No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 109 



Section 4. Aiiv jtcisoii violatiii.^' tlie provisions of this act, or 

 of a quarantine, or of a regulation or order to resh-air., (-online or 

 muzzle (l()^?s, duly established by the State Live Stock Sanitary 

 Board, foi" the purpose of restricting the spread of rabies^ or hydro- 

 phobia, in Ihe manner provided in the other sections of this act, 

 shall be deemed j^uilty of a misdemeanor; and upon conviction shall 

 forfeit and pay a fine of not less than ten dollars nor more than one 

 hundred dollars, at the discretion of the court. 



Approved— The 27th day of March, A. ]). 1903. 



SAML. W. PENNYPACKER. 



In view of the existence of this law it has been possible to deal 

 more effectively with rabies than has been possible in previous years. 

 The State Live Stock Sanitary Board has frequent r.equests from 

 boards of health and from individuals in all parts of the State to 

 investigate and to assist in the repression of rabies. Interest in 

 this matter is due not alone to the great losses among domestic 

 animals that are caused by this affiietion, but also on account of 

 the danger to which human beings are exposed when this disease 

 prevails among the animals of a region. 



A few years ago it was the fashion of a number of Individuals to 

 deny the existence of rabies and to ridicule those that claimed to 

 recognize it. Whenever a report of rabies was placed on record it 

 was "the signal for an outburst of ridicule, i^rotest and denuncia- 

 tion. There v/as a propaganda organized and sustained by enthusi- 

 astic and well meaning, but misguided, people, which had for its 

 object the dissemination of the view, first, that there is no such 

 disease as rabies, or, that if there is, it is of such rare occurrence 

 as to be of little significance, and second, when the first ground 

 became untenable, of the view that rabies does not occur in man 

 and that the cases that do occur are really hysteria caused by 

 fright. In substantiation of the latter view, physicians of long and 

 extensive experience were quoted as having stated that they did 

 not believe that rabies occurred in man because they had never 

 seen cases of this disease. It is strange that such a weak argument 

 could have had any influence whatever. Thousands of physicians 

 have never seen the bubonic plague, the yellow fever or leprosy, but 

 this is not looked upon as a reason for the denial of the existence 

 of these diseases. One positive observation is worth innumerable 

 negative observations. Such a case as is reported by Dr. G. Morton 

 Illman, and has been confirmed by the most searching examinations 

 and tests by Dr. D, J. McCarthy and Dt. M. P. Ravenel. an account 

 of which is published as an appendix to this report, is worth infi- 

 nitely more than the statement of any individual who claims that 

 he has for many years been looking for cases of rabies, but does not 

 recognize the disease when he sees it. 



