No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 99 



''Section 2, All acts or supplements of acts inconsistent with the 

 provisions of this su])plement are hereby repealed: Provided, That 

 this sn{)j)len)ent shall not repeal or affect the piovisions of any special 

 law relating to the same subject in any county, township, borough or 

 city in this Commonwealth." 



This law makes it possible for the owners of animals dying of 

 rabies to receive remuneration from the dog tax fund. I anticipate 

 that the effect of this law will be beneficial, in that it will make a 

 charge on the counties in which rabies prevails and will tend to in- 

 crease local interest in repressing the disease. 



There has been and is yet in some places the utmost apathy in re- 

 gard to the repression of this very dangerous disease. It seems safe 

 to trace much of this apathy to the wide spread opinion that rabies 

 does not exist — that there is no such disease. This most astonishing 

 mental attitude results only from wilful ignorance — from closiog the 

 eyes to the clearest evidence. 



Rabies is as distinct a disease as anthrax, tuberculosis or small- 

 pox. The foolish and harmful view^s that have been circulated on 

 this subject have had the effect of greatly favoring the spread of the 

 disease. When people are encouraged to believe that a thing is 

 mythical, they cease to work against it. But the large number of 

 deaths from rabies and the increasing distribution of this disease 

 should arouse the public to a realization of the need of actively sup- 

 porting measures directed against it. 



In a previous report I have taken occasion to cite the experience of 

 England in dealing with rabies. It is interesting to note that this 

 disease has been entirely exterminated from England, Scotland anH 

 Wales, not a single case appearing last year. This shows what it is 

 possible to do by appropriate measures, thoroughly enforced. The 

 system so successfully employed consisted in the quarantining of all 

 3^ogs, under which the}' were required to wear muzzles and to be kept 

 on a leash, and the prohibition of the importation of dogs. Of course 

 this plan in its entirety is impossible in Pennsylvania, because dogs 

 can not be kept from entering from other States. But by muzzling 

 dogs in all localities where rabies is know to exist (and by confining 

 them as well) for 100 days after the appearance of the last case of 

 disease, much can be done to keep it in check. If rabies can not be 

 exterminated, there is every reason to expect that it can at least be 

 kept within such bounds that it will be the source of much less 

 danger. 



If there were ten times as much rabies as there is, there would, 

 probably, be less difficulty in enforcing the simple and unoppressive 

 measures adopted by the State Live Stock Sanitary Board. But so 

 long as only four people and 270 animals are dying of rabies each year, 

 the need for muzzling dogs at certain times seems to some people to 



