrocephalus, with inflammation of the membranes . . .27 
 
 6. Chronic hydrocephalus, with great distention of the ventricles . .10 
 
 From an examination of this table it will be perceived that 
 alterations in the brain were observed in about 46 per cent, of 
 the rabid dogs : — 
 
 7. Typhus, with enlargement of the spleen and h}'pertrophy of the mesen- 
 
 teric and Peyerian glands ......... 36 
 
 8. Pyoemia, evidenced by metatastic formations 3 
 
 9. Cancer cachexia, marked by deposition of sarcomatous matter in the 
 
 chest and parenchymatous organs 4
 
 Morbid Appearances after Death. 289 
 
 The alterations which characterise typhus were, therefore 
 present in scarcely 10 per cent, of the mad dogs. Pyaemia was 
 only an accidental circumstance, as the wounds which occa- 
 sioned it were not due to mad dogs ; it has, therefore, no con- 
 nection with rabies. 
 
 10. Heart disease, with general dropsy ••■....! 
 
 11. Spleen enlargement, without hj-pertrophy of the mesenteric glands . 25 
 
 12. Enlarged lymphatic ganglions in the spleen, appearing as soft yeUow 
 
 tumours 9 
 
 Enlargement of the spleen alone is only noticed for 3 per 
 cent, of the rabid dogs ; but lymphatic complications of this 
 organ occur in nearly 20 per cent. 
 
 13. Ulcers in the larynx, and, in one instance, an ulcer on one vocal cord . 2 
 
 14. (Edema of the vocal cords, caused by a mass of hair about the epiglottis 6 
 
 15. Croupal inflammation of the trachea, evident from the effusion of fluid; 
 
 in one case this was covered by a black powder 2 
 
 16. Slight effusions of blood, due to the choking-up of the air-passages, in 
 
 consequence of collections of indigestible substances (straw and hair) 
 
 in the oesophagus . ' . 4 
 
 17. Infiltration into the lungs ; in some cases suppuration and the forma- 
 
 tion of cavities 34 
 
 18. Great oedema of the lungs 2 
 
 19. Kough sores {verschorfungen) on the tongue and mucous membrane of the 
 
 mouth, occasioned by irritating substances 4 
 
 20. Ulceration of the mouth, caused by the mechanical action of bone- 
 
 splinters, &c. 1 
 
 21. Great congestion of the mucous membrane of the mouth and larynx . 29 
 
 22. Great congestion of blood-vessels in the cavity of the stomach and the 
 
 serous membrane of that organ, with inflammation of the mucous 
 membrane 191 
 
 23. Hemorrhagic erosions on the mucous membrane of the bowels . . 68 
 
 24. Indigestible substances in stomach and bowels 199 
 
 Of these may be specially mentioned — 
 
 a. Tufty masses of hair and straw 22 
 
 b. Onion peelings 3 
 
 c. May-beetles, with scraps of bread 1 
 
 d. Copper coins ........... 2 
 
 26. Acute inflammation of the mucous membrane of the small intestine . 125 
 
 Accompanied by the presence of gourd-seed like (kurbiskerndhnliche — 
 t(Bnia cucumerina or tcenia eanina) and other tape-worms . . .21 
 
 Very numerous three-jointed tape-worms {dreigliedrige bandwiirmer — 
 tcenia echinococcus) . ... . . . . . . .3 
 
 Very many worms (Jiemistomum alatum) in. the duodenum ... 1 
 
 26. Marked inflammation of the liver ....... .1 
 
 27. Suppuration in a three- weeks' old bite on elbow-joint, with slight hyper- 
 
 aemia of the nerve sheath 1 
 
 Without taking into account the presence of foreign sub- 
 
 V
 
 290 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 stances in tlie stomacli. It will be seen that this organ was 
 found to be involved in disease in 254 cases, or nearly 70 per 
 cent. Indigestible or foreign matters were observed in it in 
 199 instances, or 55 per cent., and inflammation of the organ 
 was noted in 125 cases, or 33 per cent. 
 
 Bruckmiiller bad not witnessed the congestion of the sali- 
 vary glands and surrounding nerves so frequently alluded to 
 by other authorities, and especially in this country, as present 
 in rabid dogs. 
 
 None of the alterations above specified are absolutely charac- 
 teristic of rabies, as they are found in other diseases of the dog ; 
 yet the most important circumstance to be indicated with refer- 
 ence to this malady was, he states, the condition of the stomach, 
 and the finding in it all kinds of unusual matter, such as, in 
 country dogs, leaves, grass, and grass-roots, and in others 
 leather, rags, &c. ; but the presence of these, he adds, is no 
 certain criterion of rabies, as they are met with, though very 
 rarely indeed, in other than rabid dogs. 
 
 During epizootic rabies it has been observed that other 
 diseased dogs have foreign substances, such as fragments of 
 straw, in their bowels. Rarely these matters — hair and straw 
 — pass into the intestines ; but when they do so they are 
 usually found mixed up with the faeces in the large intestines 
 {dickdarme). The hair-tufts are very peculiar, being composed 
 of closely- felted masses of hair with straw intermixed, some- 
 times half-a-foot long, and are found in the duodenum. 
 
 It is generally stated that no food is found in the stomach ; 
 but this, Bruckmiiller states, is incorrect, as in six cases pieces 
 of meat in considerable quantities were observed. Generally, 
 however, no food is found ; but no reliance can be placed upon 
 this indication. 
 
 Another alteration, independent of the presence of foreign 
 substances in the stomach, is the high degree of congestion of 
 its lining membrane ; this is apparent externally, through the 
 serous covering, by the filling of the vessels, which appear as
 
 Morbid Appearances after Death. 291 
 
 bluish-red streaks and extensive arborisations. This is shown 
 in Plate II., fig. 2, h. The congestion of the mucous mem- 
 brane of the intestines is not generally so marked, but appears 
 in a more regular or patchy manner. 
 
 The more intense the congestion, the more frequent is the pre- 
 sence of the haemorrhagic erosions, which appear as ecchymosed 
 or blood-covered spots, most numerous at the pylorus. The 
 mucous membrane is thickened, and covered with tenacious 
 mucus, with parenchymatous inflammation. Not at all unfre- 
 quently this membrane offers the same appearances as in 
 poisoning with phosphorus. 
 
 The alterations in the mucous membrane of the intestines 
 appear simultaneously with those of this same membrane in 
 the stomach, though occasionally alone, and consist in the 
 accretion of a thick, tough, often blood-tinged mucus, which 
 forms either one continuous adherent mass, or more frequently 
 a covering about a line in thickness. The membrane itself is 
 inflamed in patches and thickened, and the villi appear as small 
 threads. At the commencement of the intestine these altera- 
 tions are very marked, but they disappear towards the ileum ; 
 the inflammation attains a very high degree of intensity and 
 diffusion when numerous tape-worms are present. 
 
 The most frequent alterations in the brain are due to oedema. 
 The upper surface of the membranes (Jiimhaut) is particularly 
 shining, as if covered with dew. The pia mater {weiche hirn- 
 haut) is very soft and sodden, the brain substance throughout 
 soft and friable, and the cut surface is shiny and often streaked 
 with effusion, the consistence of the brain being something like 
 soup. Rarely there is congestion, and, as a rule, the brain is 
 pale and bloodless. On the other hand, the vessels of the pia 
 mater are sometimes much injected, and then the grey substance 
 of the brain is somewhat darker coloured. In a compara- 
 tively few cases, this condition goes on to inflammation of the 
 investing membranes, with an accumulation of serous effusion 
 in the pia mater and choroid plexus, as well as in the 
 
 u2
 
 292 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 lateral ventricles. These changes, however, are chiefly found 
 in dogs that have died of " dumb madness," and which during 
 life had dropping of the lower jaw ; but they are more frequently 
 found in dogs which were not rabid, and especially in those 
 which had suffered from epilepsy consequent on distemper. 
 Yery rarely, comparatively speaking, and only in dogs that 
 have been affected with the violent form of rabies, is there 
 strong congestion of the membranes of the brain, and the brain 
 
 itself. 
 
 The alterations or appearances of the blood in rabies are 
 more varied than in any other disease. It is as frequently of a 
 bright red colour, with a trace of coagulum, as it is a very thick 
 dull- coloured fluid, rich in white corpuscles, and forming clots 
 on the valves of the vessels. In by far the greater number of 
 instances, as is usual among dogs, it forms a soft, spongy clot ; 
 and only in those cases in which the other signs of typhus were 
 present did it appear dark-coloured, sticky, though not clotty, 
 and without the presence of the characteristic bacteria. When 
 the animals have been in great pain, as from an accumu- 
 lation of tcenia echirwcoccus or hair- tufts in the stomach, though 
 also when these have been absent, the appearance of the blood is 
 similar to that which it offers in narcotic poisoning. It is thin, 
 fluid, very sticky, of a dark red colour, without any tendency to 
 coagulation ; rarely is it cherry-red, as in poisoning by an 
 alkaloid. The appearance of the blood is most constant in those 
 animals in which rabies has been induced by inoculation or the 
 bite of a rabid creature. So far as Bruckmiiller's experience 
 went, he was able to state that it was in the same condition as 
 in tetanus and other painful nervous disorders. 
 
 The alterations in the mucous membrane lining the mouth 
 and larynx were mainly due to a highly congested state of the 
 blood-vessels, but which rarely extended to a blue-red colour. 
 Enlargement of the follicles and tonsils was rarely seen by 
 him. 
 
 Swelling or enlargement of the spleen, is jiot common
 
 Morbid Appeaya7ices after DeatJi. 293 
 
 amonff dogs : but when the other alterations are similar to 
 those of typhus, it is always present, though it is rare in mad 
 animals. The same may be said with regard to the enlarged 
 lymphatic glands, which are more frequently found among 
 non-rabid than rabid dogs. Hence, in rabies, this increase in 
 the volume of the spleen is only of minor importance. 
 
 BruckmiiUer had not much experience of the pathological 
 alterations induced in other animals ; as, during the twenty 
 years, he had only dissected one cat, one fox, one cow, and four 
 horses which had died of rabies. One of these showed the 
 change in the blood peculiar to animals that have died of 
 painful nervous diseases. In a horse there was found a more 
 considerable enlargement of the spleen than had been seen, 
 even in splenic apoplexy ; in other two there was intense con- 
 gestion of the membranes of the mouth, with swelling of the 
 neighbouring lymphatic glands. 
 
 The conclusion BruckmiiUer arrived at, after his long and 
 attentive examinations of the bodies of rabid dogs, was that the 
 evidence furnished by dissection alone proves of no value in 
 defining or distinguishing the disease, and that all theories 
 founded thereon can have no weight. By the diversity in the 
 post-mortem appearances, it must always be a most difiicult 
 matter to decide whether an animal was really rabid ; and this 
 difficulty is increased from the circumstance that all suspected 
 animals are killed at an early stage of the disease. Only is 
 there certainty when the history of the animal is known, and 
 when the symptoms during life have been noted. " In prac- 
 tice, however, I hold it certain that a dog which has not been 
 under observation during life, and about which nothing is 
 known, even though it may have bitten other creatures, has yet 
 not been rabid if the stomach is well filled with food, or the 
 small intestines contain a considerable quantity of chyme ; 
 and, on the other hand, it may be asserted, independent of 
 other evidence, that if indigestible or foreign substances are 
 found in the stomach, and the coats of that organ are highly
 
 294 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 congested and exhibit erosions, that the animal was rabid. 
 With stray dogs, I consider the presence of rabies as established 
 if the appearances of typhus, or a highly inflamed state of the 
 bowels, accompanied with numerous worms in the intestinal 
 canal, be noted. In the other domesticated animals the necro- 
 scopic appearances alone are not reliable." 
 
 In other animals the morbid alterations, according to some 
 authorities, are similar to those observed in the dog, with the 
 exception of the foreign substances in the stomach, which are 
 much less frequently found, except in the cat, fox, and wolf. 
 In cattle constipation has been noted ; and in a sheep that died 
 rabid, Armatage observed erosions on the lining membrane of 
 the fourth compartment of the stomach ; the spleen was also 
 disorganised, and resembled a mass of jelly ; the heart con- 
 tained small clots of blood, and there was an accumulation of 
 gas under the skin over the body. 
 
 In man the most careful examinations have been made of 
 those who have perished from hydrophobia, but nothing has 
 been found which could satisfactorily determine the nature of 
 the disease. Not unfrequently, according to Dr. Wood, the 
 brain and spinal cord are both perfectly sound. In a case ex- 
 amined by Dr. Sidey, of Edinburgh, the brain and its membranes 
 were found quite healthy, as were also the medulla oblongata, 
 the spinal cord, and the eighth pair of nerves at their origin 
 and in their course ; these were inspected with great care both 
 microscopically and by the naked eye.* And more recently, 
 several microscopical examinations of the cerebrum, cerebellum, 
 and medulla oblongata have been made, but beyond intense 
 congestion nothing could be noted. It is true that turgescence 
 of the vessels, and injection of the spinal and cerebral mem- 
 branes, have often been observed, and, in some rare cases, 
 softening of the spinal marrow. But the congestion, in man 
 as in the lower animals, might well be a mere consequence of 
 the terrible disturbance in the nervous centres, without of itself 
 * Edinlurgh Monihiy Journal of Medical Science, 1850.
 
 Morbid Appearances after Death. 295 
 
 contributing in any way to the disease, and the admissible signs 
 of inflammation are too seldom seen to warrant the belief that 
 this process has any very essential connection with the pheno- 
 mena. 
 
 The mucous membrane of the fauces, trachea, and oesophagus 
 is in some instances reddened or very congested, in others 
 pale, and in either case is likely to be covered with a tenacious 
 mucus. The papillae on the back part of the tongue are some- 
 times very much enlarged. The dark-coloured fluid that is 
 ejected during the disease, or flows from the mouth after death, 
 contains blood discs in every stage of disintegration, columnar 
 epithelium from the stomach, and pavement epithelium from 
 the mouth and oesophagus. Signs of inflammation of the inner 
 coat of the stomach have also been noticed. As in the dog, 
 it often contains a viscid, blackish-brown mucus, composed 
 chiefly of disintegrated blood ; its lining membrane is extremely 
 congested, and speckled with many capillaiy extravasations or 
 erosions. The trachea and bronchi are filled with mucus in 
 many cases ; the lungs, too, have been frequently found gorged 
 with blood ; indeed, TroUiet was of opinion that engorgement 
 of the lungs and the accumulation of nearly all the blood in 
 the arteries alone — phenomena pointed out previously by Haller, 
 Boerhaave, and Magendie — were the only certain criteria of 
 the disease. 
 
 The spleen and liver are usually healthy, but the kidneys 
 are, in some instances, extremely congested, and show rupture 
 of the Malpighian tufts and the renal tubes choked with blood 
 and exfoliated epithelium. In these cases, the urine, when 
 boiled with nitric acid, has the appearances of turbid port wine, 
 and gives an abundant deposit of albumen ; it generally con- 
 tains numerous casts of the uriniferous tubes.* 
 
 Wood says the body is strongly disposed to putrefaction, and 
 
 * In the urine of a man who died of hydrophobia in King's College Hospital, 
 and in whom the majority of the above symptoms were very marked, four 
 kinds of renal eabts ^\ore distinguisihable : 1. tSmall traiir-piircut, waxy casts, lew
 
 296 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 quickly becomes ojBFensive.* This peculiarity, if it does exist, 
 has not been very often observed in animals. 
 
 Trousseau states that " the pathological changes found after 
 death are only those dependent on the asphyxia which occurs 
 in the last stage . . . Hyperaomia of all the parenchymatous 
 organs is alone met with, as a consequence of the final con- 
 vulsion." 
 
 In the case mentioned by M. Malherbe, and which has been 
 alluded to, there was marked congestion of the veins of the con- 
 volution of the brain and injection of the pia mater ; the grey 
 substance of the brain itself was redder than in a natural con- 
 dition, but was otherwise healthy looking. The lungs were 
 considerably congested, though crepitant. The mucous mem- 
 brane lining the trachea and bronchi was so congested as to 
 look like a vast ecchymosis. The tongue showed a very curious 
 alteration at its root, in the presence of a number of greyish- 
 coloured glands, which projected beyond the surface of the 
 membrane ; they were as large as a hemp- seed, and their 
 excretory ducts, when squeezed, yielded a puriform liquid. The 
 tonsils presented almost the same appearance. 
 
 This glandular hypertrophy resembled, externally, the altera- 
 tion observed in Peyer's glands in typhoid fever. 
 
 in number, evidently moulded in several tubuli still lined with epithelium. 2. 
 A small number of similar but much larger casts, which had been moulded in 
 tubes denuded of epithelium. 3. An abundance of epithelial casts, whose cells 
 were small and opaque. 4. The same, containing also blood corpuscles. 
 
 In addition, the urine also contained free epithelial cells, crystals of lithic 
 acid, lithates of soda and ammonia, triple phosphate, chloride of sodium, and 
 oxalate of lime. 
 
 * " Practice of Medicine," vol. ii. p. 800.
 
 Analogies between Rabies and Anthrax. 297 
 
 ANALOGIES AND DISSIMILAEITIES BETWEEN 
 EABIES AND ANTHEAX. 
 
 Having described the symptoms and pathological alterations 
 observed in rabies, as well as indicated, in a brief manner, the 
 maladies with which it and hydrophobia might be confounded ; 
 this is, perhaps, the most appropriate place for referring to 
 another disorder which has been frequently mentioned in the 
 preceding pages, and whose importance in connection with the 
 one now under consideration cannot be overlooked. For it 
 must be admitted, that perhaps of all the diseases which might 
 be mistaken for rabies, the most striking and prominent is 
 "anthrax" — a special malady which assumes several forms^ 
 and attacks aU creatures, though it only arises directly or 
 primarily in herbivorous animals and the pig — they, appa- 
 rently, having a particular predisposition to this mode of 
 development. Its spontaneous production in carnivorous 
 creatures has not been observed, though its transmissibility 
 to them and to mankind is an indisputable fact ; it appears in 
 all climates, though rarely in a sporadic form, being either 
 present as an enzootic or epizootic disease, and in several 
 respects it bears a resemblance to maladies of miasmatic origin. 
 In some situations, and at certain outbreaks, it has so many 
 features in common with rabies that observers of no slight 
 experience have not unfrequently been baffled and undecided 
 in their diognosis, and may have even mistaken the one disease 
 for the other.* More especially has this been the case in that 
 
 * For tlie analogies in the pathological anatomy of rabies and anthrax, see, 
 in addition to the authorities already quoted and referred to : Locher, " Dis- 
 sertatio inaugiu'alis exhibens magnum lienis in Hydrophobia momentum.' 
 Gottingcn, 1822. Prinz, "Die Wuth der Hunde als Seuche." Leipzig, 1832.
 
 298 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 form which has been designated "anthrax fever," "inflammation 
 of the spleen," " splenic fever," or " typhus," in the horse ; 
 and the course of the affection is attended with such marked 
 symptoms of fury, and even hydrophobia, that some German 
 authorities have designated this special type as *' anthrax 
 madness " {milzhrand tenth) ; and several writers, as Von Heim* 
 and Adolphi,t have even declared it to be identical with rabies. 
 Gerold speaks of a kind of hydrophobia being present in 
 anthrax fever (milzbmnd) in man ; he had observed it in the 
 milzhrand district of Magdeburg. J 
 
 Waldinger speaks of cattle presenting symptoms not unlike 
 those of rabies ; § and Hurtrel d'Arboval writes : " We have 
 seen animals in which the anthrax tumours, especially when 
 they formed in the throat, pharynx, or larynx, give rise, some 
 time before death, to symptoms of frenzy and hydrophobia." || 
 Chabert has witnessed horses affected with anthrax in the hind- 
 quarter biting the ground, the manger, and everything around 
 them, and acting in a frenzied manner ; so that any one un- 
 acquainted with the nature of their disease might have decided 
 they had been bitten by rabid dogs.^ ; 
 
 Heusinger relates an outbreak of anthrax fever among horses 
 which occurred at Saarbruck in 1831, and in which some of 
 the prominent symptoms of rabies were noted.** Segretain, 
 describing anthrax among the herds of Guadaloupe, alludes to 
 this form and its furious symptoms. ft Hamont has mentioned 
 the same peculiarities in this disease in the pig4+ They have 
 also been observed on several occasions in sheep, as in the 
 
 * "Vermischte Schriften," p. 30. 
 
 t- " Magazin fiir die Gesammte Thierheilkunde," 1844. 
 
 X "Die Contagiose Limgenseuche des Rindveihs," &c. Magdeburg, 1848. 
 
 § "Specielle Pathologic und Therapie," 3rd edit. Part II., p. 156. 
 
 II "Diet, de Med. Veterinaire, vol. i. p. 411. 
 
 II " Instructions et Observations," vol. i. p. 144. 
 
 ** " Die Milzbrandkrankheiten," p. 517. 
 
 ft "La Clinique Veterinaire," vol. xv. p. 490. 
 
 XX " Recueil de Med. Veterinaire," vol. xxiii.
 
 Analogies betivecn Rabies and Anthrax. 299 
 
 anthrax year in England.* Deer have also manifested rabid 
 symptoms when suffering from anthrax, even in this country, f 
 
 Heusinger observes that there is undoubtedly a type of 
 intermittent fever {wechselfieher) in man (which he fancies has 
 some relation to anthrax), in which not only hydrophobia and 
 aphagia, but also, as happened in the case of Puccinotti, all the 
 symptoms of rabies are present. J This is named "febres 
 hydrophobicse " by many surgeons, and, as the same authority 
 remarks, Faber § is reminded, perhaps not without reason, of 
 the epidemy which broke out among the German soldiers after 
 the conquest of Rome in a.d. 553. Certain observations of 
 this kind are communicated by Torti, and especially by Notari- 
 anni, Dumas, Puccinotti, || and Passo.^ 
 
 Many of the older writers believed that rabies had broken 
 out among dogs from eating the flesh of animals that had died 
 of anthrax. In 1690-91 anthrax appears to have been very 
 prevalent in Italy, according to Pamazzini, and dogs went 
 mad ; but whether Prinz ** is correct in ascribing this madness 
 to the anthracoid affection, is doubtful. Pamazzini only says 
 that so hot a summer (in 1691) occurred as had never been 
 known before ; the Etesian winds brought no alleviation of 
 the continual heat, and on this account many animals, espe- 
 cially dogs, were driven to madness. "ff In Transylvania and 
 elsewhere anthrax was very prevalent, and we are told that in 
 the former country, " dogs especially were driven to madness ; 
 they made a noise with their mouths, and were gasping with 
 the heat like owls. They were marked on the body with 
 carbuncles. ++ And a strange outbreak is recorded for us by 
 Gensel in 1712, which we have already alluded to in our 
 History (p. 29). In Hungary, "August being excessively wet, 
 the mortality (from anthrax) among cattle increased, and they 
 
 * The Veterinarian, vol. viii. f Ibid., vol. vii. j Op. cit., p. 7'J3. 
 
 § " Wuthkrankheit," p. 511. 
 
 II " Di Una Epizoozia Contagiosa." Bologna, 1824. 
 
 f "Febbridella Calabria," p. -iS. ** Op. cit. 
 
 tt " Animul rjagucs," p. 164. +; ''Animal riagucs," p. 182.
 
 300 Rabies atid Hydrophobia. 
 
 were attacked with a white pustular eruption, attended with 
 difficulty of breathing. . . . Wild beasts of all kinds perished 
 in large numbers at Somogy; and in the woods the country 
 people found dogs which had been driven there by madness 
 after feeding on these beasts ; and men bitten by them were 
 quickly seized with frenzy and hydrophobia, imitating the 
 barking and the madness of dogs, and attacking those near by 
 biting at them."* The same coincidence was noted in 1726 
 in Silesia, where dogs became mad after eating anthrax flesh, f 
 In South America, in 1750, eating the infected carcases of dead 
 cattle was supposed to have caused madness in dogs (see p. 30). 
 In 1778, when anthrax {mihhrand) was frequent in North 
 Germany, rabies prevailed at Berlin. (We have omitted this 
 notice in our History). Heim thought the diseases were iden- 
 tical. J In the epizooty of rabies at Vienna in 1814-15, 
 Waldinger traced some resemblances between the disease and 
 anthrax ; and in the outbreak at Copenhagen and the neigh- 
 bourhood in 1815-16, Yiborg came to the conclusion that the 
 malady was not rabies, but a malignant inflammation. The 
 symptoms he enumerates, however, are certainly those of 
 rabies, and he admits that this disease prevailed simultaneously 
 with the other. Franque,§ with several other amateurs, 
 imagined the epizooty of rabies among foxes that was raging 
 on the Continent at this period to be of an anthracoid nature, 
 and different from the former malady ; at a later period, how- 
 ever, he altered his opinion. Nevertheless, it is to be remarked 
 that the advent of this singular epizooty was in 1803, in a 
 region (Waadt) where anthrax is very frequent, and at a time 
 when it was more than usually common. It will be remem- 
 bered, also, that it was in this year that the terrible outbreak 
 of rabies occurred in the notorious anthrax districts of Peru. 
 
 * "Animal Plagues," p. 190. f Ibid., p. 239. 
 
 X Op. cit. We have already noted (p. 74) that in Rouraania and El Hejaz 
 flesh in a particular condition is popularly believed to produce rabies. 
 \ " Gcschichte der Hausthierseuchen," &c.
 
 AnaloQtes betiveen Rabies and A7ithrax, ^oi 
 
 ^> 
 
 In 1822, anthrax was very general and destructive throughout 
 Europe, and rabies prevailed in Holland ; and in 1823 pigs 
 sujffiered most severely from the first-named malady in Central 
 Europe, while, according to Barthelemy, madness was excep- 
 tionally frequent among dogs. In this year also, according to- 
 Brooke,* anthracoid disease was extremely common and fatal 
 in Scandinavia, especially in North Sweden, among all animals, 
 but particularly the reindeer ; it assumed the phrenetic form. 
 In 1824 rabies raged and spread to an extraordinary degree in 
 Russia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and England. The Swedish 
 outbreak was described at Stockholm, and appears to have 
 presented some peculiar features ; but the description is not 
 satisfactory. Anthrax was general in 1826, especially in Russia 
 and Sweden, and in 1827 rabies developed itself in a very 
 virulent form, and continued until 1828. Prinz described it as 
 the yellow fever among dogs.f The same madness was widely 
 spread through France and Germany in 1828. Bohme states 
 that anthrax was prevalent among dogs at Leipzig at the same 
 time, and continued to 1831. "Wagner, in Schlieben, says that 
 madness in dogs had never been so frequent within the memory 
 of man, as in 1831, during the epidemy of ergotism [Kriebel 
 krankheit). This is an anthrax district, however ; and 
 Professor Prinz, after a careful study of the disease, concluded 
 that it was not common rabies, but rather a form of anthrax. 
 It appears, nevertheless, that he was in error. 
 
 Adolphi, in 1844 (p. 45), describes a disease among cattle 
 which he thought was spontaneous rabies, but which may have 
 been the furious form of anthrax. In 1861, during the 
 epizooty at Vienna, Pillwax notes the prevalence of the cha- 
 racteristic lesions of anthrax or " typhus " among the rabid 
 dogs ; and other observers have traced similarities between the 
 two maladies. 
 
 Seeing the analogies between the two diseases, it has been 
 
 * " Travels in Lapland and Sweden." t Op. cii., p. 24.
 
 302 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 attempted to establish their closer identity by referring to their 
 particular localities, anthrax being usually looked upon as of 
 malarial origin ; so that if rabies is due to malaria, we should 
 expect it to prevail in anthrax regions. But the attempt has 
 only been partially successful, from the paucity of available 
 materials, though some observations would appear to affirm the 
 question. 
 
 For instance, Sicily was noted in ancient times for the 
 frequency of rabies, and its prevalence in Apulia was not only 
 remarked upon by Baglivi, but also by later writers.* In 
 Rome it has been very common, according to the testimony 
 of many observers. In Sondrio, where there is no malaria, 
 it is extremely rare ; but in Como, rich in fever, it largely 
 prevails ; it is the same at Lyons. Its frequency in Hungary 
 and in the military frontiers of that country, has been indicated 
 by Siebers ; and Berlin, when compared with other places, 
 appears to furnish a large number of cases of rabies. In the 
 malarious countries of Ceylon and Bengal the disease is 
 common, though in Egypt it is comparatively rare; and in 
 Peru and the West Indian islands it has appeared, at times, as 
 a terrible epizooty. 
 
