860 Mr Conneirs Analysis ofGmelinite or Hydrolite. 



the practice, altliough these people neglected to wash their 

 hands subsequently. However, 1 knew a farmer to die of ra- 

 bies, merely from having, with hands apparently uninjured, 

 washed out the wound inflicted on a pig by the bite of a rabid 

 dog. On one occasion, a slaughterer who had killed a rabid 

 ox, in spite of my admonition, repeatedly thrust his naked arm 

 into the animal's intestines, without experiencing any evil there- 

 from, and cow-herds, soi-disant veterinary surgeons, and the like, 

 often commit similar acts with equal impunity. 



I have frequently known the milk of rabid animals to be 

 taken without detriment, and in two instances, the flesh of ra- 

 bid oxen which were clandestinely eaten, proved no less in- 

 noxious. It is nevertheless a fact, that, at a period when many 

 cattle perished of rabies, the instances of canine madness be- 

 came unusually numerous ; and it may be supposed that, how- 

 ever deeply the carcasses may be buried, dogs will still here 

 and there succeed in disinterring them. Farther experience is 

 therefore requisite to decide on the effects of the saliva, blood, 

 excrements, &c. in all domestic animals, with the exception of 

 the dog and the cat. In conclusion, I have witnessed many 

 instances where the bite of decidedly rabid animals has pro- 

 duced Httle or no effect on the human subject, although the 

 remedies employed were merely such as were suggested by su- 

 perstition. From this I am led to infer, that with mankind a 

 predisposition to hydrophobia very rarely exists.* 



Analysis of Gmelinite or Hydrolite. By A. Connetx, Esq., 

 F. R. S. E., &c. Communicated by the Author. 



The crystallographic and optical properties of this mineral 

 were described a few years ago by Sir David Brewster,-f- who 

 considered them sufficiently characteristic to entitle it to be 

 ranked as a distinct species. Two varieties of it had been ana- 



' Hecker's Annalen, 1st Band, Heft 4. 1836 ; and Forbes and Conolly's 

 Medical Rev. No. ix., p. 262. 

 t Ed. Jour. Science, ii. 262. 



