No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 165 



Section 3. Should dogs be permitted to run at large or to escape 

 from restraint or continement or to go without muzzles in violation 

 of the quarantine or regulation or order established by the State 

 Live Stock Sanitary Board to restrict the spread of rabbles or hydro- 

 phobia as providied by this act, such dogs may be secured and con- 

 tined or they may be shot or otherwise destroyed and the owner or 

 owners thereof shall have no claim against the person so doing. 



Section 4 Any person violating the provisions of tlhis act or of a 

 quarantine or of a regulation or order to restrain, confine or muzzle 

 dogs duly established by the State Live Stock Sanitary Board for 

 the purpose of restricting the spread of rabbles or hj'drophobia in 

 the manner provided in the other sections of this act, shall be deemed 

 guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall forfeit and pay a 

 fine of not le»s than ten dollars nor more than one hundred dollars, 

 at the discretion of the court. 



More rational views in regard to tlhis disease are beginning to pre- 

 vail. One hears less of absurd opinions as to the non-existence of 

 rabies. It is most interes'ting and astonishing that this impression 

 could have prevailed in so many quarters for so long a time. There 

 is no disease that is more definite in its manifestations than rabies, 

 and it would be quite as rational to claim, and as easy to support 

 the view, that there is no such disease as anthrax, glanders or tuber- 

 culosis as that rabies is a mythical disease. 



The rapid diagnosis of rabies that is made in tihe laboratory of 

 the State Live Stock Sanitary Board by Dr. M. V. Ravenel, is an item 

 in the repression of rabies that is of great importance and is con- 

 stantly becoming more important, as it is more used. For example, 

 a rabidi dog, or a dog supposed to be rapid may bite a large number 

 of dogs in a town and then die or be killed. If it is not known posi- 

 tively that this dog was altiicied with rabies but little would be 

 done by the local authorities in the way of controlling the move- 

 ments of the dogs that were bitten. If, however, the head of tihe 

 dog in question is sent to the laboratory and the diagnosis of rabies 

 is positively established, the local authorities are usually not slow 

 to move in the matter of controlling or ord'ering the destruction of 

 exposed dogs. On the otherhand, if it is found the disease is not 

 rabies then, of course, all alarm is at once removed. 



The number of deaths from rabies during the year has been quite 

 large. More horses, cattle, sheep and dogs have died of rabies dur- 

 ing the year 1902 than during any other recent year; the exact num- 

 bers are not available because a report is not required and only a 

 fraction of the cases that actually occur are reported. Probably as 

 many as four hundred horses, cattle, sheep, swine and dogs have died 

 of rabies during the year, or have been killed while afflicted with 

 this disease. 