 But in other regions where anthracoid or malarious maladies 
 prevail, rabies is either unknown or extremely rare — as in South 
 and West Africa. At the Cape of Good Hope we have the 
 fatal "horse-sickness" and anthrax fever, sometimes in a 
 general and very deadly form, and yet there is no positive 
 proof that rabies attacks dogs there. Other regions might be 
 cited where one disease is absent or seldom seen, and the other 
 of almost every-day occurrence ; but, as with the outbreaks of 
 the two diseases at the same periods, sufficient has been said 
 to show that their simultaneous occurrence in any place at a 
 certain period is, in all likelihood, nothing more than a mere 
 coincidence. 
 
 * Baglivi, 0pp. ed. Lips., vol. ii. p. 332. Michel Angelo. " Fisica Appula," 
 vol. iv. p. 146.
 
 Ajialogies between Rabies and Anthrax. 303 
 
 The pathological changes observed in both diseases have at 
 times lent some support to the idea that they were identical, 
 or at least resembled each other. For instance, the alteration 
 in the quality of the blood, the congestion of the vessels of the 
 skin, the blackness and softness of the spleen and liver, and 
 the effusion of blood in the mucous membrane of the stomach 
 and bowels in some cases, or even in epizootics, of rabies, 
 indicate an approximation to anthrax ; but then, again, in the 
 latter affection the pathological lesions are constant and marked, 
 while in rabies they are more or less inconstant and unreliable, 
 and in a large majority of cases, at least in this country, the 
 signs of anthrax are absent or rare. The result of careful 
 investigation and comparison leads to the conclusion that at 
 present we cannot be certain as to the exact relations existing 
 between the two blood disorders, though the subject is one 
 worthy of attention. 
 
 It is to be noted that none of the many forms of anthrax 
 
 appear primarily or spontaneously in the dog — at least so far 
 
 as observation has hitherto gone; it seems to be much less 
 
 susceptible to the action of the contagium than most other 
 
 animals, and it would appear that it is only liable to become 
 
 infected through direct inoculation, or when it has devoured 
 
 the flesh of creatures which have perished from the disease. 
 
 After eating this poisonous flesh, its bite has been known to 
 
 produce anthrax in sheep and swine, without itself becoming 
 
 affected ; and the milder forms of the malady are as readily 
 
 amenable to treatment in this as in other animals. Nevertheless, 
 
 through some special morbid susceptibility, or a more than 
 
 usual potency of the contagium, dogs become infected, sicken, 
 
 and frequently die very suddenly. The flesh of one dead 
 
 animal has been known to induce disease in several dogs, and 
 
 even packs of hounds have been infected ; dogs eating this 
 
 kind of flesh and biting each other, will, of course, produce 
 
 inoculation. Numerous instances are recorded in continental 
 
 veterinary literature in which dogs so infected have perished
 
 304 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 quickly, and have offered no marked traces of disease. Greve, 
 Gerlacli, and Haubner have given some striking examples. 
 Liipke mentions an instance in which a dog became so infected 
 by eating the blood of an animal that had died of internal 
 anthrax {innern mihhrandahlagerungen) ; an hour afterwards 
 he found it lying on the straw vomiting, and in seven hours 
 it died in convulsions. On examining its body, he found his 
 conjectures as to the nature of the disease verified ; the spleen 
 was very large and black, the stomach empty and inflamed, 
 and the blood-vessels were filled with dark-coloured treacly 
 blood.* In another instance a dog ate a portion of the 
 intestines of a goat that had suffered from anthrax before it 
 was killed; within two hours it was attacked with severe 
 symptoms of colic, vomited the remains of food mixed with 
 black blood, purged blood, and in ten hours after eating the 
 goat's intestines it died. On examination, it exhibited all the 
 alterations noted in acute carbuncular disease of the intestines, 
 even to the presence of the yellow effusion in the mesenteric 
 glands, t 
 
 Mouth anthrax has also been observed in the doe: through 
 infection ; and, among others, Vix has given us examples. 
 The latter veterinarian refers especially to his having made a 
 post-mortem examination of an ox that had died of splenic 
 apoplexy, when his dog licked up some of the effused blood 
 that lay on the ground ; in twelve hours there were anthrax 
 vesicles (hrandhlasen) in its mouth, and its head became so 
 swollen that it was with great difficulty its life could be saved. J 
 Other instances have been given of throat anthrax. Gerlach 
 gives an account of a deer-hound that ate the flesh of a sheep 
 that had perished from the blood disease; soon after it was 
 sick, its throat became swollen, and it was some days before 
 it was well again. § The disease also attacks the head, and 
 
 * " Zeitschrift fiir Thierheilkunde." 
 
 t Ibid., vol. iv. p. 130. + Ibid., vol. ix. p. 209. 
 
 § "Magazin fiir Thierheilkunde," vol. ix.
 
 Analogies between Rabies and Anthrax. 305 
 
 Wirtgen mentions an outbreak among a herd of swine and two 
 dogs through their being fed on the flesh of a diseased ox.* 
 Walch also alludes to a shepherd's dog that was affected in this 
 way, and had a large carbuncle on its back through feeding on a 
 piece of diseased sheep. f But the most remarkable instance, per- 
 haps, is that recorded by Rougieux as occurring in a lot of Eng- 
 lish hounds, one hundred and fifty in number, forming the pack 
 of Baron Yon Schikler, at Morfontaine, near Paris, in 1827. 
 Through the carelessness of those in charge of this pack, the 
 flesh of a horse that had died of anthrax was given them all, 
 except four or five, as food ; on the following day the disease 
 appeared ; in four days a hundred were attacked, and on the 
 arrival of the veterinary surgeon twenty had succumbed, and 
 forty were in a hopeless condition. The remainder were in the 
 early stages of the malady. " When the disease first showed 
 itself, there was observed, as a precursory sign, swelling of the 
 parotids ; then a small round tumour, without any change in 
 the colour of the skin, increase of temperature, or sensibility 
 to the touch, formed on some part of the head — generally 
 about the lips, forehead, parotideal region, or lower jaw, and 
 sometimes, though rarely, on the body or limbs, accompanied 
 by tension of the skin. In a few hours this tumour acquired 
 a considerable development, occupying all the region in which 
 it was situated, when it appeared on the head ; then it gave the 
 animal a hideous appearance, the swelling completely closing 
 the eyes, extending down the neck along the trachea, and 
 rendering the respiration so difl&cult and stertorous as to induce 
 prompt suffocation. When the tumour had acquired con- 
 siderable dimensions, the skin covering it showed numbers 
 of circular ecchymotic spots of a reddish- violet colour, having 
 a gangrenous appearance, and the largest of which corresponded 
 to the point where the swelling had first appeared. Soon all 
 the skin of the swollen part assumed this hue ; the membrane 
 
 * " Joiimal d' Agriculture des Pays-Bas," vol. xviii. p. 343. 
 t "Zeitsckrift fiir Thierheilkunde," vol. xvi. p. 185. 
 
 X
 
 3o6 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 lining the mouth also showed the same tint, and a large 
 quantity of viscid saliva flowed from this aperture. The 
 appetite was in abeyance, faeces were rarely passed, and were 
 mixed with blood. The animals lay continuously, in a great 
 state of prostration, and insensible to the call of those persons 
 who attended to them ; they preferred cold, damp places in 
 their kennels, to the excellent beds of straw prepared for them. 
 .... The symptoms succeeded each other in some cases with 
 terrible rapidity. In the morning, for instance, a small tumour 
 would appear on the head, and in the evening the swelling of 
 this part had attained its extreme limits. This state continued 
 until the next day ; then the suffocative rale was heard, and 
 this was the prelude of death in the majority of cases, if thera- 
 peutical measures were not promptly adopted. The duration 
 of the disease, whether the issue was favourable or unfavourable, 
 was not beyond five days ; death often occurred on the third 
 day, and recovery about the same interval." 
 
 A necroscopic examination made in a great number of cases 
 immediately after death, in consequence of the rapidity with 
 which putrefaction set it, proved the pathological alterations 
 to be identical in all. The black patches on the skin were 
 coincident with infiltration of the subjacent cellular tissue with 
 a considerable quantity of serum which extended beneath, and, 
 in fact, constituted the swellings ; it also penetrated between 
 the muscles. When the disease occupied the head, this infil- 
 tration spread to the lower jaw, the laryngeal region, the neck, 
 and the trachea ; while the parotia glands were frequently of 
 considerable size, were infiltrated with reddish serum, their 
 cellular tissue congested, and here and there small ecchymoses. 
 The blood contained in the heart and the large vessels was 
 very black and pitch-like. The ^eart and lungs did not ofier 
 any remarkable alteration ; in some animals the mucous 
 membrane of the small intestines was reddened on its surface, 
 through the exudation of blood. "With regard to the con- 
 tagiousness of this disease, M. Rougieux one night introduced
 
 Analogies behveen Rabies and Antlwax. 307 
 
 a small street dog into one of the kennels most severely visited 
 by the affection ; it was taken out in the morning, and during 
 several subsequent days it did not manifest any abnormal 
 signs. This was not, however, a conclusive experiment, and 
 another fact adduced by this writer shows that this form of 
 anthrax is contagious. Five dogs kept in a house a short 
 distance from the kennels, and which had not been fed on the 
 anthrax flesh, were allowed to run among the diseased animals 
 on only one occasion, and some of them became affected.* 
 
 As has been said, in anthrax fever in the lower animals, and 
 more particularly in the horse, there are symptoms of vertigo, 
 a disposition to fury and destruction manifested by biting, 
 kicking, &c., accompanied by cries, neighing, and other signs 
 of excitement; but it is scarcely possible that a practised 
 observer can mistake these signs for those of rabies. In the 
 majority of cases the history of the animals can be relied upon 
 to aid in establishing a diagnosis, and the differential signs 
 should go a long way towards completing it. The rapidity 
 with which anthrax — especially the internal form — runs its 
 course, and the marked tendency to pass quickly into a state 
 of putrefaction; the yellow tint of the visible mucous membranes, 
 and the frequent presence of submucous and subcuticular 
 infiltration and haemorrhage, with at times sanguinary emis- 
 sions, are scarcely to be overlooked. The pathological anatomy 
 of the two diseases will also serve to distinguish between them, 
 though it must be remembered that there has, in some 
 epizooties of rabies, been a strange similarity in the alterations 
 found after death ; but while in rabies the alterations are far 
 from constant, in anthrax fever they are rarely, if ever, absent, 
 and are characteristic. They consist of an accumulation of 
 hlack, thick, pitchy blood ; splenic tumours, frequently of 
 enormous size; infiltration of the mesenteric glands; haemor- 
 rhage into the intestines, cellular tissue, serous cavities, and the 
 interstices of the muscles ; oftentimes there are yellow gelatinous 
 * "Recueil de Medecine Veterinaire Pratique," 1847, p. 757. 
 
 X 2
 
 3o8 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 exudations in various regions, but more particularly towards the 
 cardiac origin of the large vessels and the thoracic portion of 
 the trachea. When the course of the disease has not been 
 rapid, there may be tumefaction, infiltration, and even ulcera- 
 tion of Peyer's glands in the intestines. In the other forms 
 of anthrax — the apoplectic, erysipelatous, and carbuncular — 
 there can be no difficulty in arriving at a diagnosis.
 
 Nature of Rabies and Hydrophobia. 309 
 
 NATURE OF RABIES AND HYDROPHOBIA. 
 
 The pathological anatomy of the disease, as we have seen, en- 
 lightens us but little as to its nature. Indeed, this obscurity as 
 to the essence of the disorder has for years placed it as a kind 
 of debatable land between the neurist and humorist partisans, 
 who have each looked upon it from their own point of view and 
 classified it accordingly. But, strangest of all, there have been 
 those who denied its existence altogether, or asserted that it 
 was a mere aberration of the mind produced by fear, and that 
 no such thing as contagion was present. Of course, these men 
 must have been ignorant of the malady altogether, or of the 
 incontrovertible facts which have been observed from the 
 earliest up to the latest periods ; or perhaps they were so men- 
 tally purblind as not to be able to distinguish the existence 
 of a well-defined disease which is not only transmissible by 
 the accidental bite of a rabid animal, but is also capable of 
 being produced at will, in healthy creatures, by inoculation. 
 The experiments of Renault of Alfort, Hertwig of Berlin, 
 Eckel of Vienna, and a crowd of other distinguished veteri- 
 narians, abundantly and conclusively demonstrate, unfortu- 
 nately, that it is no imaginary ajffection, but as definite and 
 marked in all its characteristics as tetanus, hooping-cough, 
 or any other well-known disease. Young children, dogs, 
 sheep, cattle, pigs, horses, foxes, jackals, and wolves cannot 
 be credited with that high development of imaginative power 
 which would enable them to ponder over the efiects of a bite, 
 scratch, or trifling injury for weeks or months, until they came 
 to believe themselves the victims of a malady which would all 
 at once manifest itself in them by the same group of symptoms,
 
 3 lO Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 and cause their death in a few hours. The idea is perfectly 
 absurd, and would certainly not find mention here, were it not 
 one of those fallacies which have done, and might yet do, an 
 incalculable amount of mischief. 
 
 It is generally considered and classed as a nervous disease ; 
 but analogy would almost warrant its being grouped with such a 
 malady as hooping-cough, which depends on a specific contagion, 
 though it is at first a nervous disorder. It might be defined 
 as a specific disease, in which a contagium or infecting element 
 is generated, which, when transmitted to other creatures by 
 means of a bite or inoculation, is capable of producing the 
 same pathological disturbance and alterations. In this it difiers 
 from tetanus and other purely nervous maladies, a circum- 
 stance which would induce us to rank it rather as a humoral 
 than a neural disease. 
 
 An analysis of the symptoms exhibited during life, with the 
 appearances discovered on dissection, would lead us to look upon 
 it as essentially a functional disturbance — sometimes excitation, 
 sometimes paralysis — of the spinal cord and adjacent parts, 
 which is denoted externally by abnormal phenomena in move- 
 ment, sensibility, and intellect. Its etiology, and the character 
 of the symptoms, mark it to be a virulent disease. The blood 
 would seem to be primarily afiected, both in spontaneous and 
 transmitted rabies. The experiments of Eckel, already referred 
 to, prove that this fluid contains the virus, and those of Hert- 
 wig that it does not reside in the nerves only. The manner in 
 which the disease can be communicated, the results arising 
 from the preservative measures timeously adopted, and the way 
 in which the poison, if it is not promptly destroyed, is supposed 
 to be taken up into the circulation and there produce its effects, 
 differ in no particular from other virulent diseases due to blood 
 alterations by the introduction of an infecting principle. 
 
 The contagium of rabies, then, produces its specific effects 
 through the medium of the blood, and these effects are mani-. 
 fested by disorders of a nervous character — the brain and spinal
 
 Nature of Rabies and Hydrophobia. 3 1 1 
 
 cord being more particularly involved, and the poison in all 
 probability being thrown chiefly off by means of the salivary 
 glands. 
 
 The principal or characteristic symptoms would appear to 
 indicate the parts of the nervous system for which this poison 
 had a special predilection, and which are consequently most 
 disordered in their function. The most striking of these symp- 
 toms, as has been remarked, consists in a terribly violent con- 
 vulsion of the muscles of the pharynx and larynx, causing 
 difficulty in swallowing, and obstructing, more or less, the 
 entrance of air to the lungs ; these two symptoms, combined 
 with an unutterable anxiety and restlessness, are features pecu- 
 liar to the malady, and are of an essentially nervous character. 
 
 This leads to the inference that the eighth pair of nerves — 
 which really consist of three nerves, the glosso-pharyngeal, 
 pneumogastric, and spinal accessory nerves — are chiefly in- 
 volved, as they supply these parts with sensation and motion.. 
 The spasms or convulsions of the respiratory muscles, as well as 
 those of deglutition, are due, there is every reason to believe, to 
 disturbance of the function of this eighth pair ; and the altera- 
 tion in the voice of the rabid dog and other animals, or its 
 entire suppression in " dumb madness," indicates a derange- 
 ment in the branch of this nerve which is concerned in the 
 production of the voice; though the congested or inflamed 
 condition of the laryngeal region might also be invoked as the 
 cause. 
 
 And death, as we have seen, is, in very many instances, due 
 to asphyxia or suspension of respiration, just as when these 
 branches are divided experimentally. This pair of nerves 
 arises, it may be said, in the medulla oblongata and upper 
 portion of the spinal cord. 
 
 But other nerves arising from this portion of the nervous 
 mass, are, to all appearance, likewise involved. The seventh 
 pair of nerves, for example, gives filaments to the stylo-hyoid 
 and digastric muscles, which are concerned in swallowing.
 
 312 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 The effect of a bright light on rabid or hydrophobic patients 
 is due to abnormal sensibility of the retina, and the nerve 
 which endows it with this property is a branch of the fifth 
 pair. The depraved taste and peculiar sensation in the tongue 
 may also arise from a change in the condition of the lingual 
 branch of this pair of nerves. The inability to close the jaws 
 in " dumb madness " is, in all likelihood, owing to impaired 
 function of the motor branch of this pair also, whose office it 
 is to produce closure of the mouth. The glosso-pharyngeal 
 nerve, an efferent of the eighth pair, should also be implicated, 
 either as a nerve of motion, by its connection with the facial 
 or spinal nerve, as a nerve of sensation, or through the 
 influence attributed to it in the production of the abundant 
 follicular secretion that takes place at the base of the tongue. 
 
 It may, therefore, be concluded that the part of the nervous 
 system more particularly affected in rabies and hydrophobia, 
 and the part to which the most characteristic symptoms are 
 due, is the medulla oblongata, and the cervical portion of the 
 spinal cord in which the spinal nerve takes its origin. The 
 nerves of special sense participate more or less, and the func- 
 tions of the cerebrum are deranged; while the great sympathetic 
 system of nerves shares in a commensurate degree in the pro- 
 duction of the other morbid phenomena that distinguish this 
 disease. The condition of the digestive and other organs would 
 indicate an alteration in the constitution of the blood, and con- 
 sequent impairment of nutrition in the tissues of which they 
 are composed, with derangement of function. This condition 
 is particularly marked in the digestive apparatus, especially in 
 the dog.
 
 Medical Treatment. 313 
 
 MEDICAL TEEATMENT. 
 
 "When rabies or hydropliobia have become fully developed, or 
 even when they are only commencing, it may truly be said 
 that there is but very little hope indeed of rescuing the un- 
 fortunate patient from an agonising death ; for it may be 
 asserted, in general terms, that nothing yet proposed has ever 
 succeeded in arresting the fatal progress of this fearful com- 
 plaint. Every known remedy has been tried, and all have 
 failed. In the early and Middle Ages, magic, invocations, 
 exorcisms, appeals to supernatural powers, and charlatanism 
 of the grossest character, had to give way to the terrible 
 fatality of the disease.* And the resources of modern times 
 have not been more successfully employed in combating it. 
 
 * We have already, in our History, alluded to some of these strange, absurd 
 prophylactic and cui-ative measures, and particularly to the utilisation of por- 
 tions of the mad animal therein, during the Anglo-Saxon period. It is curious 
 to find that the roasted liver of the rabid dog is yet, according to Heusiuger, in 
 vogue as a remedy in Germany, where it has been emploj^ed from the earliest 
 times for the prevention and cure of rabies. For instance, in a manuscript of 
 the fourteenth century, published by Hofman (" Fundgruben," book i. p. 324), 
 there is a description of the malady, its prevention, and a recommendation to 
 employ this strange remedy. " Wiltu eiaen wutenden hunt erkennen, so merke 
 wenn er loufet mit ofenen munde, undo mit uzgehangener zungen, Swenne er 
 sich anseifert unde den zagel under die bein smuget unde sins selbes schin an 
 billet, Swenne er ander hunde vluhet. Wiltu wizzen wen ein wutender hunt 
 gebizzen hat, so nim des blutes, daz uz der wunden get, unde strich daz an ein 
 brot unde wirf ez einem hunde ; vluhet ez der hunt, so ist jener hunt wutende 
 gewesen, der da gebizzen hat. Swen ein wutender bizot, dem troumet grew- 
 lichen, unde zumet ane schidde, unde sihet allez hinter sich unde mac nicht 
 erliden daz man in an sihet, unde wrchtet daz wazzer, unde swenne er ez an 
 sihet, so billet er als ein hunt. Wiltu im zu helfe kumen, so tu im di wunden 
 uf mit ysen oder mit fuer, daz daz eiter uz vlieze mit dem blute. Setze im egeln 
 an di wunden di daz eiter uz zihen. . . Ein gebrante hundes leber gip im zezzen. 
 . . . Gegen dcz menschen biz vrumet kelber bein, so si gebrant werden irnde 
 gepulvert und mit honige getempirt, so sal man si legen uf den biz."
 
 3 14 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 The whole magazine of therapeutics has been exhausted, 
 and vainly exhausted, in the treatment of hydrophobia. 
 Remedies the most violent have been used unsparingly; and 
 practitioners have not been deterred by the apparent inert- 
 ness of any medicament from giving it a full trial. Bleeding 
 in every degree, mercury, opium and other cerebral stimulants, 
 chloroform, tobacco, lobelia, and all other nervous sedatives, 
 the acids and alkalies, oil of turpentine, cantharides, tar, white 
 hellebore, ceradilla, the salts of lead and those of iron, nitrous 
 oxide inhalations, the injection of warm water and narcotics 
 into the veins, electricity and galvanism, the hot vapour and 
 hot air bath, even the poison of the viper, have all been tried 
 and with the same sad result. Cases of cure are recorded at 
 rare intervals, but when the same treatment employed in them 
 has been tried in undoubted cases of hydrophobia, it has uni- 
 formly failed. Some of these cases of recovery may have merely 
 simulated hydrophobia, and not have been the virulent malady. 
 Veterinary- Surgeon Decroix,* Youatt, and Professor Rey men- 
 tion instances in the lower animals in which a spontaneous 
 recovery took place ; and Lafosse has also seen dogs which pre- 
 sented some symptoms analogous to those of rabies, recover. 
 An enumeration of all the medicinal agents that have been 
 tried, and all the methods of treatment resorted to, from the 
 days of Celsus up to the present time, would be of little use in 
 a treatise like the present. It only remains for us to hope, that 
 for this malady, as for so many others, a successful remedy or 
 method of treatment may yet be discovered. 
 
 When the lower animals are affected with confirmed rabies, 
 it is most judicious to kill them as speedily and painlessly as 
 possible ; as not only is their recovery all but impossible, while 
 their sufferings are very great, but there may be grave danger 
 to the creatures they come in contact with. All experiments 
 with rabid animals should be conducted in proper establish- 
 
 * "DelaRage: Ciurability— Traitement." Paris, 1868.
 
 Medical Treatment. 315 
 
 ments, such as veterinary schools, and under competent super- 
 vision. 
 
 The time has not long gone by, since, because of the inevitable 
 death of the patient, and the horrible sufferings undergone 
 before that event took place, human beings were destroyed by 
 stifling and other means. 
 
 But though no faith is now put in the measures which used 
 to be vaunted for the cure of hydrophobia, and the absolute 
 inutility of the treatment hitherto adopted has been proved, 
 alas ! only too frequently, the malady is allowed to run its course 
 until it terminates the life of the sufferer ; and it is felt that 
 if a cure cannot be efiected, at least attempts must be made to 
 palliate the most urgent and distressing symptoms. 
 
 We cannot abandon to their fate and to despair, those who 
 exhibit indications of the disease ; neither dare we conclude 
 that it is infallibly mortal. In presence of a malady which 
 constantly terminates in death. Trousseau says the practitioner's 
 duty consists in boldly trying everything. The few instances 
 of recovery recorded in the annals of medicine afford a glimmer 
 of hope that others may be noted in the future, and that our 
 increasing knowledge of physiology and pathology may enable 
 us to contend more successfully with this very fatal disease than 
 hitherto. Dr. Elliotson states that two little girls were bitten 
 in the face by the same dog, and she who was last injured sub- 
 seqently died of hydrophobia ; at the same time exactly, the 
 other experienced precisely identical premonitory symptoms — 
 heaviness and general indisposition — but they all passed off. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to say that the hydrophob should 
 not be alarmed by those around him ; but, on the contrary, 
 soothed by kind, encouraging words. Quietude is above all 
 things necessary, seeing that external influences induce more 
 frequent and severe paroxysms. All useless interference or at- 
 tention should be avoided. Like other nervous affections, such 
 as tetanus, this demands absolute tranquillity, and everything at 
 all likely to excite the patient should be rigidly abstained from,
 
 3 1 6 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 if possible ; his questions should only be replied to, and no 
 other talking ought to be permitted. Whatever he asks for 
 should, if believed to be proper for him, be allowed ; and 
 nothing should be forced upon him. In proportion as he is 
 tormented by nursing, visitors, inquisitive spectators, or the ad- 
 ministration of food, drink, or medicines, so the more frequent 
 and harassing are the fits. 
 
 Seeing the evil efiects of bright light in exciting the patient, 
 and well knowing the beneficial influence of darkness in curing 
 or relieving tetanus in the lower animals, the apartment in 
 which he is located should be darkened. Perfect quietude and 
 tranquillity should, above all things, be rigidly enjoined, as the 
 exacerbations of the malady — the return of the spasms and 
 agonising symptoms — are frequent and severe in proportion as 
 the patient is disturbed and excited. When left to himself he 
 sufiers less ; and this fact, together with the soothing influence 
 of a darkened chamber, was no doubt chiefly in view with the 
 Arabs whom Burton mentions. The mind should, at all 
 hazards, be dispossessed of the idea that hydrophobia is pre- 
 sent ; the patient might be told that it is fever, sore throat, or 
 any other simple malady ; and as all the senses are generally 
 morbidly and painfully acute, everything likely to afiect them 
 should be abstained from. The great object to be attained is 
 the prevention of the recurrence of the paroxysms, and thus 
 allow the vital powers of the sufierer to overcome the efiects of 
 the disease. 
 
 All allusion to the disease must be studiously avoided, and 
 no mention should be made of the cause of it; "dogs," and 
 "bites," and "water," or other fluid, ought not to be spoken of. 
 If the patient is an adult, precautions will be necessary against 
 the recurrence of the furious paroxysms ; means for restraint must 
 be at hand, and suitable attendants in readiness ; but even when 
 force has to be employed, gentleness must not be overlooked, and 
 the wishes of the unfortunate creature ought to be complied with 
 as far as may be consistent with safety. The irresistible desire
 
 Medical Treatment. 317 
 
 to bite should even be gratified, as this will have a greater 
 tendency to abbreviate a fit of fury than contention and opposi- 
 tion to thwart it, for the desire is soon satisfied. A napkin or 
 a handkerchief, moistened in acidulated water and rolled up, 
 may be placed between the teeth at this time, and removed as 
 soon as the paroxysm is over. This will afibrd relief; whereas 
 the opposite treatment would only aggravate the frenzy. It 
 is well known from daily observation, as Decroix observes, that 
 the rabid dog does not usually have a regular fight with every 
 other dog it meets, but that it rather snaps here and there at 
 those in its way, its passion for biting being instantly, and 
 for the moment, satisfied ; while if restrained and roused the 
 eagerness to do harm is always dominant, and a fatal issue more 
 prompt. In these fits of fury, and indeed when they are not 
 present, those who are in attendance on the patient should be 
 careful to avoid inoculation with the saliva ; for though this 
 secretion may not be so virulent in man as in the dog, yet it 
 is an indisputable fact that it is potent enough to produce the 
 malady. 
 
