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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



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 influ- 

 enced 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 gnaw the chain until their 

 teeth are worn away and the jawbones 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 trav- 

 eling, and walks unsteadily ; its drooping tail, its 

 head inclined toward the ground, the mouth open, 

 and the protruded tongue of a lead-blue color, and 

 covered with dust — all this gives the distressed 

 creature a very striking and characteristic physiog- 

 nomy. 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 ex- 

 citable to change its direction, or go out of its 

 course to attack an animal or a man not immedi- 

 ately in its path. It is extremely probable, also, 

 that its fast-failing vision and deadened scent pre- 

 vent its being so easily impressed by surrounding 

 objects as it previously was." 1 



The incident which is selected by Fleming 

 concerning the Durham pack, though well known, 

 is too instructive to be unnoticed : 



" For the last seven or eight years the Durham 

 County hounds, under the management of a com- 

 mittee, 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 ad- 

 vantage of some of the best blood, the pack has 

 been brought to a state of perfection never sur- 

 passed 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 



1 Fleming, " Rabies and Hydrophobia," pp. 227-930. 



severe run, 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 in- 

 creased in intensity, and on the third day the dog 

 was perfectly mad, biting and gnawing everything 

 he could reach. Four hounds he had bitten previ- 

 ously were at once put down. . . . 



" 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 

 generally called dumb madness, which, beyond 

 doubt, is contagious in its character ; and seeing 

 that no hound, once attacked, ever recovered, the 

 decision come to was to put them down imme- 

 diately 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 com- 

 mittee, feeling deeply their responsibility, called 

 a meeting of the subscribers in Durham, on Mon- 

 day last, to take into consideration the proper 

 course to be adopted under these painful circum- 

 stances. 



" 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 Sat- 

 urday 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 symp- 

 toms of rabies. This fact induced the meeting to 

 come to a unanimous resolution : ' That it was a 

 duty they owed to the country to sacrifice the 

 whole of their gallant pack, and to appeal to mas- 

 ters of hounds for a few hounds to enable them to 

 finish the season so disastrously cut short.' . . . 



" The remarkable feature in the history of the 

 outbreak, however, consisted in the fact that some 

 drafts of the pack were sent to India toward 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 ' ail died.' " » 



Thus it is that fowls, cattle, horses, wild ani- 

 mals, and men, are inoculated, and thus the virus 



1 Fleming, " Rabies and Hydrophobia," pp. 65-67. 



