No. 6. DEPAIITMI':NT of A(!KICULTURE. 511 



RAB1J:CS. 



BY MAZYCK P. IIAVENKL, liacterlolooiiit of titc State Live Stock Sanitary Board, Philadelphia, Pa. 



SYNONYMS : 



JEnglish, hydrophobia^ madness; French., rage and hydrophohie ; 

 German., hundswuth, tollwuth, wtUhkrankheit and wassershea ; 

 Italian., idrofohla and rahbla. Lyssa. 



Kabies is au acute and very fatal disease, communicated from 

 animal to animal, or from animals to man by the bite of an animal 

 wliicii already has the disease. As seen under natural conditions, 

 it is always an inoculation disease, that is, communicated directly 

 throuiih a wound usually inflicted by the teeth, and the infective 

 material being the saliva, which contains the poison or virus. 



PIiSTORY. The history of rabies dates back into remote times, 

 having been described distinctly by Aristotle, who lived in the year 

 32G B. C. He said: ''Dogs sufl"er from madness, which puts them 

 into a state of fury and all the animals that they bite when in this 

 condition become also attacked by rabies." References to it are 

 found in many of the authors prior to the Christian era, and from 

 that date up to the present time, with the exception of the Middle 

 Ages. lo the first century of the Christian Era, we find the first 

 description of rabies in the human being and the name ''hydro- 

 phobia" given to it; this name being by common usage at the present 

 time properly restricted to the disease as seen in man. The term 

 means "fear of water," a symptom seen often in man, though not 

 always, and which is not at all characteristic of the disease. It is 

 not observed in the lower animals, and mad dogs will often lap 

 water, and will even swim across streams. 



As early as 1591, we find recorded the transmission of the disease 

 by wolves to man. In 1803, and for a number of years following, 

 it was epizootic among foxes in southern Germany and Switzerland. 



During the later ytars of the eighteenth and the beginning of 

 the nineteenth century the disease spread over the whole of Europe, 

 and about this time made its appearance in America, the first 

 outbreak in America being reported from Boston, 17G8. In 1770- 

 1771 it was observed in dogs and foxes in the vicinitj' of Boston; in 

 the year 1779 it appeared in Philadelphia and in the State of Mary- 

 land, and in the year 1785 it was i)revaleut througliout the northern 

 States, and soon after this time spread to the soutiiern part of this 

 country. During the last century it has inflicted severe losses 

 throughout Europe, including England, and in America. 