 In the more tranquil form of the disorder, or during the 
 intervals between the paroxysms, a parent or acquaintance 
 should be present to talk to the patient when necessary, to read 
 or write, or do anything else likely to draw his attention from 
 his own condition, and to watch what passes. This person 
 should never be the first to speak, and when the sufierer seeks 
 to talk about his malady, other subjects for conversation should 
 be adroitly introduced. If he is thoroughly convinced that his 
 disease is hydrophobia, and will persist in speaking of it, and 
 especially if he believes that his case is hopeless, it will be best 
 not to oppose him so far as to maintain that he is sufiering 
 from some other afiection, but to admit that such is the nature 
 of the malady, though there is not the least cause for despair, 
 as cases of recovery are by no means unfrequent, and the worst 
 cases have been cured. Every symptom should be described 
 to him as a favourable omen in the progress towards recovery,
 
 3 1 8 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 and every means should be adopted to palliate the serious mental 
 disturb ance.* 
 
 From the supposed anatomical seat of the disorder in the 
 upper part of the spinal cord, towards the base of the brain, 
 it is reasonable to infer that the modifying agents employed as 
 medicine should be those which have most influence on this 
 disturbed region. These agents, it might also be indicated, 
 should be such as have a soothing, narcotic, or sedative efiect ; 
 and of these belladonna, datura, hyoscyamine, morphine, and 
 digitaline, have been recommended. Atropine has been, by 
 some, preferred to morphine. The hydrate of chloral, from its 
 remarkable hypnotic properties, and its powerful influence in 
 subduing the paroxysms, might be advantageously employed 
 either in the form of an enema or hypodermic injection. t 
 Soothing or sleep-producing remedies should more especially 
 be resorted to when the paroxysm is about to appear. Chloro- 
 form has been used for this purpose, but its efiect has not been 
 satisfactory on the whole. If resorted to, the inhalations should 
 commence whenever an access of fury is setting in. V/hile 
 under the influence of this or any other hypnotic, attempts 
 should be made to give the patient sustenance, and the great 
 thirst might be assuaged by frequent and copious enemas of 
 water or gruel. 
 
 * Decroix, op. cit. 
 
 t Since the above was written, I observe that in ihe Lancet for August 12, 1871, 
 there is an account of two cases of hydrophobia which occurred at Doncaster, on 
 the 18th and 19th of April of the same year. One was that of a boy, aged eleven 
 years, bitten in the face by a stray dog about three weeks previously. The other 
 was that of a girl, five years old, who was bitten at the same time in various 
 parts of the face. Mr. Ellis, in whose charge they were, treated them with 
 the hydrate of chloral, with the object of mitigating the distressing symptoms. 
 In this he appears to have been quite successful, the excitement and violence 
 being controlled by the remedy to a remarkable extent. It did not, however, 
 check the progress of the disease in the slightest degree, and both patients died 
 on the third day. Mr. Ellis was quite satisfied that the agonising sufierings 
 were considerably alleviated. The dose was a teaspoonful of the syrup, diluted 
 with a little water, every two hours or hour. In the British Medical Journal for 
 December 2, 1871 (p. 642), there is also a record of three cases at Nottingham, 
 which were much benefited by comparatively large doses of this drug.
 
 Medical Treat?nent. 319 
 
 Seeing the difficulty in swallowing, as little as possible 
 should be attempted to be given by the mouth, and drugs 
 should always, when practicable, be administered hypodermi- 
 cally or endermically. 
 
 It must also be remembered that the tolerance for narcotic 
 remedies is extreme, and, in addition to their being given in 
 larger doses, they should also be administered at short in- 
 tervals. 
 
 Hot water or vapour baths should more particularly be 
 resorted to during the incubatory period ; as they are likely to 
 increase the excitement, dyspnoea, and cerebro- spinal congestion 
 when the malady has actually declared itself or made some 
 progress. 
 
 As a rule, the medical treatment should be mainly directed 
 to soothing the nervous derangement, and the less complicated 
 it is the better. The recoveries which have been recorded as 
 occurring in the canine species have taken place when the 
 animals were left to Nature's restorative measures, and have 
 not been at all due to the usual classical treatment. 
 
 Brown- Sequard, basing his treatment on the opinion he had 
 formed as to the nature of the disease, and which we have 
 already alluded to, recommends the division and excision of a 
 portion of the nerve or nerves distributed to the bitten part. 
 But it is obvious that if hydrophobia is a disease in which the 
 blood is primarily affected, and through it the brain and spinal 
 cord, this operation can have no possible result on the course of 
 the malady. Other writers have proposed excision of the 
 cicatrix, and even amputation has been resorted to without 
 avail. 
 
 As asj)hyxia is usually the immediate cause of death in 
 hydrophobia, tracheotomy has been recommended to counteract 
 the urgent symptoms of spasm of the larynx ; but it will 
 readily be perceived that this operation cannot be productive of 
 any positive or permanent benefit.
 
 320 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 PEESEEYATIYE TEEATMENT. 
 
 Value of Preservative and Preventive Treatment. 
 
 In such a terribly fearful and mortal disease — one in which the 
 resources of science are impotent to cure, and almost powerless 
 to alleviate, when once the symptoms have fairly manifested 
 themselves — the greatest interest and importance attaches to 
 those measures of a prophylactic or preservative kind, by which 
 dangerous results may be averted, and the disease kept in 
 check. 
 
 In a malady like this, — and indeed in every disease that 
 entails suffering, either upon mankind or the lower animals, — 
 the great value of preservation and prevention can never be too 
 much insisted upon ; and more especially should this be the case, 
 when attempts at a cure must be futile or uncertain in their 
 results. But, unfortunately, there are people whose evil influence 
 tends to annul the benefits to be derived from the suppression 
 of contagious maladies — and especially those maladies whose 
 effects are most destructive — by bringing forward moral, senti- 
 mental, or religious reasons why these scourges should not be 
 interfered with : such as their being sent by Providence for the 
 chastisement of sinful man, and its being wrong to attempt to 
 interfere with the infliction of this punishment ; that in our 
 attempts to suppress these contagions, we are resorting to mea- 
 sures which offend the moral sense; that we should humbly 
 submit to the prevalence of the most deadly and disgusting 
 maladies, merely because they are imagined to be a mark of the 
 Divine wrath ; or that the way in which the infection can only 
 be thoroughly stamped-out is repugnant to the mind. 
 
 Such cant is nothing less than blasphemy, false sentiment, 
 or superstition worthy of the " dark ages," and those who resort
 
 Preservative Tjxatment. 321 
 
 to it must be looked upon as the uncompromising enemies of 
 their species. Their religion is surely a mockery and a delusion, 
 and their sentiment vicious in the highest degree. 
 
 The prevention of maladies which make life a burden and a 
 curse ; which curtail its duration ; or which terminate it after a 
 period of the most terrible suflPering, whether in man or beast, 
 must ever be the most sacred duty of the medical philosopher 
 and legislator, and the fervent wish of the real Christian and 
 true humanitarian, — no matter what fancied religious or senti- 
 mental feelings are supposed to be involved in the methods 
 which must be resorted to. Man is most godlike when he relieves 
 his fellow-man, or the creatures beneath him, from suffering ; 
 and he approaches nearest to the foul fiend that exults in tor- 
 ture, when, from hypocritical or unworthy motives, he permits 
 a deadly, but easily suppressed, contagion to revel unchecked. 
 
 When we have discovered the cause of a disease — when we 
 have acquired a knowledge of those laws on which its propaga- 
 tion and maintenance depend — then we are bound by every 
 sacred and humane impulse to leave no effort untried, no mea- 
 sure unproved, either to abolish or ameliorate it. 
 
 The terrible consequences which, under certain circumstances, 
 are produced among human beings and the lower animals by 
 rabies, and our inability to cure the malady, render it abso- 
 lutely imperative that the State, to which is entrusted the 
 responsibility of protecting its people and the public interest, 
 should aid science in checking or suppressing the malady. 
 
 True, the great affection that mankind has for the dog is 
 rather a bar to the enforcement of statutes that may in any 
 way militate against this kindly sentiment. JSTevertheless, it 
 must be obvious that in introducing laws to limit or suppress 
 the outbreaks of rabies, we are not attempting to benefit the 
 human species only, but are also endeavouring to save our 
 canine and other companions from the dreadful effects of a 
 deadly scourge. But let us see first what can be effected by 
 preservative treatment. 
 
 Y
 
 32 2 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 Knowing that rabies and hydrophobia are propagated by a 
 virus or contagium usually introduced through the medium of 
 the saliva deposited in the wound made by the teeth of a rabid 
 creature, and that this infecting agent is organic matter, and 
 therefore as easily destroyed by chemical and other means as 
 organic matter generally is, the grand object to be attained, 
 when a bite has been inflicted, is at once to prevent the absorp- 
 tion of the poison by its immediate removal or destruction. 
 
 And though, as our statistics prove, only a certain proportion 
 of those who are bitten by rabid animals become afiected with 
 the disease, and therefore if every one so injured has to submit 
 to painful preservative measures many will suffer needless 
 torture ; yet, as must be evident, there can be no selection 
 made of those who are likely to become diseased and those who 
 are not : the most trifling scratch or wound may be as certainly 
 fatal as the largest and most complicated mutilation possible. 
 So that, to avoid calamitous consequences, the most insignificant 
 contusion or abrasion demands as great attention as the deepest 
 and most lacerated wound. Besides, the moral effect of this 
 attention in mankind far more than outweighs the pain, trouble, 
 or inconvenience it may occasion. 
 
 We have also seen that rabies in the dog is, in its early stage 
 not very well defined by symptoms such as would attract the 
 attention of any one not cognisant of the malady in its different 
 phases ; and it also frequently happens that a person is suddenly 
 wounded by a strange dog whose previous habits he knows 
 nothing of, and of whose subsequent history he is likely to be 
 uninformed. A large amount of uncertainty must, therefore, 
 prevail as to whether or not the animal is rabid ; and it will be 
 obvious that great danger is incurred if it is really mad, and 
 no precautions are adopted to destroy the virus ; whereas, if it is 
 not rabid, no harm will ensue from the precautionary measures 
 adopted, and the wounded person may be saved from long days 
 and weeks — nay, even months — of agonising suspense, by the 
 knowledge that, even if the creature were diseased, he is safe.
 
 Rapidity of Absorption. 323 
 
 It is, therefore, a wise precaution to adopt those measures 
 which can do no possible harm should the bite not be poisonous, 
 and which may, when carefully carried out, be the means of 
 saving human life or that of valuable animals, and tend to 
 prevent the spread of the malady, should it be present. All 
 injuries, then, inflicted by canine or feline animals should not 
 be neglected, but at once attended to ; and the means which 
 may ensure safety, if quickly brought into operation, are so 
 simple and easily available, that every one who has attained the 
 age of reason can at once apply them. 
 
 Object to he effected. — As has been said, the primary and all- 
 important object to* be effected, and to be strenuously insisted 
 upon, with a view to prevent the occurrence of this fatal 
 disease after the poison has beeji deposited in, or on, some part 
 where it may be absorbed into the blood, is the immediate and 
 thorough removal or destruction of this poison. The motives 
 for, and the means to effect, this object were as well known in 
 the days of Celsus as they are at present, and much — very 
 much — of their success depends upon the promptitude and 
 celerity with which the simple means necessary for this pur- 
 pose are carried into effect. 
 
 It is wrong and cruel to teach that the virus of rabies may 
 remain for a long time confined to the wound on or in which 
 it has been deposited, and that its specific effects are only pro- 
 duced when the local injury begins to cause irritation. This 
 teaching is in direct opposition to our experience of the disease, 
 and to well-ascertained facts furnished by physiology and 
 pathology, and may give rise to a fatal security, by causing the 
 neglect of proper measures. 
 
 Rapidity of Absorption. — Nothing appears to be so clearly 
 established as the rapidity with which the absorption of a 
 fluid or solid in solution takes place from a living absorbent 
 surface, and passes into the circulation. The ferrocyanide of 
 potassium, for instance, takes no longer than a minute to pass 
 from the inner surface of the intestines to that of the bladder 
 
 y2
 
 324 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 in an animal that has been fasting for eleven hours ; and the 
 Veterinary Professor, Hering, has demonstrated that the same 
 compound has only required from twenty-five to thirty seconds 
 to pass from one jugular vein to the other. The rapidity with 
 which the poison of the viper and snake is taken up into the 
 circulation, is also a well-marked instance of the activity of 
 absorption. These, of course, are somewhat exceptional exam- 
 ples ; for if it were known that the virus of rabies could be 
 absorbed so rapidly, we might well despair of being able to 
 prevent its disastrous consequences.* All substances are not so 
 readily taken up into the circulation as those just mentioned ; 
 and even the repletion of the stomach appears to be not without 
 influence in this respect ; for Hertwig found that, after feeding 
 the animal, the period required for the transmission of the 
 chemical compound just mentioned, to the urine, was from 
 thirty to forty minutes. Magendie ascertained that about six 
 minutes elapsed between the deposition of the upas poison 
 beneath the skin of the thigh and the first appearance of its 
 efiects; while Demarquay ascertained the presence in the 
 saliva, of the iodide of potassium that he had applied in solu- 
 tion to a recent wound from fifteen minutes to an hour and a 
 half before. 
 
 The late Professor Renault made a series of experiments with 
 regard to the absorption of animal poisons by raw surfaces, 
 
 * Though the prompt removal or destruction of the rabific virus must be 
 insisted upon, in order to ensure safety, yet we dare not despair of success even 
 when it has been deposited in a wound for some time ; as we have already shown 
 that there are reasons for believing that in some instances, if not in all, the 
 poison is localised for a variable period at the seat of injury. This localisation 
 of an animal poison is curious and interesting ; and that it may remain for an 
 almost indefinite time in what may be termed an " encysted" or "imprisoned" 
 condition, would appear to be proved by some very rare examples in other 
 diseases than that now under consideration. Perhaps one of the most remarkable 
 of these is that recorded in the Monthly Journal of Medical Science for November, 
 1853. A girl, aged fourteen years, was affected with influenza. She also 
 complained of pain in each arm at the spots where, as an infant, she had been 
 vaccinated. In fact, in these localities, vaccine vesicles soon became perfectly 
 developed, and an elder sister being revaccinated with the lymph obtained from 
 them, "beautiful vesicles formed, and ran a normal course."
 
 Prognosis. 325 
 
 from the results of which he concluded that the minimum 
 period was about five minutes. 
 
 In the immense majority of cases, then, there is sufficient 
 time between the deposition of the virus and its probable 
 absorption, for the injured individual, or those around him, if 
 presence of mind be brought to bear, to have recourse to pre- 
 servative measures with the greatest possibility of their being 
 fully successful : especially when we reflect that the wounds are 
 generally bleeding ; that the wounded surface may not be par- 
 ticularly active in absorbing ; that the rabific saliva is always 
 viscid, and therefore requires a longer time to be taken up ; and 
 also the chance that digestion may be active at the moment of 
 the reception of the poison. But after twenty-four hours, 
 according to Renault, preservative measures — at least those of 
 a local nature — are useless ; Lafosse says they can only be 
 successfully resorted to within five minutes of the contact of 
 the saliva, though there is still hope to be derived from their 
 application within a quarter, and even half an hour. We 
 would be inclined to add, within some hours after the receipt 
 of the poison ; for when everything, it may be said, depends 
 upon the application of local measures, we are justified in 
 resorting to them almost at so late a period as the cicatrisation 
 of the wound. 
 
 Prognosis. 
 
 Our opinion as to the risk incurred will depend to some, 
 indeed to a great, extent, upon the above considerations ; but 
 other circumstances will also have to be included in framing a 
 prognostication as to the likelihood of immunity. 
 
 Seasons, <f'c. — For example, the season in which the wound 
 has been inflicted has been, by some, thought to have an 
 influence upon the virulency of the contagium ; also the time 
 and manner in which the injury is efiected, both with regard 
 to the recipient and the aggressor, and the situation, extent, 
 and complicated nature of the wound.
 
 326 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 We have already alluded to the seasons which appear to be 
 most favourable to the development of rabies. The most 
 dangerous period would appear to be when the disease is in 
 its advanced stage, and during its paroxysms ; especially if the 
 creature has remained some time without biting and there is a 
 quantity of saliva about the teeth, and if the recipient is in a 
 condition to permit of the ready absorption of the poison. We 
 have also alluded to the animals whose bites are most frequently 
 followed by rabies : these are the wolf, dog, cat, and fox. '" 
 
 Nature of Wounds. — It may truly be said that all wounds 
 made by a rabid animal are dangerous ; but their gravity, 
 leaving the other circumstances out of consideration, varies 
 according to their situation, number, extent, and depth, as well 
 as the nature of the parts involved. Those made in textures rich 
 in lymphatic vessels, and very vascular, — as the face, head, 
 neck, lips, eyes, — especially if uncovered, are most serious ; if 
 clothing, wool, hair, or harness intervene between the skin and 
 the teeth, there is less reason for apprehension. 
 
 Though the smallest wounds, abrasions, or even contusions, 
 may be extremely serious if not treated with the greatest care ; 
 yet a superficial injury that only involves the skin is less to be 
 feared than one that penetrates it and the subjacent tissues, as 
 the treatment is more easy and certain. But bites inflicted 
 where blood vessels or nervous branches of any size are situated, 
 or which involve the lining membrane of a joint, or such 
 essential organs as the eye, are very doubtful with regard to 
 consequences ; as there is all the greater difficulty in employing 
 efficacious means for neutralising the poison. 
 
 It has been remarked that the wounds made by rabid 
 animals whose teeth are long and sharp are most frequently 
 followed by symptoms of the disease : the bottom of the wound 
 is less easily reached to destroy the poison it contains, and it 
 is the last to heal. A wide open wound is, therefore, less for- 
 midable than a narrow deep one.
 
 Local Treatment. 2i'^7 
 
 Local Treatment. 
 
 Local preservative treatment being that whicli is alone most 
 assuredly efficacious, must, to be so, be resorted to before the ab- 
 sorption of the virus ; and the simplest means to adopt, should 
 no skilful person be available the moment any one is bitten, 
 are the removal of the poison by suction, squeezing, washing, 
 and cauterisation. It frequently happens that, because proper 
 materials or instruments are not at hand, or because the person 
 injured, or those who are with him at the time, do not know 
 what is proper to do, the wound is left untouched, perhaps for 
 hours after, when treatment can confer but questionable benefit. 
 
 Suction. — Suction, energetically employed, may either entirely 
 or partially remove the poisonous saliva. The bitten individual, 
 when the situation of the injury will permit, or a bystander, 
 if it is not accessible to him, should at once apply the mouth 
 to the wound and suck it vigorously, making pressure at the 
 same time on its margin with his teeth. The blood that flojvs 
 will carry with it the poison that may not yet have been 
 absorbed, and the prolonged and repeated aspiration made by 
 the lips, and the squeezing with the teeth, will in all pro- 
 bability induce a copious hsemorrhage that may still further 
 ensure its entire removal. It may be objected to this practice, 
 however, that the absorption that does not take place by the 
 wound may occur by the mouth, if there chance to be any 
 abrasion in that cavity or on the lips. But this risk may be 
 largely averted if care is taken to spit freely after each 
 aspiration. At any rate, though such an accident is possible, 
 yet it is so unlikely, that the wounded person should have 
 no hesitation whatever in at once adopting this means ; for 
 assuredly the chances of absorption of the poison in this way are 
 infinitely smaller than they are if it is left in contact with the 
 fresh wound. And though to the bystander there may be a 
 certain degree of danger in performing this operation, yet 
 when we reflect that we thereby, in all likelihood, rescue a
 
 328 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 fellow creature from the risk of a terrible death — more dreadful 
 by far than drowning — surely the small amount of risk that 
 might attend it would never deter any one from attempting 
 such a noble and devoted act.* Einsing the mouth with cold 
 water, oil, milk, vinegar, claret, beer, or alcohol in the form of 
 whisky, gin, brandy, &c., will still further diminish the chances 
 of absorption. 
 
 Expression, Washing. — Squeezing or expression of the wounds 
 should always be resorted to, in conjunction with suction, if 
 possible, in order to increase bleeding. Washing the wound 
 with cold or tepid water, or any other fluid, is also a sage 
 measure, especially if it is poured with some force into the 
 cavity for a good while — as from a water-tap, the spout of a 
 kettle held at some distance from the wound, or a syringe ; 
 continuing also to squeeze it actively. Lime water, alcohol, " 
 • chlorine water, &c., if convenient, may likewise be employed. 
 Great benefit has been frequently derived from merely laving 
 thp bites with water.f Cold water is sometimes preferred to 
 
 * The efficacy of sucking poisoned wounds, and the comparative immunity of 
 the operator, as already remarked, have been known from the earliest times and 
 among nearly every people. We have previously alluded to the Psylli mentioned by 
 Celsus, and we know that the suction of poison from wounds was resorted to in the 
 days of Cleopatra. The practice was rendered famous in England in the thirteenth 
 century, according to Kapin and Baker, by the heroic exploit of the affectionate 
 Eleanor, who safely and successfully abstracted the poison from the wound of 
 King Edward the First, which had been introduced by an arrow. According to 
 Tennant, it was a common practice in the Highlands of Scotland. Berkenhout, 
 who published " An Essay on the Bite of a Mad Dog," in 1783, strongly advises 
 recourse to it : " The person bit must immediately apply his mouth to the wound, 
 and continue to suck it during ten minutes or a quarter of an hour, frequently 
 spitting out, and washing his mouth after each time with water, warm or cold, 
 no matter which. If the woxmd be in a part of his body which he cannot reach 
 with his mouth, possibly he may prevail on some rational friend to do him this 
 kind office — especially when I assiire him, positively assure him, that it may be 
 done without the least danger. My own son, then about eight years old, in 
 returning from school, was bit by a dog in the thigh. My eldest daughter, being 
 informed of the accident, without the least hesitation immediately sucked the 
 wound. She had heard me say it might be done with safety. The dog was ♦ 
 certainly not mad ; but I relate the story in justice to her affectionate intrepidity, 
 which, in a young girl, was somewhat extraordinary." — (P. 73.) 
 
 t In the historical portion of this treatise, reference was made to several 
 persons who escaped the effects of inoculation after being bitten by a rabid bear,
 
 Ca uicrisation . 329 
 
 that which is warm or tepid, from its constringing effect on 
 the blood-vessels. Whether it be hot or cold, the parts in the 
 vicinity of the wound should always be well washed immediately. 
 
 Compression. — In addition to these means, there are others 
 which are also of easy application, and likely to prove of great 
 service. The first is compression between the injured part and 
 the heart, so as to prevent the virus from entering the cir- 
 culation by retarding the flow of blood ; and accelerating the 
 haemorrhage. This can only be carried effectively into practice 
 on the limbs or the appendages of the body, as the ears, &c. 
 A handkerchief, bandage, leather strap, or other likely article 
 may be employed ; or when the formation of the parts prohibits 
 their use, the fingers may suffice to exert a strong degree of 
 pressure between the wound and the body, but always around a 
 limb, if possible, if that be wounded. This compression is a 
 most essential adjunct of suction, washing, cauterisation, and 
 other local treatment at the time of the accident, and ought ta 
 be at once resorted to, and kept up until there is a certainty 
 that the poison has been removed or destroyed. It is only 
 necessary to add, that when straps and bandages are employed, 
 care must be taken that they are not retained too long a time 
 to produce mortification of the parts. 
 
 Cupping. — Cupping with any ordinary glass or deep vessel 
 wider than the largest diameter of the wound, is also to be 
 commended after compression, suction, and washing, or until 
 other measures can be available. This operation is so simple 
 that any one may practice it at once. 
 
 Cauterisation.''''^ 
 The above means, excellent in themselves when promptly and 
 energetically resorted to, ought to be supplemented as quickly 
 
 tlirougli having to swim a river, the water of which washed the poison from their 
 wounds. There is another instance on record in which several people were 
 bitten by a mad wolf ; some of these escaped across a river by a bridge, while 
 others had to take to the water and swim. The latter escaped the disease, while 
 the others perished from hydi-ophobia.
 
 330 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 as possible by cauterisation of the injured parts, either by a 
 powerful heat or chemical compounds, which will destroy 
 the poison that may have already impregnated the tissues, or 
 eluded the attempts to remove it. Washing the wound as well 
 as the neighbouring parts with plenty of cold water — acidu- 
 lated or alkaline, if convenient — throwing or injecting it with 
 force on the wounded surface, and suction, cupping, and com- 
 pression, must be looked upon merely as tentatives employed 
 until more potent and certain measures can be available. 
 
 The Hot Iron. — Undoubtedly the most convenient, and, 
 perhaps, one of the most effective agents that can be employed 
 to destroy the saliva and the tissues tainted by it, and thus 
 prevent its absorption, is the actual cautery in the form of a 
 piece of hot iron. There is no great skill needed to apply this, 
 so long as the wounds are superficial ; or should they be deep, 
 if they are confined to fleshy parts of the body. Neither is 
 the shape of the instrument of any great moment ; indeed, 
 from the domestic articles to be found in every dwelling, and 
 sometimes even in one's pockets, a judicious selection can be 
 made — a bodkin, skewer, key, curtain- rod, small poker — any- 
 thing, in fact, of a likely shape, rather round and pointed than 
 blunt and flat. The more it resembles the dog's tooth in shape, 
 of course it will the better adapt itself to the wound. The iron 
 should be heated to a bright red or white heat, and applied 
 with a firm and unsparing hand thoroughly to every part ; for 
 it is a thousand times better to burn freely than hesitatingly or 
 imperfectly. 
 
 The pain of this operation is only of secondary importance, 
 and not nearly so acute as many persons would be inclined to 
 believe, especially if the iron is very hot and compression is 
 employed, as it ought to be, at the same time. Indeed, we can 
 say with Bouley that it is easily borne, particularly when the 
 parts in immediate contact with the iron are carbonised ; and 
 there must be a particular satisfaction in enduring this pain 
 when those who are operated upon know the nature of the
 
 Cauterisation. 331 
 
 disease, and that this operation is their only safeguard against 
 its invasion. But should the injuries be very severe and the 
 pain dreaded, general anaesthesia by chloroform or nitrous 
 oxide, or local anaesthesia by the ether spray, may be induced, 
 and particularly when excision of the bitten parts has to be 
 performed. I would give the preference to the ether spray in 
 many cases, from its peculiarly favourable action on a living 
 surface, — its checking absorption, and reducing the parts exposed 
 to it to nearly the condition of dead tissue ; while depriving 
 them, at the same time, of all sensation. 
 
 To make assurance doubly sure, and especially if the iron has 
 been thin and incapable of retaining the proper degree of heat 
 sufficiently long, it may be advisible to re-heat and again apply 
 it. Or a brush dipped in the muriate of antimony or any 
 powerful caustic solution should be inserted into the wound, 
 which may then be dressed as a simple injury, and attended to 
 for several successive days. When the eschar is coming away, 
 its removal should be expedited ; and if it is deemed necessary, 
 the hot iron or the caustic may be again applied. If this is not 
 considered quite reassuring, the wound may be kept open for 
 five or six weeks, and dressed with some stimulating ointment. 
 During this time, some authorities have recommended that mer- 
 curial frictions be made around the wound, in case any portion 
 of the virus may have escaped the destructive action of the iron 
 or caustic. 
 
 Substitutes for the Hot Iron. — On occasions it may not be 
 possible to obtain the cautery sufficiently soon, and one's wits 
 may have to devise a substitute. In these circumstances, a 
 lighted lucifer match or fusee thrust into the wound may be 
 very serviceable ; and filling the cavity with gunpowder and 
 exploding it, appears to have proved an excellent method of 
 cauterising dog-bites. According to M. Maniere, who resided 
 for fifteen j'^ears in Hayti, rabies is very frequent there, and 
 appears in all seasons ; but the accidents arising from it are 
 not at all in proportion to the number of persons bitten, as
 
 ^^2 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 every one knows what to do. Gunpowder is to be found in 
 any house, and in nearly everybody's pocket, and is used in the 
 manner described. Afterwards a blister is applied, and a 
 mercurial treatment — carried to salivation — completes the case. 
 Notwithstanding the frequency of bites from mad dogs, M. 
 Maniere has only seen one person die of hydrophobia, and that 
 individual refused to be treated according to this plan. 
 
 Caustics. 
 
