Canine &8 Spontaneous Hydrophobia. 451 
have endeavoured to prove the occurrence of 
this difeafe, at the diftance of five, feven, and, 
even twelve years, from the communication of 
the poifon. Salius,* who ranfacked all the 
writers of antiquity on this fubjeé&t, has brought 
forward a variety of inftances to prove the ex- 
iftence of thefe facts. But we fhall find, that 
Salius has been contented to rely on very flender 
evidence, for the proof of his affertions. For. 
inftance : he quotes the authority of Diofcorides 
as certifying the appearance of canine madnefs, 
after an interval of feven years from the infec- 
tion: yet, what does this teftimony off Diofco- 
rides amount to? ‘To nothing decifive: for, 
it goes no farther than to obferve, that fome 
writers have related feven years to have elapfed 
from the communication of the poifon to the 
appearance of the difeafe. Schenkius, Zacutus, 
Guinerius, Platerus, &c. and, almoft all the 
fyftematic writers of the 16th. and 17th. cen- 
turies have imitated the conduét of Salius. The 
Arabians furnifhed them with fome authorities, 
Kkke which 
* « Hine aliqui ad dies plures, alii ad menfes, aliqui 
“ anno exatto, rabie corripiuntur ; in nonnullisque pros 
« ditum memoriz ab antiquis habemus—-hunc morbum 
“« ad quintum, feptimum, & duodecimum annum, dilatum 
® fuifle,” Sarvs de affect. partic. p. 360. 
+ “ Sunt, qui narrent, nonnullos poft feptennium, ¢® 
“ affeftu, correptos fuiffe,”’. Lib, vi, Cap, 8, 
