RABIES. 



BY DR. JOHN REICHEL.* 



Rabies is the name applied to an acute and highly fatal 

 disease of animals and man. In man the disease is called 

 hydrophobia {hydro, water; phobia, dread of), the name 

 applying to a striking but not a constant symptom of the 

 disease in man, not at all observ^ed in the lower animals. 

 Aside from rabies, the name of canine madness is frequently 

 used, and by the phrase " the dog is mad " is meant or should 

 be applied only to a dog with rabies. 



As seen under natural conditions, rabies is alwa3's an inoc- 

 ulation disease ; that is, it is communicated direct from 

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

 animal which already has the disease — in other words, com- 

 municated direct through a wound, usually inflicted by the 

 teeth, introducing the infective material or virus of rabies. 



The history of rabies can be traced back to time before 

 the Christian Era, and it is generally accepted that Aristotle, 

 who lived in the year 320 B. C, gave a distinct description of 

 rabies when he said : " Dogs suffer from madness which puts 

 them into a state of fury and all the animals that they bite 

 when in this condition become attacked." 



As early as the year 1591 we find recorded the transmission 

 of rabies of wolves to man, which is most frequently the 

 manner in which the disease is transmitted to man in parts of 

 Russia, where a high mortality has been obser^-ed, explained 

 to some extent by the fierceness with which this animal 

 attacks man, the bite being generally accompanied by a great 

 deal of tissue destruction. 



In 1803, and for a number of years following, it was epi- 

 zootic among foxes in southern Germany and Switzerland. 



During the last years of the eighteenth and the beginning 



'* Bacteriologist, State Live .Stock vSanitary Board, Philadelphia, Pa. 

 Paper reail Ijefore the Institute, January 14th, 1909. 



