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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



rarity. It is communicated from one rabid ani- 

 mal to another animal which becomes rabid. 

 Whether it ever does originate except by com- 

 munication is a question belonging to the inter- 

 minable controversy of spontaneous generation. 



I quote from Youatt a graphic description of 

 rabies in the dog : 



" The early symptoms of rabies in the dog are 

 occasionally very obscure. In the greater number 

 of cases, these are sullenness, fidgetiness, and con- 

 tinual shifting of posture. Where I have had op- 

 portunity, I have generally found these circum- 

 stances in regular succession. For several consec- 

 utive hours, perhaps, he retreats to his basket or 

 his bed. He shows no disposition to bite, and he 

 answers the call upon him laggardly. He is curled 

 up, and his face is buried between his paws and 

 his breast. At length he begins to be fidgety. He 

 searches out new resting-places ; but he very soon 

 changes them for others. He takes again to his 

 own bed ; but he is continually shifting his post- 

 ure. He begins to gaze strangely about him as he 

 lies on his bed. His countenance is clouded and 

 suspicious. He comes to one and another of the 

 family, and he fixes on them a steadfast gaze as 

 if he would read their very thoughts. 'I feel 

 strangely ill,' he seems to say; 'have you any- 

 thing to do with it ? or you ? or you ? ' Has not a 

 dog mind enough for this ? If we have observed 

 a rabid dog at the commencement of the disease, 

 we have seen this to the very life. 



" There is a species of dog— the small French 

 poodle — the essence of whose character and con- 

 stitution is fidgetiness or perpetual motion. If 

 this clog has been bitten, and rabies is about to 

 establish itself, he is the most irritative, restless 

 being that can be conceived ; starting convulsively 

 at the slightest sound ; disposing of his bed in 

 every direction ; seeking out one retreat after an- 

 other in order to rest his wearied frame, but quiet 

 only for a moment in any one, and the motion of 

 his limbs frequently simulating chorea and even 

 epilepsy. A peculiar delirium is an early symp- 

 tom, and one that will never deceive. A young 

 man had been bitten by one of his dogs ; I was re- 

 quested to meet a medical gentleman on the sub- 

 ject : I was a little behind my time. As I entered 

 the room I found the dog eagerly devouring a pan 

 of sopped bread. 'There is no madness here,' 

 said the gentleman. He had scarcely spoken, when 

 in a moment the dog quitted the sop, and, with a 

 furious bark, sprang against the wall as if he would 

 seize some imaginary object that he fancied was 

 there. ' Did you see that \ ' was my reply ; ' what j 

 do you think of it ? ' 'I see nothing in it,' was 

 his retort ; ' the dog heard some noise on the other | 

 side of the wall.' At my serious urging, however, I 

 he consented to excise the part. I procured a poor 

 worthless cur, and got him bitten by this dog, and 

 carried the disease from this dog to the third vie- I 



tim ; they all became rabid one after the other 

 and there my experiment ended." 1 

 And again : 



" A terrier, ten years old, had been ill, and re- 

 fused all food for three days. On the fourth day 

 he bit a cat of which he had been unusually fond, 

 and he likewise bit three dogs. I was requested 

 to see him. I found him loose in the kitchen, and 

 at first refused to go in, but, after observing him 

 for a minute or two, I thought that I might vent- 

 ure. He had a peculiarly wild and eager look, 

 and turned sharply round at the least noise. He 

 often watched the flight of some imaginary object, 

 and pursued with the utmost fury every fly that 

 he saw. He searchingly sniffed about the room, 

 and examined my legs with an eagerness that made 

 me absolutely tremble. His quarrel with the cat had 

 been made up, and when he was not otherwise 

 employed he was eagerly licking her and her kit- 

 tens. In the excess or derangement of his fond- 

 ness, he fairly rolled them from one end of the 

 kitchen to another. With difficulty I induced his 

 master to permit me to destroy him." 



No person of ordinary observation need be 

 told that dogs, like little children, have all their 

 personal characters, which they carry with them 

 into their hours of sickness and suffering. 



" It is not every dog that in the most aggra- 

 vated state of the disease shows a disposition to 

 bite. The finest Newfoundland dog that I ever 

 saw became rabid. He had been bitten by a cur, 

 and was supposed to have been thoroughly ex- 

 amined in the country. No wound, however, was 

 found : the circumstance was almost forgotten, and 

 he came up to the metropolis with his master. He 

 became dull, disinclined to play, and refused all 

 food. He was continually watching imaginary ob- 

 jects, but he did not snap at them. There was no 

 howl, nor any disposition to bite. He offered him- 

 self to be caressed, and he was not satisfied except 

 he was shaken by the paw. On the second day I 

 saw him. He watched every passing object with 

 peculiar anxiety, and followed with deep attention 

 the motions of a horse, his old acquaintance ; but 

 he made no effort to escape, nor evinced any dis- 

 position to do mischief. I went to him, and patted 

 and coaxed him, and he told me, as plainly as looks 

 and actions and a somewhat deepened whine could 

 express it, how much he was gratified. I saw him 

 on the third day. He was evidently dying. He 

 could not crawl even to the door of his temporary 

 kennel ; but he pushed forward his paw a little way, 

 and, as I shook it, I felt the tetanic muscular action 

 which accompanies the departure of life. 



" On the other hand, there are rabid dogs 

 whose ferocity knows no bounds. If they are 

 threatened with a stick, they fly at and seize it, 

 and furiously shake it. They are incessantly em- 



1 Youatt, " The Dog," p. 131. 





