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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



Dr. Offenburg. This is not the only case adduced. 

 Another is reported from America, with an ex- 

 cellent but cautious commentary by a great 

 American physician, Dr. Austin Flint. 



With respect to Offenburg's case, I must own 

 that from information I have received from Ger- 

 many, through the kindness of Dr. Victor Carus, 

 the distinguished professor of Leipsic, I am by 

 no means satisfied that it was a true case of de- 

 veloped hydrophobia. Of this, as of the Ameri- 

 can case, I can only say that there is enough to 

 justify and demand the trial of the remedy. Of 

 all the efforts of scientific medicine, it would be 

 one of the most remarkable should it turn out 

 to be successful. The remedy itself is a terrible 

 instrument, and requires the greatest skill in its 

 use. That skill will not be wanting, the result of 

 trained powers in experiment. 



Late one evening a few weeks ago, a boy was 

 brought to the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, with 

 the dread, if not with the signs, of hydrophobia. 

 He had been bitten by a dog, five years before, 

 in the hand, and again, two years before, in the 

 leg. A pustular eruption, the size of a shilling, 

 had just appeared at the seat of the bite on the 

 hand, where there always had been a small scar. 

 All connected with the lad were in great alarm. 

 Now on this doubtful and slight symptom various 

 difficult questions arose : 



1. Could the period of incubation, if the dog 

 had been mad, be five or even two years ? On 

 the historical evidence, Yes. 



2. Would an eruption so occurring be likely 

 to be the precursor of true hydrophobia ? Yes. 



3. If the genuine symptoms appeared, would 

 the boy recover ? Unless the alleged cases of 

 cure by giving the wourali-poison were true, 

 then, after the symptoms arose, his death within 

 four or perhaps five days was certain. 



4. Can a person die of fright, with spurious 

 symptoms of hydrophobia ? Yes. 



How strange these simple questions and an- 

 swers ! Yet this is the issue raised in every case 

 that occurs of dog-bite, where the condition of 

 the dog, as in this instance, could not be ascer- 

 tained. To meet the symptoms, should they 

 arise, Mr. Yule, Fellow of Magdalen College, pre- 

 pared for me a solution of wourali, whose mode 

 of action he was able accurately to determine. 

 But the sore healed, and nothing remained but 

 the old scar ; and the experiment of wourali 

 was not called for. 



This brief outline of the general character of 

 the much-discussed malady, in our four-footed 

 friend, and of the relation in which we stand 



toward it, naturally suggests the inquiry, What 

 should be done by every state which is sufficient- 

 ly organized to have an intelligent system of san- 

 itary police ? 



If the state is in earnest to put an end to 

 hydrophobia, it would not be worth while to do 

 less than this, that follows : 



1. To have a rigid dog-tax, i. e., one which 

 permits no unowned, unregistered dogs. Every 

 dog should have a collar, with the name of the 

 owner and the number of the license. 



2. Dogs which cannot be identified by these 

 means should be destroyed by the sanitary au- 

 thority of the district where they are found. 



3. No dogs should, for a certain period, be 

 imported from abroad, except under condi- 

 tions. 



4. Mr. Fleming's suggestion that on every 

 dog's license should be printed precise instruc- 

 tions as to the signs of rabies, and as to what 

 should be done in case of dog-bite, should be 

 carried out. 



Practical statesmen and debates in the Houses 

 of Parliament will doubtless suggest difficulties 

 in these propositions. But it is hard to think 

 that there is no agency among the excise, the 

 police, the Board of Trade, the sanitary authori- 

 ties, for carrying out, with but little trouble or 

 expense, these or any other regulations of police 

 for this end. Cattle, sheep, pigs, horses, do not 

 stray unowned in the streets. I am by no means 

 sure that there might not be cases of exemption 

 on payment of a much higher tax. Indeed, for 

 the sake of the poor, the cost of mere registration 

 should be low enough to be hardly a productive 

 tax. Packs of hounds, and some other dogs un- 

 der responsible keeping, might earn immunity 

 from the hated collar on payment of a sum quite 

 profitable to the state, though little felt by the 

 owners. The owner of such dogs might be safe- 

 ly trusted to destroy them on due cause. It has 

 to be borne in mind that the disease may exist in 

 all domestic animals, and notably in the wild one 

 reserved for sport — the fox. He may perchance 

 communicate it to the dog. 



Space will not allow the distribution of rabies 

 throughout the globe to be fully considered. 

 Fleming has ransacked many writers in every 

 country for records of its existence. If one 

 should take a map of the world and mark on it 

 with a blue wafer the countries where it is preva- 

 lent ; with a red one where it exists, but is rare ; 

 and with a yellow one where it is absent, he 

 would see, in a graphic way, that the temperate 

 and central zones of latitude are generally occu- 