 The treatment with caustics of wounds inflicted by rabid 
 or suspected animals is also not to be overlooked, for it may 
 not be always possible to apply the hot iron, and it may at 
 times be difiicult to get to the bottom of a ragged or deep 
 cavity with this instrument. 
 
 The caustics which have been, or may be, employed are 
 numerous, and nearly all have been more or less lauded. The 
 strong fluid acids, as acetic, nitric, sulphuric, hydrochloric, and 
 carbolic acid ; and such powerful escharotics as nitrate of silver, 
 perchloride of iron, muriate of antimony, and corrosive sub- 
 limate, have been generally employed ; as well as strong 
 ammonia, caustic potass or soda, chloride of zinc, quicklime, 
 &c. Many of these enjoy a reputation equal to that of the hot 
 iron, and by some authorities are even preferred to it ; and there 
 can be no doubt that when well and timeously employed, they 
 will fulfil the intention with which they were applied. The 
 most essential feature in the preservative treatment is to employ 
 the agent that is most convenient and most prompt : time 
 being, as has been so frequently insisted upon, an all-important 
 consideration. 
 
 It is needless to dwell on the special virtues of each caustic, or 
 on their comparative value with that of the hot iron. The 
 most potent of the former may be advantageously used where 
 it would be dijfficult to employ the latter, and vice versa ; indeed, 
 Lafosse says that the cautery should not be preferred to the 
 exclusion of caustics, except in cases in which the wounds are
 
 Caustics. 2>?)2> 
 
 deep, or in regions such as those of the mouth or nose, where 
 solid or fluid caustics might prove dangerous. And it must also 
 be noted that Constantinescu states that the nitrate of silver;^^ 
 alcohol, and ammonia, applied to wounds some moments even 
 after they were inflicted, have not prevented the development 
 of hydrophobia. 
 
 Solid Caustics. — Of the solid caustics, the nitrate of silver 
 has been highly vaunted by Blaine and Youatt. It should be 
 applied immediately after receiving the woimd, and un- 
 sparingly. But the caustic potass, or " potassa fusa," as it is 
 sometimes called, is more prompt and destructive in its action 
 on organic matter, and therefore more likely to be efiicient. It 
 is also more difi'usive : dissolving the parts with which it comes 
 into contact, and penetrating beyond the surface to which it is 
 actually applied. The best mode of preparing it for this pur- 
 pose is as follows : Melt it in a silver or platina spoon, and 
 when dissolved dip into it the ends of difierent sized probes. 
 Each will take up a certain amount of the caustic, which will 
 appear like a thin layer of varnish ; when dry, dip in again 
 and again, until a suflacient quantity has been accumulated on 
 the extremity of the probe. With this the injury made by the 
 dog's tooth may be penetrated almost to the bottom, and the 
 subsequent liquefaction of the potass will ensure its reaching as 
 far as the wound extends. 
 
 Fluid Caustics. — The fluid caustics have been, perhaps, more 
 resorted to than those of a solid nature, chiefly because their 
 fluidity insures their penetrating all the sinuosities of the wounds 
 and coming in contact with every part of them. Of these the 
 nitrate of mercury, perchloride of iron, and muriate of antimony 
 have been most favourably recommended. Sabatier speaks highly 
 of the nitrate of antimony. The neutralising or disorganising 
 efiects of carbolic acid, and the benefits which have been derived 
 from its application in malignant pustule and in snake bites, 
 should make it a useful local application in injuries from dogs 
 or other rabid creatures. The pure acid would be too powerful,
 
 334 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 and likely to induce much sloughing ; but two parts of acid to 
 one of alcohol, or equal proportions of both, would be efficient. 
 A strong tincture of iodine has also been prescribed. 
 
 Fluidity, and prompt and powerful action, are the special 
 features of these fluid caustics. A good way of applying them 
 is the following : Dry the wound with care ; make several 
 incisions if necessary and possible, in order to open the bitten 
 part well up, and then touch it with a brush or a shred of lint 
 or tow dipped in the caustic, and afterwards introduce a pledget 
 of lint well impregnated with it. The whole is then to be 
 covered with a dry piece of lint or tow, and a plaster or band- 
 age placed over all. Some hours afterwards the dressings are 
 removed, and if it is noticed that any part has escaped the 
 action of the caustic, this is touched, and a blister larger than 
 the wound is applied ; this hastens the sloughing of the eschar 
 and favours suppuration. In order that a fluid caustic be 
 thoroughly efficient in destroying every part of the surface of a 
 wound, it is of course necessary that the wound be a depending 
 one, in order that the liquid may gravitate to its furthermost 
 recesses. If it is not so, and the position of the bitten individual 
 cannot be temporarily altered to permit of the escharotic acting 
 in this manner, the actual cautery or solid caustic must be 
 employed. 
 
 Modification of Treatment. — This treatment must, of course, 
 be modified according to circumstances. When a bite is not 
 extensive, and only involves the skin, it is always most con- 
 venient, before cauterising it, to remove the margin of the 
 wound by excision with a sharp knife, circumscribing it by two 
 semi-elliptical incisions. If narrow, deep, and angular, it must 
 necessarily be enlarged by incisions, so as to allow the cautery 
 to touch its every part. If some shreds of flesh are hanging 
 loose, it is better to cut them away altogether than to cauterise 
 them ; the object is to present a regular surface to the action of 
 the cautery or caustic, so that no particle of the poison may 
 escape. If a portion of a member, such as an ear, an eyelid, or
 
 Excision. 335 
 
 a tendon, has been torn, it is most prudent to remove it when 
 possible ; if impracticable, the wound should be enlarged, and 
 either the iron or caustic thoroughly applied. It should then 
 be dressed with a stimulating ointment, as that of turpentine 
 or cantharides. After some weeks' treatment allow the wound 
 to heal, and if an animal, separate it from others for a certain 
 period. Some authorities think it best to heal up the wound as 
 quickly as possible. 
 
 Excision. 
 
 In excising wounds caused by the teeth of rabid animals, the 
 greatest care should be taken that every portion likely to have 
 been in contact with the saliva is removed, and particularly 
 that the knife itself is not instrumental in its diffusion. To 
 avoid this grave mishap, all around the wound should first be 
 well washed, in order to clean away any saKva lying on the 
 surface ; then the excision should be carried on beyond the 
 injured part, and the knife frequently dipped in a solution of 
 carbolic acid. If this is not done, in making the incisions on 
 each side of the wound, the sound parts through which they 
 are made will likely become tainted with the virus. In general, 
 two incisions should be made, — one on each side of the wound, 
 — forming an ellipsis in such as will admit of it, which ought 
 to be carried sufficiently deep as completely to remove the part, 
 if possible. It must then be closely examined to discover if 
 there is any portion in the piece excised through which the 
 dog's tooth appears to have passed; if there is, the excision 
 must be carried deeper. In making the incisions, great atten- 
 tion should be paid to the direction the tooth has taken ; 
 should the knife enter the wound made by the tooth, if carbolic 
 acid or any other caustic is not employed, the operation must be 
 recommenced with a clean knife ; as the painful task may be 
 rendered useless by the sound textures becoming soiled with 
 the poison. Mr. Abernethy recommended the following plan, 
 which may be adopted in certain cases : the cell into which a 
 
 r
 
 336 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 penetrating tooth has gone must be cut out. Let a skewer be 
 shaped, as nearly as may be, into the form of the tooth, and 
 then be placed in the cavity formed by the tooth ; and next 
 let the skewer, and the whole cell containing it, be removed 
 together by an elliptical incision. We may examine the 
 removed cell, to see if every portion with which the tooth 
 might have come in contact has been taken away ; the cell may 
 even be filled with quicksilver, to see if a globule will escape. 
 The efficient performance of the operation does not depend 
 upon the extent, but upon the accuracy, of the operation. 
 Clean sponges should be frequently employed, or the parts 
 should be often wiped with a clean piece of lint or linen. 
 After the operation is completed, the wound should be well 
 washed with water, or any fluid most likely to remove or 
 destroy any saliva that remains, and then treated in the ordi- 
 nary way. . 
 
 Remarks. — Excision, it must be remarked, is not always easy 
 or safe, because of the situation of the injury, and its relation 
 to blood-vessels, nerves, and tendons ; indeed, there are cases 
 in which cauterisation and excision are very difficult, if not 
 impossible, as when a large or important nerve or artery is 
 exposed by the animal's tooth. Caustics which are not very 
 energetic can only be resorted to in these cases, and means 
 adopted to excite a long-continued suppuration. If the wound 
 penetrates a joint, the eye, or other important region, the diffi- 
 culty is also great. The part that can be reached without 
 danger must be cauterised with the hot iron, thoroughly 
 dressed with the nitrate of silver or potassa fusa, or brushed 
 with the muriate of antimony. 
 
 In the treatment of wounds of this character, much will 
 depend upon their situation and particular features as to the 
 course to be adopted. Amputation of members, which is some- 
 times indispensable in the human species when the soft textures 
 are much crushed or lacerated by the rabid animal's teeth, or 
 when bones are fractured, can but seldom be commended in the
 
 Results of Cauterisation. 337 
 
 lower animals, though the removal of such appendages as the 
 ears or tail may be practised when it is deemed necessary ; but 
 to be useful a long period must not be suffered to elapse — 
 Lafosse says no more than five minutes.* 
 
 It must ever be remembered, and cannot be too much 
 insisted upon, that whatever method of procedure is adopted, the 
 object to be obtained is the removal or destruction of the poison 
 thoroughly and immediately after its deposition, as upon this 
 depends the safety of the wounded. 
 
 The value of these preservative measures has been so 
 often and strikingly manifested — even before the time of Cel- 
 sus — that it appears almost superfluous to insist upon their 
 emplojTnent nowadays, were it not that all kinds of silly 
 quack nostrums are yet commended as specifics against the 
 disease, and a belief in their efiicacy by ignorant peoj)le is very 
 likely to cause the only certain treatment to be overlooked or 
 neglected. For it cannot be said of these proposed specific 
 medicines that if they do no good, they cannot at any rate do 
 harm. On the contrary, they are likely to cause great mischief, 
 by inducing the wounded persons and those around them to 
 place implicit trust in their efficacy, and indulge in a fatal 
 security without resorting to the proper method of treatment. 
 
 Results of Cauterisation. — "We have but little means of ascer- 
 taining to what extent cauterisation of the wounds inflicted by 
 rabid animals has been really successful in a large number of 
 instances — our experience in this country being limited to 
 individuals here and there whose cases have chanced to be 
 reported. But M. Bouley, impressed with the great interest that 
 belongs to this question, has endeavoured to make the most of 
 the statistics available to him, and has given the result in the 
 following terms : If we compare, with regard to their conse- 
 quences, the bites from rabid animals which have been cauterised, 
 
 * Faber gives an instance of an ox whose tail was bitten by a rabid dog, and 
 though the appendage was amputated within two hours, yet the animal afterwards 
 took the disease. — Die Wuthkrankeit, p. 295. 
 
 Z
 
 338 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 and those wliich have not, a considerable difference is remarked 
 with respect to their consecutive innocuousness. In fact, in 
 \ 134 cauterised wounds, the iunocuity is shown in 92 cases, and 
 the mortality in 42 ; or 68 per cent, in the first, and 31 in the 
 second. For the n on- cauterised wounds, the result is the inverse 
 of the above, and is much more manifest. In 66 of these the 
 mortality is h'o, or 84 per cent., and the immunity only 10, or 
 15 per cent. 
 
 But, this excellent authority adds, in default of sufficient 
 information with regard to the cauterised wounds, it has not 
 been possible to establish a distinction between them as to the 
 degree of cauterisation they received, or the time at which it 
 was applied — two conditions on which the certain efficacy or 
 complete inutility of this means of preservation depend. If 
 this information had been furnished, there is every reason for 
 stating that the number of cauterised wounds which remained 
 inoffensive would have been considerably increased ; as the 
 destruction by fire of the tissues in contact with, and even 
 impregnated by, the virulent saliva, it may safely be asserted, 
 prevents the disease if resorted to before absorption has taken 
 place. 
 
 Of 115 cases of hydrophobia terminating in death in France, 
 Tardieu has tabulated them as follows, in order to show the 
 results of neglect or tardy cauterisation of the wounds : — 
 
 Years. 
 
 1852, 1853, 1854 
 1855 
 1856 
 1857 
 1858 
 
 115 64 37 14 
 
 In Algeria, out of the 16 cases of immunity already referred 
 to, 14 had the wounds inflicted by rabid animals cauterised 
 more or less promptly ; in two instances three persons were 
 cauterised twenty-four hours after being wounded, and a fourth 
 
 Died of 
 Hydrophobia. 
 
 Not 
 Cauterised. 
 
 Tardy Cau- 
 terisation. 
 
 Insufficient 
 Cauterisation 
 
 44 
 
 26 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 21 
 
 11 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 20 
 
 11 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 13 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 17 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 6
 
 Results of Cautcrisatio7i, 
 
 339 
 
 in thirty- six hours. The following table gives the details of the 
 16 cases : — 
 
 Immunity after inmiediate cauterisation with the hot iron 
 
 by cones of gunpowder 
 
 
 >J 
 
 
 >» 
 
 
 35 
 
 
 3» 
 
 
 >» 
 
 
 ?1 
 
 
 )» 
 
 
 >* 
 
 
 >J 
 
 
 1> 
 
 7 
 1 
 with late application of the hot iron 1 
 
 after at least 24 hours 
 
 ,, 36 „ 
 
 with muriate of antimony 
 3 hours 
 
 without adopting precautions 
 
 after 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 Thus it will be seen that one half the cases of immunity might 
 be supposed to be due to immediate cauterisation, three-eighths 
 to tardy cauterisation, and one-eighth escaped without any 
 treatment. 
 
 Of the 47 deaths tabulated by Roucher as occurring in Algeria, 
 we find that their relations with preventive or preservative 
 measures are as follows : — 
 
 Died without wounds having been cauterised .... 
 „ „ indications of precautions ..... 
 „ after tardy and incomplete cauterisation with the hot iron 
 ,, „ cauterisation with the hot iron 
 
 „ „ cauterisation with the nitrate of silver . 
 
 „ after immediate cauterisation with ammonia, supplemented 
 
 by the hot iron an hour and a half subsequently . 
 „ „ immediate cauterisation with ammonia . 
 „ ,, ,, „ ,, the hot iron 
 
 25 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 2 
 1 
 
 In the 47 deaths only one occurred after immediate cauteri- 
 sation with the hot iron ; 12 were preceded by delayed or in- 
 sufficient cauterisation, and 35 had not been submitted to any 
 preventive treatment ; for it is very probable that in the 10 cases 
 which afford no indication of precautions having been adopted, 
 none were resorted to. 
 
 So that of the 37 cases allowed to take their natural 
 course, there were 2 of immunity and 35 deaths, or a mortality 
 of 94*6 per cent. Of the 9 in. which cauterisation with the hot 
 iron was immediately employed, there was only one fatal case, 
 or a mortality of 11 per cent. ; and of the 16 cauterised after 
 
 z2 
 
 ^
 
 o 
 
 40 Rabies and Uxdrophobia. 
 
 some dela}', or in a manner more or less imperfect, there were 
 10 deaths, or a mortality of 62'5. 
 
 This interesting information shows to what an extent the 
 prompt intervention of surgical measures is useful in preventing 
 the development of the disease. 
 
 Among the fatal cases whose history was more or less known, 
 there was only one in which the wounds had been at once treated 
 with the actual cautery, and another in which ammonia was 
 applied first and the hot iron some time afterwards. In three 
 instances there was a delay of nine and twelve hours, and in 
 other three of some hours. In three more of the 47 cases, 
 cauterisation was incompletely efiected by ammonia or nitrate 
 of silver ; in one case cauterisation was only resorted to after 
 two days ; and twice the wounds were dressed immediately 
 with liquid ammonia. 
 
 The only patient who died after having his wounds imme- 
 diately cauterised with the hot iron, was believed to have been 
 saved ; as he enjoyed excellent health for six and a-half months, 
 and in that time had taken part in the expedition against the 
 Kabyles in 1851, and returned quite well. 
 
 In the two which had the wounds dressed immediately with 
 liquid ammonia, the period of incubation extended to 116 and 
 130 days : a circumstance which might give rise to the suppo- 
 sition that caustics have a retarding influence on the develop- 
 ment of the disease. 
 
 Three persons mentioned by Toussaint of Algeria, who had 
 been bitten and had their wounds cauterised — two immediately 
 and one the next day — escaped the consequences ; while a fourth 
 person, who did not have his wounds attended to, died of hydro- 
 phobia. Hugo speaks of seven persons who were bitten by a 
 rabid dog ; three had their injuries cauterised twenty-four 
 hours afterwards, and the otheir four cauterised themselves with 
 two pieces of iron heated in the fire ; all escaped. The same 
 dog attacked a child twelve years old, and, its wounds not being 
 attended to, it died of hydrophobia.
 
 Ingestion of Fluids, 341 
 
 Results of Excision and Caustics. — "VVe have no statistics to 
 guide us in forming an opinion as to the value of excision ; but 
 so much depends upon the completeness of this operation, as 
 well as upon the interval that has elapsed between its adoption 
 and the infliction of the injury, that even if we possessed these 
 figures there would still remain some uncertainty, as with 
 cauterisation. The same may be said as to the benefits derived 
 from the employment of caustics. Youatt, who trusted to them, 
 and who had himself been bitten seven times, says that he had 
 used caustic for the wounds of more than four hundred persons 
 who were bitten by dogs, of whose disease there could be no 
 doubt, and that not one of these became afiected. And a 
 surgeon of St. George's Hospital told him that ten times that 
 number had undergone the operation of excision there, after 
 having been bitten by rabid or suspected dogs, and it was not 
 known that any of these persons had become diseased. 
 
 Ingestion of Fluids. — Aware of the influence that plenitude 
 of the circulatory system exercises on absorption, Lafosse, basing 
 his recommendation on the physiological experiments made by 
 Ericksen, thinks that great utility may be derived from the 
 prompt ingestion of any fluid by the wounded person. Absorp- 
 tion by this means may be so delayed, that a substance which, 
 under ordinary circumstances, would be taken up in a minute, 
 will, perhaps, not enter the circulation until after thirty or forty 
 minutes. Who knows, he continues, if this period might not 
 be so prolonged by swallowing fluids at brief intervals, as to 
 absolutely interdict the penetration of the virus until it has 
 become decomposed or rejected by the eliminatory inflammation 
 which is not slow in appearing ? He gives the preference to 
 alcohol, ammonia, and the acetates, carbonates, and hydro- 
 chlorates of this base, in large quantities of water. 
 
 The Moral Influence of Local Treatment. 
 It is obvious that, when the injury has been inflicted for 
 many days, or even hours, cauterisation or other local treatment
 
 342 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 can have but little else tlian a moral effect, so far as mankind Is 
 concerned, and can be of questionable value in tbe case of the 
 lower animals. Nevertheless, as moral influences count for much 
 in our own species, and are by no means to be neglected, it would 
 be an act of positive cruelty to tell a person who has been 
 wounded by a rabid animal that the poison was in his blood, 
 and treatment of the wound was now too late to save him. 
 Even if the wound has cicatrised, we are bound by every 
 charitable feeling, not more than by the knowledge we possess 
 of the influence of the mind in the development of hydrophobia, 
 to cauterise and attend to it as if it were just inflicted. Even 
 when the symptoms of the disease have begun to appear, we 
 are justified in attempting to soothe the patient's anxiety by 
 drawing: his attention to the benefit that may result from this 
 practice by removing the poison which he may believe is still In 
 the wound.* 
 
 Such are, then, the resources that art has furnished to obviate 
 the terrible dangers resulting from the bite of a rabid animal. 
 To destroy or remove at once the poisonous saliva implanted 
 in the wound, whether such destruction be effected by the hot 
 iron or powerful caustics, or the removal be effected by wash- 
 ing, pressing, suction, or any other means, is the only preser- 
 vative treatment. It ought never to be delayed for a moment, 
 when a person Is bitten by a strange dog, or even one which 
 Is known ; for so certain Is Its efficacy when resorted to In time, 
 that Ignorant charlatans have put forward certain so-called 
 infallible preservatives which possess no other merit than 
 
 * An anecdote is told of a lypemaniac who was operated upon by the cele- 
 brated French surgeon, Velpeau. This man believed he had a serpent in his 
 belly, and to dispossess him of the idea, and in this way perhaps effect a cure, it 
 was decided that the reptile should be expelled from its inconvenient habitation. 
 A''elpeau made a superficial incision in the patient's abdomen, and, with a little 
 legerdemain, drew from a drawer in the operating table one of the finest snakes 
 that could be found. The most lively emotions of joy were exhibited by the mad- 
 man ; but these were soon succeeded by hopeless despair— the snake, he vowed 
 ■was a female, and had left a nest of young ones behind it.
 
 Mental Treatment. 343 
 
 having been employed a number of times with people who 
 would not have been attacked by hydrophobia.* 
 
 Mental Treatment. 
 
 When everything has been done to destroy the germ of the 
 disease before its absorption may take place, it may be affirmed 
 that nothing more that is likely to be materially efficacious can 
 be devised to obviate danger ; the means that have been adopted 
 may be productive of the strongest feeling of security in the 
 mind of the injured individual ; or, apprehending the worst 
 results, he may pass days, and even months, harassed by all 
 the perplexities, anguish, and moral torture of one condemned 
 to death — having them ever before him like an implacable 
 spectre which, though a phantom to-day, may to-morrow be 
 a possible reality. 
 
 It is in the latter circumstances that moral treatment may 
 
 * " Frequent immunity from the disease in persons who have been bitten has 
 tended to confer reputation upon so many vaunted methods of prevention. 
 Ignorant persons, and knavish persons, have not failed to take advantage of this. 
 They announce that they are in possession of some secret remedy which will 
 prevent the virus from operating : they persuade the friends of those who die 
 that the remedy was not rightly employed, or not resorted to sufficiently early ; 
 and they persuade those who escape that they escape by virtue of the preventive 
 remedy. If the plunder they reap from the foolish and the frightened were all, 
 this would be of less consequence ; but, unfortunately, the hope of security 
 without undergoing a painful operation leads many to neglect the only sure 
 mode of obtaining safety. . . . Some of the specifics are great secrets ; and they 
 who possess them — whether they believe in them or not is another matter — sell 
 them at no cheap rate to those who, having been bitten by the dog, are weak 
 enough to be bitten again by the quack." — Watson, " Principles and Practice of 
 Physic," vol. i. pp. 616, 628. Perhaps one of the most vaunted of these imposi- 
 tions is that known as the " Birling (Kent) remedy," and attempts have been 
 frequently made to raise a sum (£oU0, I think} sufficient to purchase it from the 
 countryman who holds it as an heirloom. In these attempts to obtain subscrip- 
 tions, it has been stated that the "remedy" was never known to fail in preventing 
 the disease ; and this statement coming from people of position — though un- 
 acquainted with medicine — may have frequently, and indeed has, had very 
 pernicious results, for it is not correct. Out of some cases of failure at hand, I 
 may mention that related by Mr. Weeks, surgeon, of Eochester, as occurring in 
 1793. The patient — a man-servant — would not have the bitten parts excised, 
 but preferred the Birling remedy. In ten days he was attacked with hydrophobia, 
 and in two days was dead. — See " A Plan for preventing the fatal Eli'ects from 
 the Bite of a Mad Dog." By .Jesse Foot. London, 1793.
 
 344 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 be productive of the greatest benefit and relief, and justify a 
 recourse to expedients which would otherwise be nothing more 
 than a cruel imposition. The influence of mental emotions in 
 the development of hydrophobia would appear to be almost 
 unquestionable, and there is every reason to inquire whether 
 the greater mortality resulting from the bites of rabid animals 
 in adult than in young persons may not be attributable, to 
 some extent at least, to this cause. The diseased mind may 
 favour the generation and expedite the recrudescence of the 
 mortal malady, and anything that can soothe or cure the former 
 may aid in retarding or averting the latter. Hence, to a certain 
 extent, perhaps, the benefit to be derived from the superstitious 
 practices and silly potions of the early and middle ages, and 
 even of our own times : the incantations, pilgrimages, fastings, 
 supposed virtues of fragments of musty saints or their still 
 mustier shreds of clothing, fantastic nostrums of no possible 
 medicinal efiicacy, and other absurdities. 
 
 "For myself," says M. Bouley, "I remain convinced that 
 the practices or medications, whatever they may be, which 
 address themselves to the moral of those who are the victims 
 of rabaic inoculations, may prove very useful. It has some- 
 times happened that I have caused persons who were labouring 
 under the dread of hydrophobia to take some innocent beverage 
 as an infallible specific ; and the memories I entertain of the 
 immense contentment it has produced, have always confirmed 
 me in the belief that it is not good to destroy such illusions 
 and belief, but, on the contrary, to create them." 
 
 We may even refer to the fact that the disease is not so 
 readily transmitted as is supposed, and that very many persons 
 escape. M. Eenault, after a careful examination of the statis- 
 tics of the malady in France, concluded that two-thirds at 
 least of the individuals accidentally bitten by street-dogs — rabid 
 or suspected — escaped the consequences, even without any 
 treatment.
 
 Getter al Preservative Treatment. 345 
 
 General Preservative Treatment. 
 
 Various preservative agents have been prescribed from time 
 to time, but all have proved unreliable. An enumeration of 
 them would prove of no possible utility ; but it may be remarked 
 that those medicaments which act more especially upon the 
 absorbent system and the salivary glands have been much in 
 vogue. Preparations of mercury * and iodine, particularly the 
 former, have been recommended by high authorities. Vapour 
 baths at a high temperature and purgatives have also been 
 commended. Herbst, of Gottingen, recommended as a pre- 
 servative, and also a specific method of treatment, the adminis- 
 tration of tartar emetic and the sulphates of copper and zinc 
 in large dozes, dissolved in water. He founded his faith in 
 this remedy from having given it to nine dogs which had been 
 bitten, and were not attacked by the disease. But Leisering, 
 of the Dresden Veterinary School, has not found it to succeed 
 in the instances in which he tried it. 
 
 Blaine fancied that belladonna was beneficial ; associated with 
 Scutellaria lateriflora, he was positive that it was an almost 
 certain prophylactic. Recent trials do hot appear to have 
 verified his anticipations, however, and we hear but little now 
 of preservative remedies. For my own part, I would be 
 inclined to suggest the long-continued use of the sulphite or 
 hyposulphite of soda or magnesia, or some preparation of 
 carbolic acid. 
 
 * A favourite method of using the mercury has been locally in the form of oint- 
 ment — rubbing a drachm upon the wounded part every day for about ten days. 
 Sometimes mercurial pills have also been given, in addition. Salivation was not 
 frequently produced, though when it occurred it was not looked upon as inju- 
 rious. When a period of two or three weeks had elapsed from the receipt of the 
 injury, the merciu-y was more freely used. Another method, also said to have 
 been attended with success, even when the disease had appeared, was mercurial 
 fumigation: — placing the patient, entirely imdressed, on a cane-bottomed chair, 
 enveloped in blankets ; then throwing several grains of mercury on live char- 
 coal, placed beneath the chair. In a short time salivation was produced and the 
 urgent symptoms allayed until recovery took place. Turpith's mineral has been 
 long a favourite preservative, and even curative, medicament with the old 
 farriers and cowlceches. 
 
 /
 
 346 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 Though it is discouraging to reflect that we can only rely 
 upon prompt and energetic local treatment, and that when this 
 has not been adopted in time all other measures are com- 
 paratively hopeless, yet we must not give up in despair the 
 idea of discovering, eventually, some means by which the action 
 of the virus may be completely annulled, and the dreaded 
 disease placed in the list of those which are preventible when 
 their conta2:ium has been absorbed, or curable when the 
 symptoms have manifested themselves.* 
 
 With regard to the preservative measures in general, another 
 important matter must not be overlooked. If a person has 
 been bitten by a dog, or if animals have been wounded by it, 
 and the creature at the time does not exhibit any distinct 
 symptom of rabies, it is well, in order to tranquillise the minds 
 of those chiefly concerned, and who are apprehensive of danger, 
 to secure it properly for a number of days — say a fortnight or 
 three weeks — before allowing it to go at large again. If it was 
 really rabid when it inflicted the injury, it will soon exhibit 
 unmistakable signs of the disease, and die ; or it may then be 
 killed, and every precaution taken accordingly. 
 
