Hydrophobia occurring in Foxes, 2*27 



During the summer of 1833, it was observed about Eise- 

 nach, that foxes were less afraid of man than usually, and 

 subsequently several were killed in or near human habitations. 

 I shall detail the circumstances of a few cases. 



In July, 1833, when the gardener who was on duty for the 

 night-watch, in the grand-ducal garden of Wilhelmsthal, enter- 

 ed the watch-hut, and had made a little fire, he was roused by 

 a violent snarling, proceeding from under the bench on which 

 he was sitting, when he discovered a fox which showed no 

 disposition to give up the position it had taken up. He went 

 for a gun, and the fox was shot. It was strong, but without 

 any particle of fat. No notice was taken of its sex, but all 

 the rest, which, in the neighbourhood of Eisenach, were killed 

 last year under similar circumstances, were males. 



In November, 1833, a blood-hound belonging to Mr. C. 

 Hanff, of Wilhelmsthal, made a great noise late in the even- 

 ing, and broke loose from its chain. Her master descended 

 to the yard, tried to calm her, and having fastened her again 

 to the chain, retired to the house ; but scarcely had he entered 

 it, when the same noise began again. This time Mr. H. dis- 

 covered the cause of the uproar, for when searching the dog's 

 hut, he perceived a fox, which he shot. It being well fed 

 and furred, nobody then thought of the possibility of its being 

 mad. However, the hound went mad five weeks after, and 

 was killed, as the symptoms of rabies could not be mistaken. 



Soon after, a fox descended at nightfall from a mountain 

 near Alchenbach, and began to play with a young dog belong- 

 ing to a labourer, whose cottage is at some distance from the 

 village. It was scared away, but returned the day after. — 

 This time the fox made a violent attack on the little dog, wor- 

 rying it till its master came to its assistance, and beat off the 

 fox. The animal made its escape, and did not return, but the 

 dog went mad, and bit several other dogs, which were direct- 

 ly shot, and a little boy of the schoolmaster. The boy was 

 subjected to proper and timely treatment, and recovered his 

 health. 



Some time after a labourer killed a fox that had entered a 

 cow-house at Wilhelmsthall ; and at the same place a game- 

 keeper shot a fox in the yard of the inn. The animal was 

 walking there fearlessly, in broad day -light. It was very mea- 



lopement. In such cases the bite of the animal is not dangerous. 5. How- 

 ever, as it is not always possible to decide that point, the treatment must 

 always be conducted as if the animal had been really mad. 6. To effect a 

 preservative cure in persons that have been bitten by mad foxes, an issue 

 should be formed upon the wounded place, with mild diet and diaphoretics ; 

 this has been found fully competent. 



