THE DOG. 141 



of the living dog and bind it, split open, upon the bitten part. The 

 dog was muzzled, triced up, and the heart cut out and applied as 

 described. As the man had not become " mad " at last accounts, he 

 probably thinks that his " cure " was effectual. 



A few cases have been recorded of persons becoming infected 

 from non-suspected but already infected dogs licking parts of their 

 persons which were wounded, or where veterinarians have been 

 made victims of their devotions to their studies, at a time when 

 they had abrasions upon their hands, by making autopsies of dogs 

 dying of rabies. About 50 per cent of the persons bitten by rabid 

 dogs die from this horrible disease. Of 855 cases, 399 died. If we 

 take, however, the bites which have resulted from suspected animals, 

 and add them to the above, the percentage is reduced to about 8 

 per cent. Of 1,362 bitten by rabid and suspected dogs, 105 died. 



The importance of the value of cauterization of wounds caused 

 by the bite of a suspected or rabid dog is well shown by statistics 

 given by Bollinger, page 618 : 



"Of 195 deaths from rabies in France between 1850-'62, 111 

 were not cauterized at all, 45 too late, and 39 insufficiently. Of 

 200 human beings bitten by rabid dogs, 134 were thoroughly cau- 

 terized; of these 92, 69 per cent, remained healthy, and 42, 31 per 

 cent, died from rabies. By non-cauterization of the wounds in 66 

 cases, the mortality was 55, 84 per cent. Consequently, lohile after 

 cauterisation of the wounds made by the bites from rabid dogs, 

 scarcely two sixths {31 per cent) of the persons bitten die, by the 

 neglect of this simple process jive sixths (8J/. per cent) have termi- 

 nated with death" 



With relation to bites of clad or unclad parts of the body, we 

 find the percentage of mortality for the face and head as 90 per 

 cent ; for the hands, 63 per cent ; for the body, 63 per cent ; for 

 the lower limbs, 28 per cent ; for the superior, 20 per cent. As to 

 sex, we find 60 per cent ascribed to males, and 40 per cent to 

 females. 



The consumption of the flesh and milk from rabid animals has 

 been found to be without harm to human beings. 



The percentage which the disease attains among human beings 

 is dependent upon its extension among animals, especially among 

 dogs. In Prussia, we find that the average deaths for fifteen years, 

 1820-'34, amounted to 71 yearly ; in Austria, for eighteen years, 

 1830-'47, 58 ; in France, for twelve years, 1850-'62, 24-25 cases ; 

 in Bavaria, for five years, 1863-67, 13*8 yearly ; for the seven years 

 between 1868 and 1875, 18 per yeas; in the district of Upper Ba- 



