Z72 BuLLiiTix 83 



to me from Arizona, which had bitten two persons. Three days 

 after the animal died with all the symptoms of hydrophobia. I 

 have treated several persons bitten by skunks and all have about 

 the same history of skunks creeping up during the night, and biting 

 either the nose, ears, hands, or exposed feet, some sticking so 

 fiercely as to have to be choked ofif." 



Inquiry from the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research 

 develops that they have made no special study of rabies with refer- 

 ence to the skunk. 



P"'rom the available information we must conclude that there is 

 no particular species of skunk which can be designated as ''the 

 hydrophobia skunk" ; nor should we speak of "t/ hydrophobia 

 skunk" in any other sense than we might say a hydrophobia 

 coyote. However, we are forced to conclude also that, rabid or not 

 rabid, skunks are rather more apt to bite sleepers, than are coyotes, 

 wolves, and dogs. A possible explanation of this would seem to be 

 the undoubted fact that skunks as a rule are comparatively fearless 

 prowlers on account of their excellent natural protection. A skunk 

 displays no haste to get out of the way when encountered, feeling 

 perfect confidence that the other fellow is the one to be careful. 



It appears, too, that perhaps a rather larger proportion of bites 

 from skunks produces rabies than of the bites from any other ani- 

 mal. Yet statistics on over 3000 cases of rabies show ninety per- 

 cent infected from dogs, and only one per cent from skunks, so 

 that the total showing is not great. Most of us, from states farther 

 east, never heard of a "h3^drophobia skunk" until we came west, 

 yet 41 cases reported in Coues' work "occurred in Virginia, Michi- 

 gan, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, and Texas." It would 

 seem that the greater fear of skunks met with here may be due, in 

 part at least, to tAvo causes : first, that many more people sleep in 

 exposed situations in the open western climate ; and, second, that 

 there may have been local epidemics of skunk rabies in various 

 western localities. 



In the face of the facts and conclusions above ofifered, there 

 seems to the author just one more unavoidable conclusion, and that 

 is, — in case of skunk bite take the Pasteur treatment. This treat- 

 ment is successful in more than ninety-nine per cent of cases 

 treated before symptoms of the disease appear, and will do no harm 

 whatever even if infection has not occurred. On the other hand, 

 one may not wait to see whether symptoms appear, for treatment 

 is entirely useless after that. As to whether we shall continue to 



