Canine &3 Spontaneous Hydrophobia. 467 
from a mad animal; he declared, when 
perfectly rational, that he could not recolle& 
fuch an event to have happened ;* nor was he 
able to afign any caufe for the origin of his 
diforder. I confider the following cafe related 
by Dr. M. Lifter,f as deferving particular 
notice. If it be not confidered an inftance of 
Hydrophobia, occurring without the agency of 
the canine poifon, we muft be compelled to 
grant, that the bite of a dog proved infectious 
when no fymptoms of difeafe had appeared in 
the animal at the time the wound was inflic- 
ted, nor for fix weeks afterwards. The writer 
of the cafe has not made us acquainted with 
the fate of his animal at any fubfequent period. 
Now that a rabid dog fhould be capable of 
communicating the infe@ion, previous to any 
fymptom of the difeafe having difcovered itfelf, 
is in direct oppofition to general opinion. It 
is likewife equally repugnant to particular ex- 
perience,t and to the analogy to be obferved: 
Mmm a2 in 
*« An a cane rabido demorfus unquam fuerit? A me 
** interrogatus (cum mente adhuc conftanti) fe id non 
** meminifle aicbat.” 
+ Tra&. de morbis quibufdam chronicis. Hiftor. I. 
+ In order to obtain fatisfa&tory information on this point, 
1 wrote to Hugo Meynell, Efq. whofe knowledge on the 
fubje€t of the difeafes of dogs muft be fuperior to moft 
’ others, 