 If the above-mentioned period passes without any manifesta- 
 tion of rabies, then the possibility of future disaster ensuing from 
 the wounds is happily disposed of, and great anxiety abolished. 
 But if the dog is destroyed without any evidence that it was 
 
 * Lafosse is as hopeful as other sanguine individuals in this respect. He 
 thinks that, owing to the terror inspired by the disease, the experiments have 
 been few and not always properly conducted ; and having devised a special form 
 cage and apparatus by which he could, without danger, carry out researches 
 with regard to the efifccts of medicines on those animals afifected with rabies 
 whose teeth renders them so formidable. This contrivance consists of a cage or 
 den with a grille door, on the sides of which are two openings large enough to 
 aUow the mad animal's head, and which are closed by means of doors or 
 shutters that are moved by a toothed wheel and rack. The head being drawn 
 outside the cage by one of the chains employed to tie the animal, the neck is tied 
 in such a fashion as to keep the head fixed without inducing strangulation or 
 cerebral congestion. The mouth may then be easily opened by means of a spe- 
 culum provided with a long handle, and an iron tube, having a funnel at one end, 
 is inserted ; medicines poured into the funnel end pass through the tube and 
 readily Und their ^^•ay into the pharynx.
 
 General Preservative Treatment. 347 
 
 sviffering from tlie disease, then montlis of the most painful 
 suspense, and even anguish, may perhaps elapse before the result 
 can be known. In these circumstances, all that can be done is 
 carefully to inquire into the aggressive animal's history, ascer- 
 tain all the symptoms exhibited by it, and its behaviour imme- 
 diately before and after inflicting the wound. 
 
 In any case, however, there should be no hesitation or delay 
 in adopting the precautions just indicated, to preserve those 
 bitten from after consequences. 
 
 M. Desjardins fully recognises the value of this measure. As 
 soon, he says, as any person has been bitten by a suspected 
 animal, hasten to secure it, so that it can do no more damage ; 
 and watch it closely instead of killing it at once, as is the 
 custom. Give it several drops of syrup of buckthorn, and 
 afterwards a dose of phosphorus (fifteen centigrammes) reduced 
 to powder, and mixed in a sufiicient quantity of water. If the 
 animal lives, its healthy condition should be made known to 
 the injured person ; for the mind exercises so great an influ- 
 ence that it seems at times and in certain conditions, according 
 to the idiosyncrasy of the individual, to constitute the sole and 
 unique cause of this terrible afiection. But if, on the contrary, 
 the dog dies, its death must be carefully concealed, or another 
 must be substituted in order to make the person believe that 
 the animal was healthy, and that the treatment to which he 
 was submitted was merely adopted to dispel the fear and alarm 
 he experienced at the receipt of the injury.* 
 
 Treatment of Lyssi. 
 
 We need do no more than refer in this place to the destruc- 
 tion of the lyssi under the tongue, already alluded to as 
 appearing in the interval between the inoculation and the 
 appearance of the malady. This, the method of Salvatori 
 and Marochetti, consists in opening the pustules that show 
 themselves in this part, removing their contents — which is 
 
 * " L" Indcpendctnce Scientifique cl Litteraire," 1869.
 
 348 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 believed to be the virus — washing the mouth with salt and 
 water, and administering a decoction of genista tinctoria 
 internally. 
 
 Resume of Preservative Treatment. 
 
 The most important measures to remember in connection 
 with the preservative treatment, by which dangers may be 
 averted and life saved, are : — 
 
 To destroy or remove the poison at once from the wound, 
 immediately on receiving a bite from a diseased or suspected 
 dog or cat. As it is not always known whether these animals 
 are in health when they inflict injuries, it is best to act as if 
 they were diseased by adopting prompt and efiectual precautions, 
 which consist in : — 
 
 A. Suction by the mouth, carried on persistently and ener- 
 getically for some time, spitting out very frequently, and, if 
 possible, rinsing the mouth with water, &c. 
 
 B. Expression, or squeezing the wound, in conjunction with 
 the above. 
 
 C. Washing with cold or tepid water, poured from a vessel 
 held at some distance above the wound. A syringe or the 
 ordinary water tap may be most advantageously employed to 
 force the water to the bottom of the wound. 
 
 D. Compression above the wound, i.e., between it and the 
 heart, but close to the wound. This may be effected by the 
 hand while the previous measures are employed ; or, if a limb 
 be wounded, a handkerchief, piece of rope, strap, &c., may be 
 fastened tightly around it. 
 
 E. Cupping with an ordinary glass larger than the diameter 
 of the wound. 
 
 F. Cauterisation, when immediate, is at once the promptest 
 and safest treatment. The best instrument is a piece of iron 
 heated to a white heat, in shape pointed, round, or the figure 
 of an olive. Iron instruments of a suitable shape are at hand 
 in every dwelling, and, while being heated, suction, washing,
 
 Preservative Treatment. 349 
 
 and compression should be resorted to. Gunpowder, a fusee, or 
 a lucifer match may be ignited in the wound when the iron is 
 not immediately accessible. 
 
 G. Caustics — solid or fluid — may also be employed with the 
 same success, or they may be preferable or supplementary to 
 the actual cautery. 
 
 H. Excision and scarification should be practised when 
 necessary, though they demand more skill. 
 
 I. The wounds should be kept open for some time, and made 
 to suppurate freely. 
 
 J. The wounded individual should be made to drink large 
 quantities of fluid to hinder the absorption of the poison. 
 
 K. The mind of the injured person must be kept as calm as 
 possible. All anxiety should be allayed by every means, and 
 no reference made to the injury at any time. Mental treatment 
 is by no means to be neglected. 
 
 L. General preservative treatment must be directed to keep- 
 ing the health in a sound condition, as on it depends a cheerful 
 state of the mind. Medicines which act on the salivary glands 
 may be prescribed for a certain period ; antiputrescent medica- 
 ments may also be prescribed ; or those which have a soothing 
 effect may be used to allay apprehension. 
 
 M. A dog which has bitten a person should not be destroyed 
 until it is positively known to be affected with rabies. It 
 should be well secured and kept under observation, as a few 
 days only are required to discover whether it is diseased or not. 
 The wounded person should be convinced that it was quite 
 healthy if it survives ; should it prove to be rabid, he ought 
 not to be informed of it.
 
 350 /ui/jh's aiid HydropJiobia. 
 
 PEEYENTIYE MEASURES. 
 
 We have seen that the resources of art in this, as in so 
 many maladies affecting man and beast, are but limited, and in 
 several respects unsatisfactory, so far as preservative and cura- 
 tive measures are concerned. But in rabies, as in other con- 
 tagious diseases, all countries that are so humane and en- 
 lightened as to place any value upon the lives and welfare of 
 men and animals, institute legislative enactments which sup- 
 plement the efforts of art, and bring to bear measures that 
 compensate more or less for the deficiencies in our scientific 
 knowledge. In many respects they are even more valuable, 
 inasmuch as they aim at suppressing diseases entirely, by pre- 
 venting the diffusion of the virulent elements on which their 
 maintenance and vitality dej)end. These enactments, based on 
 the teachings of science and scrupulously enforced by legal 
 authority, are largely destined to rid humanity of many of the 
 greatest inflictions that have scourged the world ; for sanitary 
 science, though but of modern date, has become one of the 
 most important branches of human knowledge and research, 
 and receives the earnest attention of every nation that lays 
 claim to be civilised. 
 
 The measures dictated by Veterinary Sanitary Authorities 
 would in this, as in other contagious maladies of the lower 
 animals, prove perfectly effectual in at least confining the 
 disease to the narrowest limits, if they did not tend to suppress 
 it altogether, were they carried into operation with energy and 
 circumspection. 
 
 These measures should have for their object not only the 
 prevention of disastrous consequences to mankind from the
 
 Preventive Measm^es, 351 
 
 presence of rabid dogs ; but should also be based on humane 
 and utilitarian principles, so far as dogs and other animals 
 are concerned. 
 
 It maybe said that the Veterinary Police Measures to be applied 
 to this disease are founded on the consideration that, though 
 it may be developed spontaneously in the canine and feline 
 species, and though this spontaneous development may be moi-e 
 or less averted by proper hygienic treatment of these animals in 
 a domesticated state, yet that perhaps 999 in 1,000 cases are due 
 to contagion alone, and that therefore the destruction of the 
 contagious source or sources is of primary importance ; also, 
 that rabies is not peculiar to any season, but may, and does, 
 appear at all times of the year in a sporadic or epizootic form. 
 
 These measures, in the general interest of the community, 
 should be adopted and rigorously enforced, and owners of dogs 
 or other domestic animals should be compelled to use every pre- 
 caution. 
 
 Hygienic Treatment of Dogs. 
 
 There can be no doubt whatever, that if we wish to preserve 
 animals from disease, we must carefully attend to their health, 
 and remove them from those conditions which militate against 
 their enjoyment of life to a degree compatible with their 
 nature. As rabies may attack dogs in all seasons, the best pre- 
 cautions to adopt against its development in them are those 
 which relate to -their hygienic treatment ; and to secure them 
 from such a terrible disease and its results, surely no amount 
 of reasonable care can be considered superfluous. 
 
 It is to be recommended, therefore, that they be provided 
 with a sufficient quantity of solid and liquid aliment of good 
 quality, and by no means putrid, particularly in summer. 
 Heating or spiced food, and that which is naturally improper 
 for them, should be withheld. Bones should constitute an inte- 
 gral portion of their aliment. Dogs should always be properly 
 kept, and carefully brushed and washed ; and, when possible,
 
 352 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 those whicli have long hair ought, according to some autho- 
 rities, to be clipped at least twice a year. In summer it is good 
 to take them frequently to the water. Their kennels should 
 be regularly cleaned out and provided with fresh straw, fine 
 shavings, or sawdust. In winter, they ought not to be sub- 
 mitted to the rigours of the weather — cold, bitter winds, and 
 damp — but be kept in well-littered dwellings, and provided 
 with pure water ; it is necessary to see that the latter is not 
 frozen during frost. It is not good for dogs to lie near a hot 
 fire for too long a time, or to be directly exposed to the sun's 
 rays in warm weather. During the summer, it is indispensable 
 that fresh and pure water be supplied to them in sufficient 
 quantity. Above all things, dogs should not be needlessly 
 excited, abused, or deprived of water. If it should happen 
 that an excited dog bites any one, the person who excited it 
 should be held guilty of a legal offence.* Roll recommends 
 that dogs in rut should be permitted to couple at favourable 
 times. 
 
 Dogs ought never to be allowed to run about at large for a 
 long time without being watched, as they are liable to fight 
 with strange dogs, become quarrelsome and vicious, and, driven 
 by hunger and thirst, eat and drink all kinds of unhealthy 
 food and impure water ; besides, rambling dogs cannot be pro- 
 perly looked after by their owners, and may become a source 
 of annoyance and danger to other creatures and to mankind. 
 
 Quarrelsome and vicious dogs should, if circumstances render 
 
 * By the Austrian laws relating to contagious animal diseases and veterinary 
 police (392), every one who, by excitation or any other intentional means, causes 
 an animal to inflict a wound, shall be liable to eight days' imprisonment, or more, 
 according to aggravating circumstances. The jurisprudence of our ancestors in 
 this country, the Celts, included compensation for the diseases or unsoundness of, 
 and damage done by, various of the domestic animals, but indemnification for the 
 injury caused by mad dogs was not allowed.. According to the Dimetian, or 
 " South "Wales Code " (in force in the tenth century), it is specified that for the 
 damage done by a rabid dog there shall be no indemnity. And the laws of 
 "Wales (same period) say : " If the owner of a dog which has been killed denies 
 that it was rabid, then he who killed it should prove that he had seen it attack 
 people and dogs, and that it had bitten its tongue." 
 
 i 
 <
 
 Useless Dogs. 353 
 
 it necessary, be confined and chained up, and taken care of, so 
 that they cannot do injury to any person or animal. To 
 neglect this precaution should bring the offender within the 
 penal code.* 
 
 The cruel custom of pampering and overfeeding dogs, giving 
 food which is unnatural to them, or in too great quantity, should 
 be particularly guarded against ; and all dogs ought to have a 
 sufficient amount of exercise. Nothing can be more reprehen- 
 sible than keeping dogs confined to houses for days together, or 
 chaining them up for weeks and months to a kennel, without 
 once allowing them their liberty. This treatment is very per- 
 nicious to their temper and health, and quite opposed to the 
 animals' natural instincts. 
 
 The maltreatment of dogs, however brought about, should be 
 repressed. 
 
 Diminish the Number of Useless Dogs. 
 
 One of the first, as it is one of the most beneficial and 
 humane measures, is the diminution of the number of useless 
 dogs, whose existence is certainly not profitable to mankind, 
 and whose presence, if sometimes a source of pleasure to a few, 
 may yet be a cause of danger or annoyance to the many. It is 
 also evident that the smaller the number of these animals, the 
 less risk there is of rabies. 
 
 The dogs owned by poor people, without the slightest pretext 
 of utility, should be more particularly the object of this mea- 
 sure, inasmuch as they are badly kept, and allowed to run 
 about dirty and diseased, without any efficient surveillance 
 being exercised over them. How often have we seen numbers 
 of such currish brutes in the most squalid parts of large towns, 
 
 * The Austrian Penal Code (391) says: "Every owner of an animal — no 
 matter to what species it may belong— which he knows to he vicious, ought, 
 in or out of doors, to watch and take care of it, so that it may not wound any 
 one. Any damage caused hy the neglect of this precaution is punishable by a j 
 fine of from five to twenty-five florins, if there has been no wound iniiicted ; but 
 when this is the case, the penalty may be increased to from ten to fifty florins." I 
 The French Civil Code contains a similar enactment. 
 
 A A
 
 354 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 living with their owners in the miserable and badly- ventilated 
 dwellings that compose such regions, consuming a portion of 
 the food that their owners were so much in need of themselves, 
 and contributing to make these dwellings still more insalubrious 
 by absorbing their share of the oxygen that was already far too 
 insufficient in quantity to maintain health, and largely aiding 
 in poisoning the atmosphere by their filthiness. Even without 
 their tendency to become rabid, these parasites are a nuisance, 
 and a source of waste and insalubrity. 
 
 The dogs kept solely for pleasure by those who can afford to 
 feed and attend to them properly are scarcely less a source of 
 danger and extravagance ; for they appear to be very predis- 
 posed to be affected with rabies, while the food they consume 
 forms no inconsiderable item of expense, and might maintain 
 many people. Indeed, the waste of food due to the maintenance 
 of useless dogs, whether they belong to rich or poor, must 
 amount to a very great sum ; though it is somewhat difficult to 
 estimate it, from the fact that we have no statistics of the num- 
 ber of what we would distinguish as useful animals in contra- 
 distinction to those kept merely for pleasure, or allowed to live 
 an idle, vagabond life. 
 
 The licences issued in this country do not give us the exact 
 number of dogs maintained ; for besides the exceptions to the 
 taxation, there can be no doubt whatever that a large percent- 
 age escapes the impost, either through their being ownerless, or 
 their owners not complying with the law. Nevertheless, 
 through the courtesy of Mr. Cockell, of the Inland Revenue 
 Office, I find that the number of licenses issued in England in 
 1870 was 944,496, and in Scotland 119,471— making a total of 
 1,063,967 ; and in the half-year ending 30th June, 1871, the 
 number for England was 951,501, and Scotland 119,671 — or a 
 total of 1,071,172. There can scarcely be a doubt that the un- 
 licensed dogs will amount to something like one-half the number 
 of those for which duty is paid ; and if we estimate the value of 
 the food consumed by each of these animals at only one penny
 
 Pleasure Dogs. 355 
 
 a day, it will be seen that an enormous sum is expended 
 annually in keeping dogs of which we may presume not one- 
 fourth could be classed as useful. 
 
 In France, in 1855, during the discussion on the dog tax, it 
 was computed that in that country there were no fewer than 
 three millions of dogs, and the cost of keeping them, at an 
 average of from seven to eight centimes a day each, was 
 calculated to be eighty million francs annually. According to 
 M. Lavallee (" Encyclopedic de I'Agriculture "), however, the 
 daily expense is heavier than in this estimate ; for the food of a 
 large dog he reckons to weigh a kilogramme. 
 
 In Austria the number of pleasure dogs {Luxus Hundeii) is 
 said to be one million, and the expense of their keep three 
 million gulden ; and in Denmark there are a hundred thousand 
 dogs, nearly all of which are useless, and whose cost of living has 
 been put down at a million thalers. 
 
 Boudin has estimated the number of dogs in Europe at more 
 than twelve millions, and the price of their food at least five 
 hundred millions (a demi-milliard) of francs. 
 
 Though many of these dogs may be fed on chance food and 
 garbage, yet it cannot be denied that a very considerable quan- 
 tity of aliment must be purchased specially to maintain the dog 
 tribe, in addition to that which might be applied to the rearing 
 of fowls, pigs, and other useful creatures. 
 
 In an economical point of view, therefore, the diminution of 
 the number of useless dogs is most desirable ; inasmuch as a 
 proportionate quantity of food must be saved for the alimenta- 
 tion of people or useful animals. But from a sanitary point 
 of view, the decrease in these creatures, as has been said, is 
 even more essential. This decrease may be effected in several 
 ways, the chief of which are "taxation," and the " capture," 
 and if need be " destruction," of all vagabond or stray dogs. 
 
 A. The imposition of a tax upon dogs is generally very 
 efiective in diminishing their numbers, and the higher the tax 
 and the more strictly it is imposed, so will the useless dogs 
 
 A A 2
 
 356 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 become fewer. Dogs kept for pleasure only should be most 
 heavily taxed. 
 
 The influence of this measure on the number of dogs has 
 been well shown in the cases of Baden and Copenhagen. In 
 the first-named kingdom, in 1832, the duty was 3 florins, and 
 the number of dogs 26,000. On reducing the tax to \\ florins 
 in 1844, there were 45,000 dogs, and when raised to 4 florins 
 the number again sank to 26,000. 
 
 In Copenhagen, with a duty on each dog of 2 thalers, from 
 1839 to 1852 the number of dogs rose from 2,468 to 5,673 ; 
 then on raising the tax to 5 thalers, up to 1862 they were 
 diminished to 2,121. 
 
 In France the efiect has not been so marked, probably owing 
 to the low rate of taxation, and to the carelessness with which, 
 as would appear by Lafosse's statement, the law is carried out. 
 But if there is no proof that the proportion of dogs has 
 diminished, it would nevertheless seem that the cases of hydro- 
 phobia were fewer after than before the imposition of the tax 
 in 1855. This is shown in the subjoined table : — 
 
 Before the Tax. 
 
 
 
 After the Tax. 
 
 1850 . 
 
 . 27 
 
 Bases. 
 
 In 1856 
 
 . 20 cases 
 
 1851 
 
 . 12 
 
 
 1857 
 
 • • . 12 „ 
 
 1852 
 
 . 46 
 
 
 1858 
 
 ■ 17 „ 
 
 1853 
 
 . 37 
 
 
 1859 
 
 . 19 „ 
 
 1854 
 
 . 21 
 
 
 1860 
 
 • 14 „ 
 
 1855 
 
 . 21 
 
 
 1861 
 
 • • • 21 „ 
 
 Totals . 164 Totals . 103 
 
 In the two periods of six years each, it will be seen that 
 there is a difi'erence in favour of the second of 61 cases. But 
 objections have been made to these figures which, if well 
 founded, would somewhat detract from their value. For instance, 
 the high figure in 1852 is due to an exceptional circumstance— 
 a mad dog in one of the French departments caused the death 
 of no less than ten persons from hydrophobia. And after the 
 tax was imposed, the number of dogs was pretty fairly ascer- 
 tained (in 1858 it was 1,696,104 dogs) ; but for the years
 
 Tax and Dog-coilafs. 357 
 
 previous to 1856 it was not possible to obtain any reliable 
 information on the subject. Many French veterinary surgeons 
 are inclined to attribute the fewer number of cases of hydro- 
 phobia to the greater restraint imposed upon the liberty of 
 the canine species after the tax was decreed, while others 
 imagine the diminution to be merely accidental. 
 
 We have no reason, however, to come to any other con- 
 clusion than that a measure of this kind must be most effica- 
 cious in ridding the country that energetically resorts to it, of 
 a vast number of miserable and dangerous brutes ; but, to be 
 really efficient, the tax should be general and high, exception 
 being only made in favour of dogs which are useful, or whose 
 services can be proved to be absolutely necessary, — such as 
 house and yard dogs, or those employed to lead the blind 
 about. With regard to pleasure and sporting dogs, the tax 
 should be highest, for whoever can afford to indulge in keeping 
 such animals can also afford to pay a high tax. If, however, it 
 can be shown that sporting dogs are necessary, then the impost 
 might be reduced to that levied for useful animals. 
 
 When one person possesses more than one pleasure dog, 
 then the tax should be proportionately increased. 
 
 Dogs and bitches should be equally taxed ; at least the 
 latter should not be less, as has been proposed by some autho- 
 rities, but if anything more, as the fewer they are, the smaller 
 the number of dogs. 
 
 Puppies should be sold, not given away ; and all that are 
 not purchased should be destroyed. It is cruel to breed puppies 
 that they may grow up into half-starved, dangerous, vagrant 
 dogs. As soon as they are weaned, the tax should be de- 
 manded ; and with all dogs this tax had better be paid half- 
 yearly. 
 
 Every dog should wear a collar with a brass plate, on which 
 is inscribed the name and address of its owner, as well as a 
 particular mark stamped thereon by the Police or Inland 
 Revenue Authorities, as a guarantee that the tax is paid, and
 
 358 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 also for purposes of identification.* It would be well if in all 
 towns and villages there was a dog census, or list of the dogs 
 kept therein. 
 
 B. All stray dogs without the collar, or which have not 
 the mark or their owner's name thereon, shoidd be captured, 
 and sold or destroyed immediately, or after a certain period. 
 This period might be extended to three days, and if the animal 
 was claimed by its owner, a fine should be imposed and 
 expenses paid.f 
 
 Straying dogs, when furnished with the proper collar, may, 
 when circumstances render it necessary — as when rabies pre- 
 vails — be seized by the police, and conveyed to their owners, 
 .who should be compelled to pay a fine or expenses. This 
 addressed and numbered collar is also useful in the case of 
 damage done by dogs, as every one should be held responsible 
 for the damage done by his dog, due to his negligence or 
 imprudence. J Bitches in rut should not be allowed to wander 
 
 * A badge of this kind appears to be in use in Holland, according to the state- 
 ment of Max Du Camp, who writes : *' At Harlingen, in Friesland, I saw a dog 
 pass which had a wooden cross hanging at its neck ; then a second dog, and a 
 third ; and finally I observed that every dog in the town was decorated with a 
 similar ornament. Making inquiry respecting this matter, I was informed that 
 all dogs not wearing the cross were, in the canton of Harlingen, immediately 
 apprehended, and led by the ears to the pound ; for the crosses are issued by the 
 municipality, and their possession proves that the tax imposed upon such animals 
 has been paid." — En Rollande, Paris, 1859, p. 163. 
 
 t At Strasbourg, the law relating to dogs appears to be very effective and 
 reasonable. Every owner must notify his possessing a dog to the police, who 
 furnish him with a license duly numbered and registered. This number, with 
 the address of the owner, is inscribed on the collar which every dog has to 
 wear. 
 
 A covered conveyance, driven by two men, is constantly travelling about the 
 town, and into this all the wandering dogs which do not wear a collar, or which 
 do not carry thereon their owner's name, address, and registered number, are 
 put, and conveyed to a building which is divided into three compartments. 
 There these dogs are kept for three days, passing successively each day from the 
 first to the second, and finally to the third compartment. On the evening of 
 the thii'd day, if not claimed, they are destroyed. During the three days, the 
 proprietor may claim and take away his dog by paying a sum amounting to 
 fifteen francs. The result is most satisfactory, so far as wandering dogs are 
 concerned. 
 
 X The French Civil Code ordains that "the proprietor of an animal, or he who
 
 Emasculation, 359 
 
 about at any time, whether with or without the collar ; as they 
 excite dogs, and lead to quarrels which may have some direct 
 or indirect influence in the production or spread of rabies. 
 
 It has been proposed — and the proposal has frequently been 
 carried into effect — to destroy dogs which are allowed to wander 
 about, notwithstanding orders to the contrary, by scattering 
 poison at certain periods in the places frequented by them. But 
 this measure, though effective enough in this respect, is severe 
 and cruel as regards the dogs, and even dangerous to the 
 human species, as it may destroy other than wandering dogs, 
 and cause much torture, in all probability, from the nature of 
 the poison employed; it may also be a source of irreparable 
 accidents to man as well as animals, and might even furnish 
 the means of realising criminal intentions.* 
 
 Emasculation. 
 
 If it were clearly demonstrated that rabies was sponta- 
 neously developed only in male dogs, and that its development 
 was due to the privation or excitement of the generative 
 function, then castration must necessarily be practised upon all 
 dogs, with the exception of those destined for reproduction. 
 But neither experience nor observation at present justify 
 recourse to this measure ; and though certain advantages are 
 to be derived from the castration of male as well as of female 
 dogs, yet the owners of these animals should, in the absence 
 
 employs it, "wliile it is in his employment, is responsible for the damage that it 
 causes, either while in his charge, or when it is straying or escaped." 
 
 * At Lyons, in 1865, the preventive measures were certainly very severe. 
 Whenever a case of rabies was reported, note was taken of the locality, and on the 
 following night poison was laid down in profusion in every place accessible to 
 dogs. A pitiless war was also carried on against stray dogs, all being considered 
 as such which did not wear a muzzle or were not led by a cord. 
 
 These measures appear to have been most effective, however. They were only 
 adopted in March, and in the first five months of the year there were sixty-one 
 casesof rabies admitted to the Veterinary School, — being an average of more than 
 twelve per month ; in the three succeeding months there were only twenty entries 
 — less than seven a month ; and for the last four months of the year only six 
 cases, or one and a half per month. Some of the animals, rabid in May or Jime, 
 may have been bitten in February, or even in January.
 
 360 Rabies a?id Hydrophobia. 
 
 of better proof as to the influence of the generative faculty in 
 the production of rabies, be left to choose whether or not it may 
 be practised. 
 
 Blunting the Teeth. 
 
 It has been proposed to extract or blunt the canine teeth, 
 or fangs, of all dogs, and even the incisive teeth of those which 
 are yet young ; or to cause them to wear a metal shield or cap 
 over the fangs, to prevent their wounding, should the animal 
 attempt to bite. These operations have been proposed with the 
 view of reducing the dog's jaws to the same condition as that 
 of herbivorous creatures, whose bites are not so dangerous as 
 those of the carnivorae, — so far, at least, as the inoculation of the 
 rabid virus is concerned. But it will be at once perceived that 
 these proposals, if carried into effect, would to some extent 
 interfere with the utility of many of the useful dogs ; so that 
 they could not be efficiently or thoroughly enforced, and even 
 if they were, they would only have a partial influence, so far as 
 concerns the suppression of the disease. Nevertheless, there are 
 occasions which might justify the blunting of the sharp teeth 
 of the domestic carnivorous creatures, and the proposal comes 
 from one who has had a long experience of dogs and rabies. 
 Bourrel proposes, as a preventive measure, the blunting of the 
 front teeth in the upper and lower jaws. These are sixteen 
 in number : twelve incisors and four canine teeth. This opera- 
 tion, as he truly says, makes it impossible for the dog to inflict 
 wounds on men or animals which might lead to inoculation 
 with the virus of rabies ; and it is therefore the best preventive, 
 as it imposes no restraint upon the animal. Bourrel's experi- 
 ments in this direction commenced in 1862, and were conducted 
 upon thirty dogs. When the permanent teeth are well grown, 
 he states that the dog may be so disarmed. The operation 
 occupies about eight minutes ; there is no subsequent derange- 
 ment of health, and the creature eats as well as before ; the 
 teeth are no more exposed to caries than they were previously ;
 
 Bliintmg the Teeth. 361 
 
 the lips conceal them, except in aggression or defence ; and the 
 beauty of the dog is not impaired. 
 
