452 RABIES CANINA, OR HYDROPHOBIA. 



attempts at securing a rabid dog in Edinburgh, through 

 the police and other likely channels, failed him. From 

 the multitude of curs to be seen in any city in Ireland 

 with bits of wood tied to their necks, under the impression 

 that they can thus be prevented from biting, we might 

 expect a very different amount of rabies to that witnessed 

 in Britain. 



A theory has been started to the effect that rabies in the 

 dog commonly originates spontaneously from the restraint 

 put on the animal's sexual desires. M. Leblanc, of Paris, 

 believes this, and recently drew attention to the subject at 

 the Academy of Medicine. On the authority of M. Sace, 

 Leblanc stated, "that in a portion of the course of the 

 Danube, the Christians on the one side of the river have 

 chiefly male dogs, and there rabies is common, while on 

 the Mussulman side, where, as in the East generally, dogs 

 of both sexes are left at liberty, the disease is unknown." 

 Leblanc went on to say, that " fancy and pet dogs, which 

 are kept under most restraint in this respect, and are well 

 fed, are those most liable to the disease. The great pre- 

 ponderance of the disease is shown from his own practice. 

 Among 10,710 dogs entered upon his books, 30 per cent, 

 of the number were bitches, or a little less than a third ; 

 but of 159 of this number the subject of rabies, only 25 

 were females a mean of 1 female to 14 males." There 

 appears to me to be another explanation to the latter fact 

 viz., that it is usually dogs that manifest fighting pro- 

 pensities and who are most likely to be bitten, whereas 

 hitches are often not bitten even by a rabid dog. How can 

 Leblanc and his disciples explain the great immunity from 

 rabies in our sporting kennels ? Good feeding and restraint 

 in the sexual desires should surely take effect on many a 

 foxhound and pointer during the year, but such a result is 