 In general, says M. Bourrel, it is a sharp pinching pro- 
 duced by the front teeth that causes inoculation ; the skin is 
 torn, or the bite draws blood. By blunting or resection, 
 sixteen obtuse surfaces are substituted for sixteen sharp points. 
 
 Sporting dogs in the habit of tearing the game, have been 
 prevented doing so by this measure ; while the ferocious dis- 
 position of some dogs — such as watch- dogs — which renders 
 them dangerous to every one, was softened ; and brutes which 
 would have to be destroyed, were consequently allowed to live. 
 Terriers have not ceased to kill rats after this blunting ; they 
 have only lost their power to kill cats, which is a happy result. 
 The same operation disarms those bull-dogs that certain indi- 
 viduals have the discreditable passion of exciting to fight. Pet 
 dogs have been operated upon without any inconvenience. 
 
 The only exceptions to the measure occur in those dogs 
 whose services largely depend upon their teeth being sharp. 
 These are dogs which hunt wild animals, and watch-dogs : 
 though the latter rarely seize people, and their bark is more 
 useful than their teeth. An inconvenience is noted in the fact 
 that the operation removes one of the signs by which the age 
 is known ; but this is not serious, for it is always easy, by an 
 external inspection and the bright aspect of the teeth, to classify 
 dogs according to their age. Besides, it must be remembered 
 that the value of the dog's teeth as a guide to a knowledge of 
 its age is not always very trustworthy, as their wear is seldom 
 regular. 
 
 The muzzle cannot always be kept on dogs, and few or no 
 rabid ones have ever been seen wearing muzzles ; and this 
 article is more or less of an annovance to them at all times. 
 The blunting of the teeth obviates the necessity for resorting 
 to its employment. 
 
 Bourrel attempted some experiments with animals whose 
 mouths had been deprived of their inoculating power. Two mad
 
 v) 
 
 62 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 dogs with rounded teeth were brought into contact with four 
 other dogs, and at once attacked them fiercely, and tried to bite 
 them, but no wounds were inflicted. Bourrel's gloved hand was 
 seized by one of the poor creatures, but the glove was not torn, 
 and the hand was only squeezed. Repeated experiments with 
 healthy dogs to which he had given his uncovered hand to bite, 
 proved that the blunted tooth cannot, notwithstanding the 
 contraction of the muscles of the jaw, penetrate the tissues. 
 " Nature, which created the dog in a savage condition, armed 
 it for this condition. Man, who has domesticated and made 
 a friend of this animal, should take care that the prejudice that 
 its weapons of defence may cause him is removed." 
 
 Manner of performing the Operation. 
 
 The operation is a simple one. For a large dog two assist- 
 ants are necessary ; for a small animal only one. The creature 
 is seated on a table ; a gag, as in the figure, is fixed in the 
 mouth between the molar teeth, by a band tied behind the 
 neck; another band or piece of wide tape, fastened around 
 the muzzle at the back of the gag, prevents any movement of 
 the jaws. To blunt the incisor t^eth a file is used, and, to 
 expedite the operation, the longer canine teeth or fangs are 
 shortened by sharp nippers, and then smoothly rounded by the 
 file. The gag, of course, must be proportioned in thickness 
 and length to the size of the animal. The subjoined figures
 
 Muzzlino Do(rs. 
 
 <3 O 
 
 36 
 
 will show the difference in the aspect of the teeth before and 
 after the operation has been properly performed. 
 
 Bourrel's proposal has never been carried into general 
 practice, so far as I know ; but it will be seen that it is by 
 no means an unreasonable one, and in countries where dogs 
 are particularly susceptible to rabies, or during an epizooty of 
 the disease, it might, and indeed must, prove of the greatest 
 
 The Dog's Teeth in their Natural State. 
 
 The Dog's Teeth after the Operation. 
 
 utility. Even in ordinary circumstances, with vicious dogs it 
 would be most judicious to resort to it, to prevent their doing 
 mischief. 
 
 Muzzling, 
 
 The use of the muzzle has become such a popular insti- 
 tution in nearly every country in which legislative measures 
 for the prevention of injuries from dogs have been adopted, 
 that any question as to the benefits conferred by it, might be
 
 364 Rabies mid Hydrophobia. 
 
 deemed superfluous, and even impertinent, by those who have 
 not paid any attention to the subject ; and consequently believe 
 in the reputed efficacy of this contrivance in preventing dan- 
 gerous accidents.* 
 
 But to those who have carefully investigated the circum- 
 stances attending the development of rabies, and observed the 
 results arising from the employment of the muzzle, there can 
 be no doubt whatever that a large amount of discomfort — nay, 
 sometimes even positive cruelty — has been imposed upon the 
 dog species. "Who has not witnessed the sufferings of dogs 
 during the "dog-days," when the police regulations doomed 
 them to have their jaws held close together and their heads 
 and throats tightly bound by hard leathern straps, at the very 
 time of all others when the poor brutes should have been spared 
 torture and excitement, and when an open mouth and every 
 
 * The following is the only regulation existing with regard to dogs in the 
 metropolis. It forms part of "An Act for regulating the Traffic in the Metro- 
 polis, and for making Provision for the greater Security of Persons passing- 
 through the Streets, and for other purposes" (20th August, 1867. 30 & 31 Vict., 
 cap 134) : — " 18. The Police may take possession of any Dog foimd in any Street 
 within the Metropolis, and not under the Control of any Person, and may detain 
 such Dog until the Owner has claimed the same, and jiaid all Expenses incurred 
 by reason of such Detention. The Commissioner of Police, if he see lit, may issue 
 a Notice reqiuring any Dog while in the Streets, and not led by some Person, 
 to be muzzled in such a manner as will admit of the Animal breathing and drink- 
 ing without Obstruction ; and the Police may take possession of any Dog found 
 loose in the Streets without such Muzzle during the Currency of the Order, and 
 may detain such Dog until the Owner has claimed it, has provided a proper 
 Muzzle, and has paid all E.xpenses connected with such Detention. Where any 
 Dog taken possession of by the Police wears a Collar with the Address of any 
 Person inscribed thereon, a Letter, stating the Fact of such Dog having been 
 taken possession of, shall bo sent by Post to the Address inscribed on the Collar. 
 The Commissioner of Police may cause any Dog which has remained in the 
 Possession of the Police for Three clear Days without the Owner claiming the 
 same, and paying all Expenses incurred by its Detention, to be sold or destroyed. 
 Any Monies arising from the Sale of any Dogs, in pursuance of this Section, 
 shaU be applied in the Planner in which Penalties under this Act are applicable. 
 When, upon Complaint that any Dog has bitten or attempted to bite any person 
 within the Metropolis, it appears to the Magistrates having cognisance of such 
 Complaint that any such Dog ought to be destroyed, the Magistrate may direct 
 the Dog to be destroyed, and any Police Constable may destroy the same accord- 
 ingly, and all Dogs detained by the Police under this Section sliall be properly 
 fed and maintained."
 
 Muzzling Dogs. 365 
 
 facility for lapping water should have been afforded them ? 
 No doubt this hardship has been greatly exaggerated by the 
 pernicious and stupid shape of the muzzle employed, and the 
 season in which it was ordered to be worn. But it has been 
 questioned whether the use of this article is really calculated 
 to meet the end proposed; and whether it is not likely that 
 its employment at the hottest season of the year might aid 
 in the production of the disease it is supposed to prevent. 
 By some it has been pronounced superfluous and useless, or 
 worse ; while others are satisfied that, by the adoption and use 
 of a properly constructed muzzle, the danger resulting from 
 rabies may be averted. The principal recent French autho- 
 rities incline to the former opinion ; while the German vete- 
 rinarians appear to favour the second. The question is a 
 somewhat delicate one, and we cannot do better than examine 
 it from both points of view. 
 
 The chief evidence in favour of the muzzle is that brought 
 forward from the experience of its use in Berlin. From 1845 
 to 1853, 278 cases of rabies were reported ; from March, 1852, 
 to the same month in 1853, no fewer than 82 mad dogs were 
 sent to the Veterinary School, and up to the end of July 37 
 more. On the 20th July it was ordained that the use of the 
 muzzle should become general, and up to the close of the year 
 only 6 cases were admitted. In 1854-5 the number was 1, 
 and from that time up to 1863 there were no cases. In 1863, 
 however, 11 cases were reported, and the following year 4. 
 For the subsequent years exact returns are wanting, though an 
 increase is noted : in 1867-8 there were 21 cases. 
 
 The exempt period of eight years is that which has been 
 more particularly held to demonstrate the benefit to be derived 
 from the muzzle. The veterinary authorities at Berlin laid 
 most stress upon this measure in saying that the different ad- 
 ministrative expedients taken against the propagation of rabies, 
 and notably the muzzling of dogs, have not counted for nothing 
 in causing the disappearance of this redoubtable scourge for a
 
 366 
 
 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 number of years in Prussia* They were of opinion that rabies 
 is an epizouty which, starting from a primary centre, becomes 
 developed under the influence of spontaneous generating causes ; 
 gradually extends itself among certain animals particularly 
 predisposed ; and, arriving at its culminating point, maintains 
 itself for some time ; then commences to diminish and suddenly 
 disappears ; only showing itself again at long intervals. But it 
 must be observed that such periods of exemption have been 
 noted before this period and since, when this constraint was not 
 resorted to. We may refer to the number of cases reported by 
 Lafosse as admitted to the Veterinary School at Toulouse, for a 
 number of years, as a proof of this : — 
 
 1843 
 1844 
 1845 
 1846 
 1847 
 1848 
 1849 
 1850 
 
 
 
 1851 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 1852 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 1853 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1854 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 1855 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1856 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 1857 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 1858 
 
 • 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 6 
 4 
 5 
 2 
 3 
 1 
 5 
 
 If at Toulouse, without the use of the muzzle being made 
 obligatory, years have passed without any cases of rabies being 
 registered, we might be justified in concluding that the absence 
 of epizootic influences had at least as large a share in the non- 
 production of the disease as the muzzle, were it not for the 
 immediate and important diminution that took place when it was 
 applied in Berlin. And it must be remembered that this article 
 was only worn in the city, and not in the country ; and that 
 Hertwig accounts for the reappearance of the disease in 1863, 
 by saying that in May of that year two rabid dogs showed 
 themselves in the rural districts, and eventually found their 
 way into Berlin, where their advent was followed by several 
 cases of the disease. During 1864, and up to the middle of 
 
 * It must not be forgotten that Prussia, like Austria and some other countries, 
 has occasionally a large mortality from hydrophobia, and consequently is com- 
 peUed to resort to severe measures to limit the accidents from rabies. For 
 instance, for the period between 1810 and 1819, the official documents show that 
 no fewer than 1,666 persons died of this disease.
 
 Utility of the Muzzle. 2^'0'j 
 
 1865, between twenty and thirty cases occurred, in spite of the 
 fact that all dogs in the city, without exception, were wearing 
 muzzles permanently. In the autumn of 1864, within a period 
 of eight weeks, three children died of hydrophobia from the 
 bites of dogs, and this notwithstanding muzzles being worn. 
 
 Haubner, alluding to the decrease and increase in the number 
 of cases at Berlin during this period, says that the same result 
 has been observed elsewhere. When the increase took place 
 eight years afterwards, the law relating to dogs might have 
 become relaxed and the muzzle less resorted to. This sup- 
 position may have had a great influence with the German 
 veterinary authorities; for Haubner, one of the most recent 
 writers on veterinary sanitary police, says that muzzles should 
 be constantly worn out of doors, especially in large towns, as 
 he is convinced it is the best protection against the bite of 
 dogs if well constructed. And he also justly remarks that 
 biting horses have to wear muzzles, and the vicious bull or 
 steer to carry a ring through its nose, to prevent their causing 
 injury. Only the dog must not be inconvenienced by a con- 
 straint to prevent its biting, say the admirers of this animal, 
 though it is naturally inclined to bite. He likewise asserts 
 that the use of the muzzle in large towns is a real benefit to 
 mankind, though in the open country it need not be used when 
 rabies is not prevalent. Lovers of the dog, he adds, say that 
 the muzzle induces rabies, or does not prevent its extension ; 
 but there is no proof that it causes the disease, though with 
 regard to its not hindering its spread there is every reason 
 to believe there is some foundation, owing to the faulty con- 
 struction of the ordinary muzzle, which a dog may pull off 
 or contrive to bite with ; and also through the owner taking 
 it off when he should not do so, as in walking out, &c. He 
 also admits that leading dogs by a leash is no substitute for 
 the muzzle, as powerful animals break away, even from grown- 
 up persons. 
 
 And M. Renault, looking at the evidence furnished by the
 
 368 Rabies and Hydrophobia, 
 
 Berlin authorities, was also in favour of this restraint ; for in a 
 communication to the Academy of Sciences, he says that if such 
 results as followed the application of the muzzle from 1854 to 
 1861 be continued for some years, it might be concluded that, 
 1. Spontaneous rabies is vary rare ; 2. Permanent muzzling is 
 an efficacious measure in preventing the propagation of the 
 disease ; 3. The opinion of several authorities regarding the con- 
 straint resulting from the application of the muzzle as a cause 
 of the development of rabies in the dog is erroneous. But 
 M. Bouley, in a discourse delivered before the Imperial Academy 
 of Medicine at a seavce held in 1863, does not agree with Renault 
 in his conclusions. He says : " The document that has been laid 
 before you by M. Tardieu, and which came from the French 
 Ambassador at Berlin, now proves that M. Renault was in 
 error, owing to untrustworthy information. From it I can 
 no longer see any reason why the muzzling of dogs, which 
 is only a vexatious measure without any utility, should be 
 maintained ; and in this respect I willingly assent to the opinion 
 of M. Vernois, and believe that, if it were adopted, it would 
 have the three really advantageous consequences of delivering 
 the administration from one of its cares, the administrators 
 from one of their obligations, and lastly our poor brutes from 
 the torments caused by the application of an apparatus which, 
 if rigorously adopted — and to be efficacious it must be so — would 
 condemn them to a slow asphyxia by obstructing the respira- 
 tion and the buccal transpiration. One of the reasons given by 
 M. Vernois for proscribing the muzzle is that, supposing a dog 
 affected with rabies to have its head so garnished during the 
 furious period of the malady, it would get rid of it immediately, 
 because it is endowed at that moment with excessive streno-th. 
 and bemg so highly excited, it would at once break every 
 restraint. On this point, however, I do not agree with M. Ver- 
 nois. The mad dog is not what he has painted it. On the 
 contrary, it is much less able than a healthy animal to co-ordi- 
 nate the movements of the paws to rid its head of the apparatus
 
 Disadvantages of the Muzzle. 369 
 
 that confines its head, and when it is muzzled it remains so. The 
 sur canine force with which he supposes it to be endowed is 
 therefore a fiction. Do you wish for a proof of this ? Here it 
 is. It often happens that a suspected or really mad dog is 
 brought to us muzzled, and is introduced, its head still gar- 
 nished with the muzzle, into the kennel where it is to remain. 
 Well, under these conditions we do not see it give any demon- 
 stration of excessive force, in virtue of which it breaks all its 
 bonds, as M. Vernois admits. Far from it ; for it keeps the 
 apparatus fixed around its head without any attempt to remove 
 it ; and if, in order to study the symptoms better, or for pur- 
 poses of experiment, it is decided to take ofi" the muzzle, this is 
 done with great difficulty, and not without danger. In fact, it 
 is a very fortunate circumstance that a dog is muzzled at the 
 moment it has a paroxysm of madness, when it has a tendency to 
 bite ; for then the muzzle, by keeping the jaws closely together, 
 is a very efficacious apparatus, and may serve as a protection 
 against the dangerous attacks of the animal. If, then, the 
 police ordinances which impose the obligation to muzzle, should 
 produce the result that every dog was always muzzled at the 
 moment when the dangerous period of rabies was manifested, 
 they would be most valuable, and the administration should 
 faithfully insist upon their being observed with the utmost 
 rigour. But there is only one means by which the result 
 might be attained. By the authority of the police, and by 
 its direct intervention^ the muzzle should be riveted to the 
 dog's neck as the manacle is to the foot of the galley-slave, and 
 that, night and day, the animal should wear it indoors as well 
 as out of doors. Without this rigorous condition — -and it only 
 requires to formulate it, to show how impracticable it is — the 
 muzzling of dogs cannot be in any way efficacious as a prophy- 
 lactic measure against rabies. This is not difficult to demon- 
 strate. Rabies is not a sudden disease, appearing all at once, 
 like apoplexy ; it does not instantly carry the dog it attacks 
 from the most flourishing state of health to a condition of 
 
 B B
 
 370 Rabies a7id Hydrophobia. 
 
 furious delirium, which impels it to bite every animal it meets. 
 Far from it ; for canine rabies has its premonitory signs. 
 Several days before the manifestation of the furious symptoms, 
 the mad dog testifies by a change of habit that it is not in its 
 normal state ; it is restless, agitated, retires into dark places 
 — beneath furniture in rooms, beneath the manger in stables ; 
 and if it is a watch-dog, to the bottom of its kennel. These 
 early signs, which have not yet a very precise signification, are 
 manifested in the interior of houses, where dogs are always 
 relieved from their muzzles. At this period they have no 
 tendency to fly — to escape. On the contrary, their attachment 
 for their owner having increased, they are more sedentary, and 
 abstain from their habitual peregrinations. It is not until 
 later, — at the moment when the malady has obtained absolute 
 sway over them, — that they escape from their masters' domicile. 
 Once outside, the excitement they experience, especially when 
 they see other dogs, is not long before it increases the disease to 
 its highest paroxysm. Then their destructiveness commences, 
 and continues in proportion to the opportunities that offer. 
 
 " Thus, as has been remarked, it is in the dwellings where the 
 dogs reside that rabies is prepared, and so long as everything 
 is not ready for its last explosion the animals remain there, and 
 do not decide to run away until the desire to bite imperiously 
 dominates them. Then they escape, but always uninuzzled — for 
 in their dwellings the muzzle is never used — and give themselves 
 up to their redoubtable savageness. 
 
 " This is the order in which the phenomena most frequently 
 succeed each other ; and it follows from the expose that, how- 
 ever rigorous the prescriptions of the police may be with regard 
 to the muzzle imposed upon dogs in the public streets, it is 
 evident that they cannot produce the useful effects expected 
 from them ; inasmuch as the majority of the accidents from 
 rabaic bites, outside habitations, are caused by escaped dogs 
 which, at a given moment in their as yet unrecogmsed, or even 
 suspected malady, steal away from the surveillance of their 
 masters, and run abroad, of course without their muzzles.
 
 . Inutility of Muzzling. 371 
 
 " Therefore it is that the muzzling, considered as a means of 
 preventing the propagation of rabies from the canine to the 
 human species, is a perfectly useless measure ; because, in the 
 ordinary course of things, it is only applied, and can only be 
 applied, to inoffensive dogs." 
 
 The same distinguished veterinarian, when speaking of the 
 disease at a later period (1869), and of the benefit to be derived 
 from a rigid application of articles 1382, 1383, and 1385 of the 
 civil code already noticed, says : " For my part, I have much 
 greater confidence in the salutary menaces of these articles than 
 in the muzzling of all the dogs which the prefectorial decrees 
 pretend to render obligatory everywhere, but which is nowhere 
 carried out properly. It might even be said that, with regard 
 to preservation from rabies, it is altogether useless, for it is 
 never applied to the dogs which are susceptible of causing 
 injury by being actually rabid. Some words of explanation 
 will prove this. What are the dogs which, in the streets and 
 on the roads, show themselves to be mad, and bite the men and 
 animals they meet ? Had they been in perfect health imme- 
 diately before, and suddenly, without any premonitory sign, 
 became rabid? Certainly not. These dogs were already 
 affected with madness for some days when with their owners ; 
 and if they are now wandering on the roads, it is because they 
 have escaped from their homes, obeying the instinct which 
 compels them to fly from those who are dear to them. In very 
 many instances, it is not known to every one that they have 
 escaped, and consequently it is always unmuzzled they make 
 their flight ; for it is not usual to wear a muzzle at home. Of 
 what use, then, in a prophylactic point of view, is this muzzling 
 which we would render obligatory for all dogs, when, by the 
 force of circumstances, it is really mad dogs that, in the 
 majority of instances, are exempted from this obligation, 
 which is most frequently imposed on those that are in perfect 
 health ? "* 
 
 • "La Rage," p. 79. 
 B R 2
 
 372 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 The veterinary authorities in Brussels, in an excellent 
 report on rabies drawn up in 1868, when the disease was caus- 
 ing some alarm in Belgium, also refer to this subject. They 
 disao-ree with the Berlin authorities in their conclusions as to 
 the value of the muzzle, especially while the disease exists in 
 an epizootic form; as this is precisely the time when dogs 
 should not be subjected to any annoyance and excitement 
 arising from such a constraint. Besides, they say, what usually 
 happens ? The muzzle is nearly always taken off in the house ; 
 whereas, to be completely efficacious as a preventive measure, 
 it should happen that rabies develops itself at the moment when 
 this apparatus is applied, and this is precisely what never takes 
 place. 
 
 And Professor Lafosse, of Toulouse, no mean authority on 
 
 such a subject, says : " As it is very rare that this disease 
 
 appears in the dog that is always under the eye and obeying 
 
 the command of its master, or which roams around the building 
 
 confided to its care, without the symptoms that betray the 
 
 invasion of the malady being perceived, and consequently 
 
 the necessity for taking the proper measures being indicated ; 
 
 to make every owner of a dog keep it constantly muzzled, tied 
 
 up, or led about in a leash would be to deprive him almost 
 
 entirely of the companionship and the real services that are 
 
 to be derived from the most devoted of our domestic animals ; 
 
 and, in addition, the too absolute constraint might multiply the 
 
 cases of spontaneous rabies, if this condition could exercise any 
 
 influence on the production of the disease. At the utmost, the 
 
 application of these severe measures might be reserved for the 
 
 seasons most propitious for engendering spontaneous rabies, 
 
 when it is notorious that mad dogs are wandering about 
 
 the neighbourhood, or when rabies prevails in an epizootic 
 
 form." * 
 
 On the whole, we are inclined to agree with the last-quoted 
 opinion with regard to the general and everyday use of the 
 * "Traitc de Tathologie Yctcrinairc," vol. iii. p. 866.
 
 W/ie}2 the Muzzle is necessary. 373 
 
 muzzle, which should only be worn on special occasions : as 
 when rabies is prevalent in a locality, when it has a tendency to 
 assume an epizootic character, or in the case of vicious dogs. 
 
 When the disease threatens to become prevalent, or indeed 
 when there is reason to believe that a mad dog has bitten 
 several others, and these cannot be discovered, the use of the 
 muzzle should be resorted to, and all dogs seen in the streets of 
 towns or in the country without a muzzle should be seized by 
 the police as suspicious animals. This is one of the great 
 advantages of employing the muzzle ; for if it be correct that 
 rabid dogs escape from their homes, and wander about without 
 this safeguard, then surely a dog so unprovided ought to be at 
 once captured. If muzzles were not worn, a rabid animal 
 might cause a terrible amount of mischief without attracting 
 the attention of the police, merely because it was like other 
 dogs. On these grounds, I am certainly inclined to advocate 
 recourse to the muzzle. Its use, when rigorously enforced, must 
 be beneficial during an epizooty of rabies ; and that it is so is 
 demonstrated by the veterinary professor, Fiirstenberg, of 
 Eldena, Prussia. He states that the disease was prevalent in 
 his country, in difierent districts, for two, three, four, and five 
 years ; and no regulations, such as confining and chaining-up 
 dogs, &c., could check it until muzzles were introduced, when it 
 ceased. It is now an established rule in our country that, 
 whenever and wherever the disease appears, all dogs which come 
 into the streets must be provided with muzzles. Their use is not 
 enforced on those dogs which are kept indoors. In the small 
 island of Usedom, which is nearly cut ofi" from all intercourse, 
 rabies was prevalent during several years, and it was only by 
 ordering that all dogs which came into the streets or highways 
 should be provided with muzzles that it was possible to extir- 
 pate the disease. And Hering, Director of the Veterinary 
 School at Stuttgart, mentions that in 1864 rabies occurred in 
 Wiirtemberg during the first months of the year, the cases 
 then being few ; but in each month they became more nu-
 
 374 
 
 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 merous, until the use of the muzzle was enforced, not only in 
 the towns, but throughout the whole country ; after which, 
 until the autumn of 1865, when this statement was made, not 
 a case had been reported. 
 
 To be beneficial, it is obvious that the employment of the 
 
 muzzle must be universal ; but, at the same time, should the 
 disease be prevalent, the other necessary measures must not 
 be relaxed, and the vigilance of dog-owners should not be 
 diminished ; for it must be remembered that if a dog wearing 
 a muzzle runs about without any one in charge of it, it is 
 possible that a mad dog may attack and bite it ; the wounded 
 animal then returns to its home, and the owner may know 
 nothing of what has happened, until all at once rabies appears 
 quite unexpectedly. 
 
 And it must also be borne in mind that a well-constructed 
 muzzle is a protection against biting, so long as it is worn by
 
 Best Form oj Muzzle. 375 
 
 the dog. But a bad muzzle is Avorse than useless, as it esta- 
 blishes a false security. 
 
 It is astonishing how soon dogs become accustomed to an 
 easy-fitting, comfortable muzzle : that is one in which they 
 can always breathe and drink without hindrance. The nostrils 
 of the dog are very narrow, and even under ordinary circum- 
 stances it cannot breathe so comfortably as many other animals 
 when its mouth is forcibly closed ; when distressed by running 
 it always respires with open mouth, and in warm weather the 
 transpiration that takes place in this cavity from the throat, 
 tongue, and inside the cheeks, tends to keep the creature cool, 
 and compensates for the almost total absence of this process 
 from the skin. Therefore the front portion of the muzzle 
 should be sufficiently accommodating as to allow the dog wear- 
 ing it to open its mouth freely and widely. 
 
 The muzzle patented by Grauhan, and sold in this country 
 
 (manufactured by Butterfield of Bradford), is a good though 
 not a very safe muzzle in its present form. (See figure on 
 opposite page.) To make it perfectly secure at the mouth, there 
 should be intermediate wires from the circular transverse wire, 
 near the eyes, to the vertical nose-wire. (See figure above.)
 
 376 Rabies and Hydrophobia . 
 
 The muzzle should fit the head properly, and above all things 
 it should be securel}^ fastened around the neck. The neck-strap 
 should be strong, and as tight as may be compatible with the 
 dog's comfort. 
 
 At ordinary times, making people at all times responsible for 
 the damage their dogs may inflict, and giving them every 
 opportunity for acquiring a knowledge of the law, and also the 
 best means for complying with it — which would, of course, in 
 this instance be a knowledge of the earliest symptoms of rabies 
 and the measures necessary for preventing dangerous con- 
 sequences — would be, perhaps, less onerous than compelling 
 dogs to wear an apparatus which, when there is no urgent cause 
 for its employment, is certainly not to be commended. This 
 principle of responsibility would make owners of dogs par- 
 ticularly attentive to the health and welfare of these animals ; 
 and would also, in addition to diminishing the number of 
 vicious dogs, induce them to resort to these exceptional means 
 of restraint without being ordered. Their pecuniary interests 
 — so frequently much more powerful than those of a sanitary 
 character — would guarantee their attending to the condition of 
 their dogs ; and they would learn that, in the words of M. 
 Bouley, the fear of a diseased dog is not only the beginning of 
 wisdom, but wisdom itself; the owner of every dog committing 
 mischief being identified by means of the collar and impressed 
 mark thereon, would tend to make rabies a comparatively rare 
 disease, and hydrophobia nearly, if not altogether, unknown. 
 
 Quarantine. 
 
 The idea of completely extinguishing rabies by establishing 
 a quarantine of several months' duration among dogs, was 
 based on the assumption that the disease is only maintained 
 by contagion, and never arises spontaneously ; and that there- 
 fore if these animals could be confined for a certain period, 
 without any intercourse or any chance of the contagium being
 
 Quaratifine. 377 
 
 transmitted from those that were affected at the commence- 
 ment of the measure, the pestilence must inevitably die out. 
 Bardsley, who proposed it, after saying that the opinion he 
 held as to its purely contagious character was founded upon 
 a fair induction from facts and close analysis, adds : " The 
 plan is as simple as I trust it will prove efficacious. It consists 
 merely in establishing an universal quarantine for dogs within 
 the kingdom, and a total prohibition of the importation of these 
 animals during the existence of such quarantine. The efficacy 
 of this preventive scheme rests upon the validity of the follow- 
 ing propositions : First, that the disease always originates in 
 the canine species. Secondly, that it never arises in them 
 spontaneously. Thirdly, that the contagion, when received by 
 them, never remains latent more than a few months. If these 
 propositions have been established, it clearly follows that, by 
 destroying every dog in which the disease should break out 
 during strict quarantine, the propagation of the malady would 
 not only be prevented, but the absolute source of the poison 
 entirely suppressed." 
 
 Quarantine would no doubt be as effectual in stamping out 
 rabies as in stamping out any other purely contagious malady 
 were these propositions absolutely correct, and the measure 
 completely and permanently enforced. But, unfortunately, the 
 disease originates in other than the canine species, and in other 
 creatures of that species besides the dog ; and, unfortimately, 
 also, we are far from convinced that it never occurs spon- 
 taneously; on the contrary, though ready to admit that in 
 the great majority of cases it is spread by contagion, there 
 appears every reason to believe that it may arise without this 
 influence. 
 
 Besides, this authority proposed only two months as the 
 period which he considered long enough to afford every prospect 
 of success ; whereas it is well-established that the incubatory 
 stage is frequently protracted to a much longer interval ; indeed, 
 he admits this when he adds, that " it would undoubtedly be
 
 378 Rabies and HydropJiobia. 
 
 erring on the safe side if the time of quarantine should be 
 extended to the very unusual period of eight months." 
 
 It will be seen at once, by those who know anything of 
 veterinary sanitary matters, that a strict quarantine for dogs 
 for such a period, or even for the comparatively short space of 
 two months, is absolutely impossible at present, and perhaps 
 will always be so ; and also that, supposing the disease to be 
 confined to the dog species, and the quarantine to be religiously 
 observed or rigorously enforced, other countries might not 
 think fit to submit to the serious inconveniences arising from 
 this measure, and consequently we should, in all probability, have 
 the contagion introduced into the country again in a very brief 
 space. 
 
 Public Instructions. 
 
 Provide dog-owners, when they receive their tax-paper, with 
 printed, easily-understood instructions as to the proper method 
 of keeping their dogs healthy, and how to detect the symptoms 
 of rabies ; as well as information respecting the preservative 
 and sanitary police measures which they should comply with 
 in order to prevent the disease. All this might be printed on 
 the back of the tax-paper, which could, in addition, be made 
 a valuable means of arriving at certain important information, 
 such as the sex, age, breed, &c., of the licensed dogs. The 
 most serious accidents occur through the ignorance of the 
 public on simple matters like this of rabies. 
 
 Such, then, are the general measures to be recommended 
 with regard to the prevention of rabies at ordinary times and 
 in all seasons ; for our investigations have shown in the clearest 
 and most positive manner that the disease is not peculiar to 
 any particular period of the year, nor limited to any season, 
 but may prevail at any time. Therefore, careful supervision 
 should be extended to all dogs throughout the year, and not 
 only during the " dog days ;" and it is to this supervision, and
 
 Measures when Rabies has appeared. 379 
 
 the possession of a general knowledge of the symptoms of the 
 malady by every one who keeps a dog, that we must look for 
 success in keeping down the contagion, and preventing the 
 sacrifice of human and animal life through the efiects of such 
 a dreadful disease. 
 
 Measures to be adopted when Rabies has appeared. 
 
 Suspected Animals. — If, notwithstanding these measures, 
 morbid or unusual symptoms appear in a dog, and particularly 
 if cases of rabies have occurred in the vicinity shortly before, 
 it should be carefully observed, and every precaution taken ; 
 as they may be premonitory signs of madness, which is con- 
 tagious from its commencement. The animal should therefore 
 be constantly watched, and kept apart from mankind and other 
 animals ; and in feeding or attending to it, the greatest possible 
 care should be taken that it does not bite any one at this time. 
 No children should be permitted to approach it, and all neglect 
 of these precautions ought to be visited with severe punish- 
 ment. 
 
 If the morbid symptoms become more marked and more 
 suspicious — if it is observed that the dog manifests any of the 
 peculiarities already indicated — that it is dull and bad-tempered, 
 moves languidly from place to place, and seeks to go away — and, 
 particularly, that its ordinary habits have changed : that it is 
 hostile to people or animals, that it attempts to bite everything 
 — even if it does not refuse water — then it is time to chain it 
 up securely, or confine it in such a way that no one can be 
 injured by it. Up to this time, the owner may be permitted to 
 keep the dog in his establishment on condition that every 
 security can be, and is, adopted ; but now, and even before this 
 period, if the means for affording security are insufiicient, the 
 owner, or whoever knows of a dog or any other animal to be 
 rabid or in a suspicious condition, must not neglect reporting the 
 circumstance to the local police without assuming the gravest 
 responsibility ; and whoever does so should be held guilty of
 
 28o Rabies mid Hydrophobia. 
 
 a criminal offence.* If made known to tlie authorities by an 
 informer, the greater part of the fine imposed should go to 
 
 him. 
 
 As, however, the earliest symptoms of rabies are not always 
 recognised, and the disease shows itself sometimes apparently 
 in a sudden manner ; and as, besides, a dog or any other animal 
 already rabid may escape from home or arrive in another 
 locality, the local authorities should be compelled to give 
 warning to the inhabitants, and make known the symptoms 
 of the disease, both at its very commencement and when fully 
 developed. Similar instructions should be given by medical 
 men and veterinary surgeons, f 
 
 As the domesticated animals of every kind may have been 
 bitten by a mad dog or other creature, or soiled with the saliva, 
 without the owner knowing it, the latter should be obliged to 
 notice carefully every one that becomes ill, and bear in mind 
 the earliest symptoms of rabies — such as unusual excitement, 
 bad temper, and unwonted sulkiness, peculiar hoarse voice, 
 viciousness towards those about it, and desire to do them injury. 
 If by these manifestations the animal's condition gives rise to 
 suspicion, it ought to be sequestrated, and proper precautions 
 adopted. 
 
 * The Austrian Penal Code (387) says : " Is guilty of infraction of the law 
 and liable to imprisonment, whoever knows of a dog or any other animal 
 showing the distinctive symptoms, or symptoms which warrant suspicion, of 
 rabies, and who neglects to report the same to the police. In case of the appear- 
 ance of the disease and the biting of men or of animals, the culprit shall be punished 
 with from three days' to three months' imprisonment [career e duro). If a serious 
 wound or the death of a human being has been the consequence of this 
 negligence, the infraction shall come under the application of 335, which says ; 
 Shall be punished with from one to six months' imprisonment, he who shall be 
 guilty of this negligence, if its consequence has been a serious wound ; the 
 penalty is from six months' to a year's close imprisonment, if the death of a man 
 has been the consequence. Otherwise,- the proprietor is always responsible for 
 the damage caused by mad animals." 
 
 t In this country, so far as I can learn, no attempt has been made to calry 
 out such a recommendation as this. All the legislative enactments have been 
 limited to such measures as causing dogs to be muzzled, or led about in the 
 streets, or confined to their dwellings. Stray dogs have also usually been 
 captured. These efforts are, of course, far from effective.
 
 Police Regiilatio7is. 381 
 
 If more serious symptoms show themselves, the proprietor 
 should immediately report the case to the local police, to avoid 
 incurring a grave responsibility ; and the animal ought to be 
 at once sacrificed by him, after inspection by an expert or by 
 order of the police authorities. 
 
 If the owner is aware that the sick or suspected creature has 
 been bitten by a rabid animal, it is still more necessary at once 
 to report the circumstance to the local authorities. 
 
 Mad Animals^ or those wounded hy them. — "With regard 
 to the measures to be taken in the case of mad animals or 
 those wounded by them, the following should be rigorously 
 enforced : — 
 
 1. A dog suspected of or attacked hy rabies^ or one that has 
 been bitten by a rabid animal, should not be killed at once and 
 buried, unless there is reason to suppose that no person has 
 been wounded by it. 
 
 2. If a person has been bitten by an animal really affected 
 with rabies, or suspected to be affected with that disease, it 
 should only be killed if the malady is unmistakably present ; 
 if it is only a suspicious case, it is well not to kill it immedi- 
 ately, but keep it securely confined and under close surveillance, 
 so as to be able to verify whether the suspicions are confirmed, 
 which wiU not be long ; if they are affirmed, then the creature 
 must be killed and buried. 
 
 3. If an animal suspected or affected with the disease escapes 
 from its owner or from a locality, or if an animal of this descrip- 
 tion is seen in a locality, it is the urgent duty of every one to 
 warn the police immediately. The latter should then, in their 
 turn, warn the people in the town or village, or its suburbs, so 
 as to put them on their guard. This warning should not 
 be given in such a manner as to cause alarm and fear, but 
 only to induce the adoption of careful measures and ample 
 precautions. In such circumstances, all children should be 
 watched, and dogs and other animals ought to be confined or 
 kept from strange dogs, or those whose state of health is not
 
 382 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 well ascertained. All wandering dogs should be confined or 
 killed.* 
 
 * The New Eaglish Dog Act, published on the 24th July, 1871, entitled 
 " An Act to Provide Further Protection against Dogs," and applicable to all the 
 country, is a slight improvement in the matter of legislation in this country, 
 but is not likely to be so effective as is necessary to cope with a malady like 
 rabies. It is Ln these terms : — 
 
 " Whereas it is expedient that further protection should be provided against 
 dogs : 
 
 " Be it enacted by the Queen's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice 
 and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present 
 Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows : 
 
 "1. From and after the passing of this Act, any police officer or constable may 
 take possession of any dog that he has reason to suppose to be savage or 
 dangerous straying on any highway, and not under the control of any person, 
 and may detain such dog until the owner has claimed the same, and paid all 
 expenses incurred by reason of such detention. 
 
 " Where the owner of any dog taken possession of by any constable is known, 
 a letter, stating the fact of such dog having been taken possession of, shall be 
 sent by post or otherwise to the owner at his usual or last known place of 
 abode. 
 
 " When any dog taken in pursuance of this Act has been detained for three 
 clear days where the owner is not known, as aforesaid, or for five clear days 
 where he is so known, without the owner claiming the same, and paying all 
 expenses incurred by its detention, the chief officer of police of the district in 
 which such dog was found may cause such dog to be sold or destroyed. 
 
 " Any moneys arising from the sale of any dogs in pursuance of this section 
 shall be paid to the account of the local rate, and be applied to the purposes to 
 which that rate is applicable. 
 
 " All dogs detained under this section shall be properly fed and maintained at 
 the expense of the local rate. 
 
 "2. Any court of summary jurisdiction may take cognizance of a complaint 
 that a dog is dangerous, and not kept under proper control, and if it appears to 
 the court having cognizance of such complaint that such dog is dangerous, the 
 court may make an order in a summary way, directing the dog to be kept by 
 the owner under proper control or destroyed ; and any person failing to comply 
 with such order shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty shHlings for 
 every day during which he fails to comply with such order. 
 
 " 3. The local authorities may, if a mad dog or a dog suspected of being mad is 
 found within their jurisdiction, make, and when made vary or revoke, an order 
 placing such restrictions as they think expedient on all dogs not under the con- 
 trol of any person during such period as may be prescribed in such order 
 throughout the whole of their jurisdiction, or such part thereof as may be pre- 
 scribed in such order. 
 
 "Any person who acts in contravention of any order made in pursuance of 
 this section shall be Uable to a penalty not exceeding twenty shillings 
 
 " Due notice of such order shall be published at the expense of the local rate. 
 " The provisions in this Act contained as to the detention and sale or destruc
 
 Detention of Suspected Dogs. 383 
 
 Every means must be adopted, and all precautions duly 
 observed, to capture the mad or suspected animal. If really 
 rabid it shoiild be killed ; if only suspected, its life may be 
 spared, adopting every precaution in the meantime in order to 
 ascertain its condition. This measure, as we have already 
 noticed, is all the more necessary if we do not know whether 
 it has wounded people or animals. Even if it is ascertained 
 that it has not done so, it is yet most prudent to keep it under 
 observation until its diseased or healthy condition is assured. 
 The reasons for this step have been given. 
 
 The period during which it should be kept under observation 
 should certainly not be less than four months. Hertwig gives 
 an instance in which a suspected dog was so kept for twelve 
 weeks, when, showing no signs of rabies, it was discharged. 
 In the thirteenth week the disease made its appearance. And 
 the examples we have given, when speaking of the period of 
 incubation, will show the necessity for extending the sequestra- 
 tion to something like six months. 
 
 In every case, and under all circumstances, the local authority 
 should take exact note of these occurrences, and particularly 
 endeavour to discover the domicile and the owner of the animal, 
 and learn whether any person or animal has been attacked or 
 wounded by it in the locality or elsewhere, &c. When a 
 mad dog appears, the regulations and restrictions should be 
 applied over a wide extent of country, and neighbouring dis- 
 tricts should be warned ; as it frequently happens that in this 
 disease a dog will run great distances, especially at night : for 
 it appears to choose this time for its wanderings — returning 
 home in the morning after having, perhaps, inflicted injuries 
 on other animals far and near. Besides, the owner miffht some- 
 
 tion of dogs found straj-ing on the highway shall apply to dogs found at large in 
 contravention of any order made in pursuance of this section. 
 
 "4. In England and Ireland any penalty under this Act may be recovered in 
 manner provided by the Summary Jurisdiction Act, and in Scotland all such 
 penalties shall be prosecuted and recovered before a court of Summarj- Jurisdic- 
 tion, under the provisions of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1864."
 
 384 Rabies ajid Hydrophobia. 
 
 times, not unnaturally, seek to save his favourite from tlie 
 operation of the law, and remove it to another district where 
 there are no restrictions. Hence the necessity for extending 
 the preventive measures over a large expanse of country ; for 
 it must be remembered that strange dogs cause most cases of 
 rabies and hydrophobia. 
 
 Hertwig is of opinion that the introduction of preventive 
 measures should not be limited to towns, but must be extended 
 to the open country. " During a period of forty years, when- 
 ever rabies has spread as an epizooty, I have always observed 
 that dogs belonging to peasants or other persons living in the 
 country, and running at large, without supervision, into the 
 towns, were the chief instruments in the extension of the scourge." 
 In addition to this, in the announcement made to the inhabit- 
 ants of the surrounding districts, the country towards which 
 the animal is proceeding, or the direction from which it came, 
 should be made known ; as well as a description of the creature 
 with regard to breed, size, colour, and other distinctive charac- 
 teristics, in order that all necessary information be procured, 
 so as to avert evil consequences as speedily as possible. 
 
 These measures are more particularly applicable to the occur- 
 rence of isolated or sporadic cases ; but in times of special danger, 
 as when the disease assumes a more than usual virulency, or when 
 it becomes widespread or epizootic, they are also beneficial, and 
 must then be enforced with the greatest vigour and exactitude. 
 
 In addition, every possessor of a dog or dogs shoiJd be made 
 to give due notice to the authorities of all changes taking place, 
 either with regard to the sale, transfer, exchange, or death of 
 animals, or on each new acquisition, in order that the same 
 be duly noted in the register of dogs kept for each district. 
 This register might be of a temporary kind, or be made every 
 year. It should contain the names of all owners of dogs, with 
 the number of the animals they keep, their sex, and purpose 
 for which they are kept; these dogs should be identified by 
 their license number.
 
 Destruction of Dogs. 385 
 
 It may be necessarj^ at this time to have recourse to the 
 muzzle for everj'- dog out of doors, except useful dogs when 
 employed, as the muzzle might then be objectionable. In 
 populous towns, in addition to the muzzle, but not as a sub- 
 stitute for it, it might be necessary to ordain that dogs be led 
 by a chain or thong. 
 
 It is above all things necessary that the muzzle should fit 
 the dog's head in such a manner that it cannot bite through it, 
 or slip it ofi". A muzzle too small is most objectionable, as it 
 may irritate the animal and cause it great discomfort ; while 
 one too large may allow the dog to inflict wounds. If it is 
 ordered that muzzles are to be worn, the police should see that 
 every dog has one of a proper size, and any wilful infraction 
 of this most essential regulation should be punishable by a fine.* 
 The destruction of dogs must be carried out assiduously. No 
 dogs should be allowed to be at large, and all stray dogs should 
 be caught and killed immediately, if without a muzzle ; but, if 
 at large with a muzzle on, they might be kept for three days ; 
 if wearing a collar with the owner's address, they might be 
 returned, and a fine imposed. In all cases, neglect of the 
 sanitary orders should be severely punished. All dogs bitten 
 by those which are mad, or suspected, or which have been in 
 immediate contact with them, ought also to be destroyed or 
 sequestrated for a proper period ; it is more particularly de- 
 sirable, however, that those bitten should be killed, as, though 
 our statistics show that only some 50 per cent, of the dogs 
 
 * In corroboration of these remarks, the following extract from the Leeds 
 Mercury for June 7th, 1871, may be quoted :—" Muzzling Dogs. — In numerous 
 instances, the patent muzzle for the canine race proves to be little protection 
 to the public. It is frequently noticed that the muzzles, when placed on the 
 heads of the animals, are so large that they can not only drink water, but eat 
 with the wire cage on their nose, and it not unfrequently happens the dogs are 
 observed carrying or gnawing large bones with the wire protection still fastened 
 on the head. In some instances, so large are the muzzles, the animal slips its 
 head through the frame. On Tuesday, in Brighouse, a gentleman was walking 
 along the road, when a dog — the muzzle being much too large— rushed at him 
 and bit him on the leg. The wound, only skin-deep, was attended to by a 
 medical man." 
 
 C C
 
 2 86 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 wounded by mad dogs become rabid, yet tlie value of the dog is 
 too small and the danger too great to admit of any exception 
 
 being made. 
 
 It must always be remembered, that dogs which have been 
 in contact with those that are mad may have been wounded, 
 though the wounds cannot always be easily discovered ; and as 
 the smallest scratch is sufficient to produce the malady, so all 
 animals which have been in contact with the diseased, to. ensure 
 safety, should be considered suspected. The contumacy of the 
 owner should not be allowed to interfere, as fatal experience has 
 shown that there is no security save in these severe but effective 
 measures. It is certainly a painful proceeding to kill all sus- 
 pected dogs, and one which our better feelings and admiration 
 for the most devoted and affectionate of animals would not 
 readily allow us to resort to ; but when we know the dreadful 
 character of rabies, and the great danger to which the human 
 species and other creatures are exposed, we can no longer 
 hesitate in prescribing the measure, which is, if we look at 
 results, a humane one. 
 
 If there was any possibility of suspected dogs being kept 
 closely confined and under observation for a period equal to the 
 extreme duration of the incubatory stage of the malady, then 
 we would gladly recommend that this course should be adopted ; 
 and for this purpose our veterinary schools, if they were at all 
 adapted for such an office, might be used as conservative 
 hospitals, should the dogs be considered worth keeping for so 
 long a period. 
 
 And if we insist on the immediate destruction of all suspected 
 dogs, including those which have been attacked or bitten by 
 rabid ones, or on a close detention of four,' five, or six months in 
 some secure place, it is because there are no certain limits to 
 the period of incubation, which, as we have seen from Renault's 
 statistics, may vary from five to a hundred and eighteen days. 
 The only exception that might possibly be made in favour of 
 sparing the lives of dogs wounded by others which were rabid.
 
 Siispeded Dogs. 387 
 
 would be in those oases where the wounds had been thoroughly- 
 cauterised within five minut^ after being received ; though even 
 then the most careful supervision would have to be exercised on 
 the chance of a slight wound having escaped observation. 
 
 Lafosse indicates, as suspected of rabies, all animals which 
 are found in the following conditions : — 
 
 1. Those which have been bitten by rabid animals. 
 
 2. Those which have been inoculated in any way with the 
 saliva of rabid animals. 
 
 3. Those which have eaten the flesh, drunk the blood or the 
 milk of animals afiected with rabies, or which have been soiled 
 by the simple contact of these or other matters, particularly 
 the saliva. 
 
 4. Those which have had sexual connection with suspected 
 animals that shortly afterwards have really become mad. 
 
 5. Those which have been bitten by dogs or other animals 
 found dead, and at the examination of whose body there have 
 been found indications of the presence of rabies. 
 
 6. Those which have been bitten by animals whose furious 
 condition has caused them to be killed, and which on examina- 
 tion present these signs, independently of those caused by the 
 violent death. 
 
 7. The dogs affected by some vague disease, accompanied by a 
 threatening demeanour, modified voice, desire to bite, refusal of 
 food and drink, and abundant salivation. 
 
 He also adds that all the animals suspected of communicated 
 rabies should, as quickly as possible, receive those attentions 
 which are recognised as the most proper to destroy the rabid 
 virus or to prevent its absorption. If these cares are not 
 bestowed within twenty-four hours at the latest, after the 
 injuries have been inflicted or the inoculations effected, the 
 animals should be killed. Every suspected dog should be 
 sequestrated for three months, and rigorously muzzled for 
 another three months. 
 
 Much care is required in capturing mad, suspected, or stray
 
 388 Rabies ajid Hydrophobia. 
 
 dogs, as they might inflict wounds. In general, it will be found 
 that a lasso of wire, catgut, or rawjiide attached to the end of a 
 walking stick, is, with a little practice, very effective ; but the 
 poor animals should be gently dealt with, and all cruelty should 
 be studiously avoided. When captured, they ought not to be 
 led or dragged along, but put in a covered cart or waggon with 
 separate compartments for each animal, to prevent fighting and 
 subsequent danger ; for, if put altogether in one place, it might 
 happen that a rabid dog would be among the number and 
 wound the others, some of which might be claimed by their 
 owners, and set at liberty again. The same observation is 
 applicable to the building in which stray dogs are kept. 
 
 In destroying dogs, experienced men ought to be employed, 
 and life should be extinguished as promptly as possible, the 
 avoidance of pain being studiously inculcated. The use of 
 instruments is not, as a rule, to be commended, and poison is 
 generally preferable. Nothing can be more effective and 
 humane than the administration of a sufficient quantity of 
 strong, newly-prepared Prussic acid, poured into the throat. 
 
 M. Bouley's remarks with regard to the destruction of dogs 
 bitten by those which are rabid, or by mad wolves, and the 
 risks the population incur through mad dogs, are particularly 
 valuable. In the documents which had been forwarded to him 
 for inspection, he found that the number of dogs bitten was 
 785, and that out of this number 527 had been killed. Of the 
 258 remaining, the fate of only 25 was reported ; these had 
 been sequestrated, and 13 of them became rabid. These figures 
 are far from giving an exact estimate of the animals belonging 
 to the canine species which received virulent bites. They only 
 show the number of animals about which the local autho- 
 rities have received and given information. Such as they are, 
 however, they have a signification which it is very important 
 to indicate. Establish this first fact, that out of the number 
 of dogs which are stated to have been contaminated by a rabific 
 bite, there is nearly one-third — 29 per cent. — that appears
 
 Sequestration and Destruction. 389 
 
 to have escaped tlie sanitary measures of sequestration or 
 slaughter, in consequence, probably, of carelessness, ignorance, 
 or the too great complaisance of the authorities charged to 
 apply these measures : in consequence, also, of the indifference 
 of the threatened populations, who ought to be always the first, 
 if they rightly understood their own interests, to demand the 
 application of those measures which are for the public good. 
 Their necessity, too imperfectly understood, is demonstrated by 
 the facts which are about to be related. Of the 25 dogs whose 
 sequestration had been reported and history traced, one-half 
 contracted rabies. Admitting that the same result was pro- 
 duced in the group of 233 dogs allowed to go at large, not- 
 withstanding their contamination, it happens that 116 would 
 have become in their turn the propagators of this terrible 
 malady ; and there is no exaggeration in stating that each of 
 these might make a dozen victims in its own species, each again 
 destined to furnish a new legion of propagating agents, and so 
 on. In this way the rabies of the canine species maintains 
 itself, and its increase goes on at a redoubtable rate ; while, if 
 the authorities were vigilant, and, more especially, if the people 
 were more anxious about their own preservation, and knew how 
 to protect themselves, we might soon be able, without any 
 very great difficulty, to reduce to very minimum proportions 
 the disasters caused by this disease, and the irreparable mis- 
 fortunes that it only too often brings about when man himself 
 is attacked. For it is excessively rare that canine rabies is 
 spontaneous. In the immense majority of cases this malady 
 only proceeds from contagion ; in 1,000 rabid dogs there are 
 at least 999 which owe their disease to the inoculation from a 
 bite. 
 
 The contagion is, therefore, the great cause that must be 
 extinguished, or at least whose action must be circimiscribed 
 within the narrowest limits possible. It is evident that this 
 result would be obtained if, every time a mad dog has passed 
 through a locality, we knew exactly the animals it had bitten, and
 
 390 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 these were put beyond the power to do evil by a real sequestra- 
 tion prolonged to eight months at the least ; or by immediate 
 slaughter, which is undoubtedly the most efficacious measure, 
 because the germ of the disease is then destroyed before it has 
 time to fructify. I do not conceal from myself that numerous 
 difficulties oppose themselves to the application of one or 
 other of these measures ; but they are nevertheless absolutely 
 necessary, and if applied with vigour would ultimately bring 
 about the total extinction of the rabific contagion. In a very 
 great number of cases, in fact, the dog is for man more than 
 an animal — it is a creature to which he is attached by a senti- 
 ment of affection frequently of the strongest kind ; to many, 
 it is one of the family, the favourite of the children, and often 
 a cherished souve7iir. It will readily be conceived, therefore, that 
 in such conditions it must be difficult to obtain the acquiescence 
 of its master to its arrest or death. There only remains 
 sequestration ; but, vmless this is maintained in a special esta- 
 blishment, there are many obstacles to its being carried out witb 
 all the necessary severity. During the first days, when every 
 one is filled with the dread of the even* that has occurred, the 
 dog that has been bitten is submitted to a rigid surveillance ; 
 it is securely tied or shut up, and promises are made that it will 
 be carefully kept in quarantine for the whole period necessary ; 
 but, as time passes, the fears entertained as to the future dis- 
 appear, and on some fine day the suspected animal is set at 
 liberty, just at the moment when it is most to be dreaded — at 
 the period when the incubation of the disease is approaching 
 its termination, and the outbreak of rabies is imminent. No 
 one is disturbed by this premature liberty being allowed to the 
 inoculated animal — its master, because he no longer believes in 
 the danger; the inhabitants of the locality, because they have 
 forgotten all about it ; and the authorities, through ignorance 
 of what may happen, neglect of their duty, or through fear of 
 doing it. And in this way may be realised the fatal condition 
 as to the propagation of i-abies by this animal to which a bite
 
 Disinfection . 391 
 
 has transmitted the germ. Let us remember that of the 25 dogs 
 whose sequestration is mentioned in Bowley's inquiry, 13 
 became rabid. What a number ! and how powerfully it testifies 
 to the absolute necessity for taking vigorous measures against 
 all dogs that have been bitten, so as to put them beyond the 
 pale of causing mischief ! And because sequestration is only 
 too frequently an uncertain measure, while immediate slaughter 
 of suspected animals is, for the people, a condition of absolute 
 security, I believe that in such a case humanity points out the 
 course to be adopted. It is better that dogs should die than 
 mankind. Otherwise, if the sentiment of humanity does not 
 speak loud enough to inspire, and cause to be followed by every 
 one, the line of conduct above indicated as the best, and which 
 must be resorted to after all, there is, it must be admitted, 
 an excellent means for determining the owners of suspected 
 dogs to sacrifice them ; that is, to make the responsibility for 
 the damage and disasters their animals may cause weigh 
 heavily upon them. 
 
 The medical treatment of rabid animals is not to be 
 countenanced, as a rule, except under the conditions already 
 specified. The instances in which they are reported to have 
 recovered are exceedingly rare ; and they either have occurred 
 under extraordinary circumstances, or are not sufficiently well 
 authenticated to warrant any one in incurring all the risks 
 attendant upon keeping such dangerous creatures alive on the 
 slender hope of curing them. 
 
 Disinfection, 
 
 All the slaughtered dogs should be buried in a place set 
 apart for the purpose, and at a good depth ; the skins should 
 not be removed from their bodies, but should have large cuts 
 made crossways in them ; and they ought never to be thrown 
 into ditches, ponds, or streams, as is so frequently done. Quick- 
 lime should be thrown over them.
 
 392 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 If the animal has been kept in a kennel, all the wood- work, 
 straw, shavings, &c., everything in fact that may have been soiled 
 by the saliva, should be consigned to the flames, or thoroughly 
 soaked with carbolic acid, chloralum, Condy's fluid, or any other 
 powerful disinfectant. The floor of the kennel, stable, or place 
 in which the animal has been kept, should be well scrubbed 
 with boiling water, and covered with quick- lime, or any agent 
 noted for its power in destroying contagious matters. The 
 same should be done with the walls of the place as high as the 
 dog could reach.* The chain that attached the animal, and 
 other ironwork which may have been in contact with it, should 
 be heated in the fire, and all necessary precautions adopted as 
 in diseases which are communicable by a fixed, or even volatile, 
 contagium. 
 
 With reference to disinfection, it may be worth referring 
 to Hertwig's experiments. After giving a number of dogs 
 the saliva and blood of rabid animals for a certain time without 
 result, he put five of them into kennels where mad dogs had 
 been, put the collars of these upon their necks, attached them 
 by the same chains, made them lie upon the same straw, &c., 
 but yet none of them became rabid. 
 
 * Mr. Trevalyan, in his correspoudence with Dr. Bardsley, stated that, after 
 losing one pack of hounds from rabies, he not only removed the straw, but had 
 the benches scalded with boiling water, and afterwards all the joints, cracks, &c., 
 painted over, and filled up with hot tar ; the walls were then whitewashed, 
 and the pavement cleaned with hot water. Thus secure, as he thought, he 
 collected another pack ; yet rabies broke out year after year. In consequence, 
 the pavement tainted with the secretions was removed, and the earth in which it 
 was imbedded thrown into the river ; the kennels were then new painted and 
 whitewashed, and ever afterwards the pack was free from infection. 
 
 It may be mentioned that, not long ago, it was the fashion among fox-hunters 
 to keep a flock of geeae in the kennels where mad dogs had been, and it has been 
 asserted that this practice was found far superior to frequent ablutions. — James'' 
 " Treatise on Canine Madness," p. 19. This idea is about as absurd as the notion 
 which the ancient Romans had, according to Pliny. They believed that a dog 
 which had lapped or tasted the milk of a woman who had a male child would 
 never become mad. — Hist. Nat., book xxviii. chap. vii.
 
 Duration of Police Regulations. 393 
 
 Duration of Police Regulations. 
 
 With regard to tlie length of the time during which the police 
 regulations should remain in force, there is no definite rule. 
 Knowing the limit of the period of incubation, it might be 
 inferred that the sequestration of dogs should extend to that 
 period. In Saxony, where the dog laws have been rigidly 
 carried out, it has been found that three months was generally 
 an effective interval ; though if new cases occurred during this 
 time, the period was dated from them. Notwithstanding the 
 inconvenience and annoyance oftentimes occasioned by the 
 restrictions imposed for so long a period, yet those who suffer 
 most from them should bear in mind the great interests that are 
 at stake, and cheerfully aid the authorities in their endeavours 
 to suppress a contagion which causes such terrible destruction 
 and alarm ; the more strictly judiciously-framed veterinary police 
 regulations are obeyed, the sooner will the course of the pesti- 
 lence be terminated, and the less will its ravages be felt. 
 
 The same police regulations are applicable to rabid or sus- 
 pected cats. They ought to be at once killed, and all other 
 cats and dogs bitten by them should be destroyed. 
 
 Measures to be adopted with other Animals than 
 
 Dogs. 
 
 We have already made some allusion to the measures to be 
 adopted with the other domesticated animals, and we have now 
 to complete our observations. 
 
 In the last century, and perhaps even now — for in this 
 country there are no veterinary police regulations for this 
 disease — the same severe measures were sometimes applied to 
 the other domesticated animals as to the suspected dog, through 
 ignorance of the disease as it affects them, as well as indis- 
 crimination ; and they were generally killed at once or left to 
 chance, as the case might be. In dealing with them it must
 
 394 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 be remembered that they are not like the dog, — our constant 
 companion, and that their natural weapons of attack are 
 diflerent ; so that they very rarely extend the contagion ; and, 
 in reality, veterinary police regulations with nearly all of them 
 should only be secondary to medical police laws — those which 
 have to do with the flesh, milk, &c., derived from them. The 
 veterinary regulations should have chiefly for their object the 
 health of the animal while alive, and its destruction when 
 diseased. * 
 
 When these animals have been in contact with, or been 
 bitten by, a rabid or suspected dog, the circumstance should be 
 reported; they should be visited by an expert as quickly as 
 possible, and their bodies carefully examined, particularly the 
 ears, mouth and nose, and limbs and tail, in order to discover 
 if there are any wounds, even of the most trivial description. 
 Those discovered to be wounded shoidd be at once isolated, 
 and carefully watched. Preservative treatment may be recom- 
 mended, but of course cannot be ordered. Haubner states 
 that the isolation of wounded animals is unnecessary, as 
 nothing is to be feared from them should they become mad. 
 Roll says separation and medical treatment is necessary, 
 unless the proprietor decides to kill them. But, as will 
 be seen from our previous description of the symptoms, all 
 rabid animals — excluding the dog, cat, fox, and wolf, of 
 course — are more or less dangerous to others or to mankind, 
 and particularly the horse ; even the sheep may become so at 
 times. It is better, therefore, to separate the wounded or 
 suspected from the uncontaminated, aod to place them under 
 veterinary or police observation. Such animals as horses, oxen, 
 and other beasts of labour, should be permitted to work in the 
 immediate vicinity of their home; but they ought not to be 
 allowed to travel far beyond this on any pretext. If a mad 
 dog has been among a herd of cattle or flock of sheep, the 
 whole herd or flock should be placed under surveillance. 
 
 None of the domesticated animals, other than those referred
 
 Pleasures with other Aimnah. 395 
 
 to, if bitten or suspected, should be sold, bartered, or removed 
 within a period equal to the limits of their several periods of 
 incubation. Roll gives four months at the least for the sale of 
 horses and cattle ; but for other animals used as food the 
 minimum may be three months. 
 
 Haubner gives the period of supervision as two months for 
 sheep, three months for pigs and horses, and six months for 
 cattle, and we should prefer this as a basis for regulating the 
 restriction to that of Roll. At any rate, it is a great mistake 
 to make the quarantine time the same for all animals ; this 
 should be regulated by the average duration of the incubatory 
 period in the different species. 
 
 The immediate slaughter of all the bitten animals is 
 unjustifiable, as only about 50 per cent, take the disease ; 
 and, when compared with dogs, the danger is very trifling, 
 even when rabies manifests itself. It is, therefore, time 
 enough to resort to slaughter when the disease shows itself, 
 unless the owner is desirous of avoiding the risk of loss and 
 wishes to sell the carcase for food. 
 
 As soon as the disease manifests itself, notice ought to be 
 given to the authorities, and an examination made by a 
 veterinary surgeon ; when, if it be ascertained that rabies 
 is really present, and the owner does not object, the animal 
 may be killed. All animals in which rabies is confirmed should 
 be slaughtered, and no attempts at treatment permitted, except 
 xmder the restrictions before mentioned. 
 
 The carcase must be buried intact, with the skin slashed pro- 
 fusely. Haubner admits that if, with the rigor mortis, the 
 virulence of the contagium is extinct, then skinning might be 
 allowed, if conducted with care, and the skins utilised. 
 
 Should the carcase chance to be dug up and eaten by animals, 
 there is no danger to be apprehended, according to Haubner ; 
 but Lafosse says the dead bodies should be covered by at least 
 four feet of earth, and the burial-places guarded from carnivorous 
 creatures.
 
 396 Rabies and Hydrophobia. 
 
 Biswfection, — Everything used with rabid animals was at 
 one time destroyed; but neither observation nor experiment, 
 as we have shown, warrant such a measure. The same means 
 of purification may be resorted to as have been prescribed for 
 the dog. 
 
 The Flesh as Food. 
 
 Haubner says that the slaughter of animals for food may be 
 permittted within twenty-four hours after the bite of a rabid 
 creature, but the injured portion must be cut out and destroyed ; 
 even after this time, killing an animal for the sake of its flesh 
 may also be permissible, provided the flesh be consumed by the 
 owner, and not ofiered for public sale ; as the sentiment of the 
 consumers must be consulted. He grants this permission on 
 the plea, that before the outbreak of the disease no contagion 
 is manifest; and that it has been positively ascertained that 
 before the third day after the inoculation, the flesh of animals 
 that afterwards became rabid was eaten with impunity. 
 
 Milk. 
 
 According to the same high authority, forbidding the use of 
 milk derived from bitten animals is wrong until the disease 
 appears. It may be given to other animals, and the owner of 
 the cattle might use it. Butter and cheese might also be made 
 from it, and kept until it was ascertained whether or not the 
 animal had been successfully inoculated with the rabid virus. 
 
 People have remained healthy even when using the milk at 
 the commencement of the disease ; but our researches prove 
 that both flesh and milk are dangerous when the malady is 
 developed. 
 
 Resume of Preventive Measures. 
 The measures to be recommended for the prevention of rabies 
 and its extension to the human species, may be comprised under 
 the following heads : —
 
 Resume, of Prevejitive Mea suites. 397 
 
 A. The owners of dogs and other animals should be made 
 to understand the responsibility that rests upon them with 
 regard to the health of their animals, and particularly when 
 contagious diseases appear among them. To maintain them in 
 health they should be properly cared for, and their food, water, 
 cleanliness, and general hygienic treatment should be scrupu- 
 lously attended to, more especially when rabies is prevalent. 
 
 B. The number of useless dogs should be diminished as much 
 as possible, and a tax should be levied on all dogs. 
 
 C. Every dog should wear a collar with its owner's name 
 and address engraved thereon, as well as a particular mark 
 impressed by the licensing or police authorities for the proper 
 reofistration and identification of the animal. 
 
 D. All stray dogs without the collar or the owner's name and 
 address thereon should be captured, and if not claimed within 
 a limited period, sold or destroyed ; and dogs straying with the 
 proper collar on, may, when circumstances render it necessary, 
 be seized and confined, or returned to the owner, who pays 
 expenses, and is fined, if need be. Bitches in rut should not 
 be allowed to go at large at any time. 
 
 E. Unless under special circumstances, as when rabies is 
 prevalent, or when certain animals are vicious, the muzzle 
 should not be worn. 
 
 F. The owners of dogs should be held responsible for the 
 damage done by them. 
 
 G. Diseased dogs, or those which show the slightest symptoms 
 of disease, altered habits, &c., should be carefully watched, and 
 precautions adopted. If the symptoms of rabies appear, the 
 circumstance should be reported to the police by the owner or 
 attendant on the dog, or other person who knows of its con- 
 dition. Neglect of this should be estimated as a criminal 
 ofience. The police should know the early symptoms of the 
 disease. 
 
 H. If other animals which have been in contact with, or bitten 
 by, a rabid dog become unwell afterwards, the symptoms ought to
 
 3 9 8 Rabies and Hyd) vphobia. 
 
 be noted, and should they lead to a suspicion of rabies, the crea- 
 tures must be isolated, and their condition reported to the police. 
 
 I. Suspected animals should not be killed at once if they 
 have bitten any person, but only destroyed when the disease 
 is unmistakably present. In the meantime, they should be 
 well secured and confined. 
 
 J. A mad or suspected dog escaping from its owner, or 
 appearing in a district, should be the signal for alertness, and 
 those who know of the circumstance ought to wai-n the police 
 at once. Children should be guarded, and animals confined 
 or kept from strange dogs. All wandering dogs should be 
 confined or killed. 
 
 K. Rabid dogs should be killed ; if only suspected, they may 
 be kept until their condition is ascertained. 
 
 L. The police authorities should endeavour to obtain every 
 information about any rabid or suspected dog, and to discover 
 the name and address of its owner, learning also what damage 
 it may have done. Regulations and restrictions should be 
 extended over a wide space of country, and neighbouring 
 districts should be warned ; all information necessary to put 
 the inhabitants on the alert ought also to be given. 
 
 M. When the disease appears in a virulent or epizootic form, 
 all measures ought to be rigorously enforced. Owners of dogs 
 should give due notice of all changes occurring among their 
 animals. Muzzling may be necessary ; but the muzzle for each 
 dog should be properly and securely constructed, and suflBcient 
 in size, without being too large. It must have appliances for 
 attaching it firmly to the head. 
 
 N. The destruction and confinement of dogs must be assidu- 
 ously carried out, and heavy fines or imprisonment should be im- 
 posed upon those who attempt to evade or neglect the regulations. 
 
 O. Dogs should be slaughtered with as little cruelty as 
 possible. They ought to be buried deeply in the ground. 
 
 P. Disinfection should be carried out, as with other con- 
 tagious diseases.
 
 Precautions in Handling Dogs. 399 
 
 Q. The police regulations and restrictions should be con- 
 tinued for some months beyond the appearance of the last case 
 of rabies. This period should be dependent upon the limit of 
 the incubatory stage of the disease in the dog. 
 
 R. With regard to other animals, when wounded by a sus- 
 pected or rabid dog, the circumstances should be reported and 
 steps taken to ensure safety. Horses, oxen, and other working 
 animals may be employed in the immediate vicinity of their 
 homes, but must not be sold, bartered, or removed within a certain 
 period. The immediate slaughter of wounded or suspected 
 animals is not necessary ; but as soon as rabies manifests itself, 
 notice should be given to the local authorities, and the neces- 
 sary steps taken to prevent damage. The bodies should be 
 buried intact ; though under special circumstances skinning 
 them may be allowed, in order to tan or dress these parts. 
 
 S. Disinfection to be resorted to as in the case of rabid doffs. 
 
 T. The flesh is not dangerous as food until the symptoms of 
 the disease have appeared. If used before this period, certain 
 precautious should be adopted. 
 
 U. The milk may also be utilised during the same period. 
 
 X. Competent veterinarians must co-operate in the execution 
 of these measures. 
 
 Precautions to be observed in handling Dogs and 
 OTHER Carnivorous Animals. 
 
 Though the dog, as a rule, is such a docile and gentle animal 
 to those with which it is acquainted, yet to strangers frequently, 
 and even to friends on occasions, it readily employs its teeth ; and 
 as its bite is not always without danger, it is best to be on one's 
 guard by handling it with care. To those unaccustomed to 
 manipulate the animal, these remarks are more particularly 
 intended, as a little maladroitness may bring about serious 
 consequences. 
 
 In administering medicine, either fluid or solid, precautions 
 are very necessary, as the mouth must be opened to introduce
 
 400 Rabies and HydropJwhia. 
 
 the remedy well into the throat, and the animal generally 
 struggles, when its teeth may cause injury. For those who are 
 not practised in giving medicine, it would be as well to wear 
 a pair of strong leather gloves, and the dog being firmly held by 
 another person by the back of the neck, or between the knees 
 of the operator, the mouth may be opened by inserting the 
 fingers of one hand behind the fangs, and pressing down the 
 lower jaw. A very good and safe plan is also to pass a wide 
 piece of tape around the upper jaw behind the fangs, and 
 another on the lower jaw in the same situation ; by pulling 
 these pieces of tape, one upwards, the other downwards, the 
 mouth is drawn open, and can be so kept with safety for as 
 long as may be necessary. 
 
 The only safe place to grip a dog is at the back of the neck, 
 behind the head ; there the skin is sufficiently loose to afibrd 
 a good hold, while the hands cannot be touched by the animal's 
 teeth so long as the grasp is maintained. 
 
 With savage or rabid animals, it only too frequently happens 
 that blows will not prevent their biting and holding on. This 
 is particularly noticeable in fighting dogs, which will endure 
 any amount of punishment before they relax their grip, or desist 
 from tearing. Serious accidents have over and over again arisen 
 from people attempting to defend themselves, or rescue other 
 persons or dogs from some infuriated or mad animal's fangs.* 
 The simplest, safest, and by far the most efiective plan is choking. 
 If the animal wears a collar, this is easily done, as one has only 
 
 * The instances are numerous in which 1 have seen serious wounds inflicted 
 on persons who have interfered to stop dogs fighting or biting other persons ; 
 but one of the most unfortunate cases is that related by Dr. Moseley in 1808, 
 and alluded to by Lipscomb (p. 97), in which a man in Compton Street, Soho, 
 was bitten m the right hand as he was humanely interfering to separate two 
 dogs that were fighting with so much violence that one of them had an eye torn 
 out This person seized one of the dogs awkwardly, and two of the animal's 
 eeth penetrated the outside of his right hand, and wounded the palm con- 
 
 Z! ]\l Ir "'' '" •^"'^' ^^^^- ^^ ^"^^ «t^ «f November following he 
 tZl T^ .«>7Pt?"^« of hydrophobia, from which he perished in forty-six 
 hours. The period of mcubation was eighteen weeks.
 
 Management of Strange Dogs. 40 1 
 
 to seize it firmly at the back and pull it tightly against the 
 throat in front. The foot or other hand may most usefully aid 
 in the operation, by pressing strongly against the back of the 
 neck. As soon as the animal experiences the sensation of 
 choking, it will, in attempting to breathe, let go its hold. It 
 should by no means be released immediately, but ought to be 
 still further choked until it is harmless for the time, when 
 means may be had recourse to for securing it properly ; indeed, 
 it should be strangled to such a degree as to render it uncon- 
 scious, or it may do damage to the operator. 
 
 "When there is no collar on the neck, a strong handkerchief 
 or piece of rope tied round it, and pulled in the same manner, 
 or twisted with a stick, is a ready appliance. I have separated 
 some scores of fighting dogs in this way with absolute impunity, 
 and many of these were so large, and sometimes so ferocious, 
 that it would have been most dangerous to have ventured to 
 interfere with them in any other fashion. It only requires 
 strong arms, and a little coolness and tact. 
 
 Should a wound or scratch be inflicted, suction, washing, 
 and, if deemed necessary, cauterisation, ought at once to be 
 employed. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to remark that strange dogs should 
 always be respected until their tempers and character are 
 known, particularly in the streets, roads, or fields. Those 
 suspected of rabies, or rabid, when at liberty, should be captured 
 as speedily as possible, though with every precaution. 
 
 D D
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 History (p. 68). 
 
 Ix Land and Water for January 27, 1872, there is an intimation that "dumb 
 madness" had broken out in the Cheshire kennels. It is added, " We regret to 
 say that Mr. Corbet has been obliged to destroy twenty-five couples of hounds. 
 One hound was suspected of having "dumb madness " late in the autumn, and 
 aljout two months ago it was deemed advisable to destroy nine couples, and last 
 week those remaining of the mLxed pack, which Mr. Corbet got ioi hunting the 
 extra day (sixteen couples), were obliged to be killed." 
 
 This new outbreak, added to the others among the packs of foxhounds, makes 
 this epizocity of rabies one of the most serious ever experienced in England. 
 
 In December and January the disease was also observed at Detroit, Michigan, 
 United States. People and animals were bitten. Mr. Murray, M.R.C.V.S., 
 describes a case of rabies in a horse, which died on December 26, having been 
 bitten on November 25. There were no unusual symptoms beyond those already 
 enumerated; the most marked were restlessness and fury, a savage tendency 
 to tear everything with its teeth, and fly at people to bite them. — The Veferi- 
 nariati, March, 1872. Detroit Free Press, January 11, 1872. 
 
 Geogkaphical Extent of Rabies (p. 70). 
 
 In reply to my inquiry in the Lancet, as to whether rabies was really known 
 in AustraUa or New Zealand, a correspondent, " Ahuriri," in the number of that 
 journal for March 2, 1872, courteously states : " I lived there (in New Zealand) 
 for eleven years, and neither saw nor heard of a case. The inhabitants often 
 wondered at this, as dogs are there exposed to the same influences as in other 
 countries. From its non-appearance, cannot we see that the numerous causes 
 mentioned in standard works, viz., heat, deprivation of sexual indulgence, want 
 of couch grass, etc., are wrong ? New Zealanders are greatly afraid that im- 
 ported dogs will convey the dread disease, which would entaU most disastrous 
 results, as the islands teem with dogs, tame' and wild." 
 
 Symptoms in the Rabbit (p. 280). 
 
 The rabbit is so seldom exposed to the bites of mad animals, that I can find no 
 mstance in which the disease has been produced in it by accidental inoculation, 
 though it has been induced experimentally. The symptoms in this animal, though
 
 Appendix. 403 
 
 of the usual nervous character, are nevertheless peculiar ; and I have added a 
 brief description of them in order to complete the list of the domesticated animals 
 in which rabies has been observed. The following history is very interesting in 
 more than one feature. 
 
 In 1839, fifty-six lambing ewes, about to yean, were attacked by a very small 
 cur dog on a farm near Shrewsbury, and forty-seven were bitten in one night. 
 The dog was killed by the shepherd in the field next morning, but there was no 
 suspicion that it was mad. A fortnight afterwards several sheep became ill and 
 died, and fifteen were lost before the nature of their malady was guessed, at 
 which period others were ill. By this time a great many of the ewes had lambed, 
 and the lambs of all those which brought forth before the symptoms appeared 
 did well ; but with those which manifested the disease before lambing, the young 
 were born dead, or died very soon after birth. The lambs were allowed to suck 
 until the parents died, which was generally in about three days ; they were then 
 put to other ewes, or reared by hand, and remained in health. 
 
 Mr. Simonds, on April 22, inoculated two rabbits with the saliva from one of 
 the rabid sheep, by introducing setons satui-ated with that fluid behind their 
 ears. On the 26th they were dull, hanging their heads, and inclining them to 
 one side. They took their food when it was placed before them, but evinced 
 little desii'e for it. Towards evening the respiration of one was considerably 
 accelerated, and the stupor had increased. The other manifested a strange 
 desire for jumping, which it did in an awkward manner, having apparently lost 
 much power over the voluntary action of the muscles on one side. Occasionally, 
 in these jumps, its head would come in contact with the wall of the box, but 
 this did not deter it from attempting to accomplish the act. At midnight they 
 were both evidently worse ; and on taking them up and placing them on their 
 sides, they would remain in that position for some few minutes, being e'V'idently 
 in a state of unconsciousness. On the morning of the 27th each was resting its 
 head on the floor, and they could not be roused from their comatose state : being- 
 turned on their side, they struggled until they had resumed their first position. 
 The appetite was gone ; there were occasional spasmodic twitchings of the 
 muscles. The stupor increased hourly, and about midday one died. The other 
 at times attempted to jump, which it did still more awkwardly, alighting nearly 
 on its head. If teased, it uttered a slight moan, expressive of its sufferings, and 
 obstinately refused to change the position of its head, which it seemed quite 
 incapable of supporting. Late in the evening it died ; but immediately before 
 death a dog and a cat were inoculated with its saliva ; on May 8, these animals 
 remained healthy. 
 
 The morbid appearances found on examination were : an imhealthy state of 
 the inoculation wound ; the coats of the stomach thickened towards the pyloric 
 orifice, apparently from rigid contraction ; traces of inflammation on its peritoneal 
 surface, and the mucous membrane covered with a white matter resembling pus, 
 with inflammation of the rugaj ; the small intestines exhibited traces of increased 
 vascular action ; the vessels of the bladder were beautifully injected, and there 
 was considerable inflammation of the uterus, both body and cornua ; the dorsum 
 of the tongue and epiglottis were inflamed ; and a singular injection of vessels, 
 distinctly marked, pervaded the whole course of the trachea ; on its inner and 
 upper side some frothj' viscid mucus filled the larynx ; the vessels ramifying on 
 the pericardium were injected ; the lungs were inflamed, and the thorax con- 
 tained some effused fluid. The vessels in the right hemisphere of the cerebellum 
 and on its external surface were injected ; not so the left. The vessels ramify-
 
 404 Appendix. 
 
 i»g on the medulla oblongata were also beautifully shown. In the second 
 rabbit the larynx and trachea were more inflamed than in the first, and the 
 stomach was less affected. 
 
 To make certain that the rabific virus produced the above-described symptoms, 
 and not the irritation arising from the setons, two rabbits were setoned in a 
 similar manner, and the tape allowed to remain in for the same time ; but no 
 disease was produced. Two other rabbits were inoculated in the same way with 
 the saliva of a healthy sheep, and they also remained in health. ^ ^ . 
 
 Morbid Appearances after Death (p. 296). 
 
 We have referred to the absence of any notable alteration in the minute 
 structure of the brain and nerve tissues in this blood disease in man, notwith- 
 standing most careful examinations ; but it would appear that in some cases, at 
 least, of hydrophobia there are marked and important alterations in these. At 
 a meeting of the Pathological Society of London, held on January 2, 1872, 
 Dr. Clifford Allbut exhibited a series of microscopic sections from the cerebro- 
 spinal centres of two persons who died from this malady. The specimens were 
 talven from the cerebral convolutions, and from the central ganglia, the medulla 
 oblongata, and the spinal cord. Throughout all these centres were found the 
 same morbid conditions, but in different degrees, and these were as follows: 1. 
 Evidences of great vascular congestion with transudation into the surrounding 
 tissues. In all the grey centres the vessels were seen in various degrees of dis- 
 tension, their walls in many cases being obviously thickened ; and here and 
 there were seen patches of nuclear proliferation. There was a diminished con- 
 sistence of some of the parts, particularly of the medulla. This seemed to be 
 due to serous infiltration and soddening, as has been observed .in the dog. 
 2. Hjemorrhages of various size. In many places a refracting material was 
 visible outside the vessels, due apparently to coagulated fibrinous exudate. 3. 
 Little gaps caused by the disappearance of nerve strands which had passed 
 through the granular disintegration of Clarke. In addition to these appearances 
 in the nervous centres, an enlarged spleen had been found in both cases. 
 
 The parts appeared to be affected in the following order as regards severity : 
 (1) Medulla, (2) the spinal cord, (3) cerebral convolutions, and (4) central 
 ganglia. 
 
 This was in accordance with the symptoms presented during life — viz. : 1. 
 Reflex irritability in the region of the medulla, with no tetanic spasms. 2. In- 
 creasing irritability throughout the cord, with semi-tetanus. 3. Delirium. 
 
 Killing Diseased or Suspected Animals (p. 388). 
 
 In destroying dogs, it was recommended that Prussic acid should be employed 
 m sufficient quantity and newly prepared. But this poison usually loses its 
 potency in a short time unless great care is taken to preserve it, and consequently 
 the promptness of its destructive action cannot always be guaranteed. 
 
 Dr. Richardson, who has done so much for humanity in abolishing pain, has 
 endeavoured to benefit the lower creatures in suggesting means and appliances by 
 which, when necessary, they may be quickly deprived of life without experi- 
 encing any suffering. He proposes that animals doomed to be destroyed should 
 be made to inhale certain narcotic vapours : one, a mixture of vapour of hydride
 
 Appendix. 405 
 
 of amyl and methylene bichloride ; another, a mixture of carbon disnlphide and 
 methylene bichloride ; aud a third the vapour of chloroform or of methylene 
 bichloride and pure coal gas. The effect of either of these vapours is rapidly 
 produced ; but the first and last are chiefly recommended. They are inhaled by 
 the animal from a muzzle-shaped inhaler, and insensibility follows in a few 
 seconds with the slightest manifestation of pain or distress. 
 
 The vapours are certainly not so readily procured as the Prussic acid, and an 
 inhaler might be difficult to find when required to kill a mad dog or cat ; but as 
 all humane persons must be deeply interested in the matter, it is well to know 
 that other and more certain, if less common and accessible, means are in exist- 
 ence to deprive small animals of existence without a pang. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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