RABIES, OR HYDROPHOBIA 607 



The face presents a strange idiotic look, with the 

 lower jaw hanging down, and the saliva in large 

 quantity flowing from the mouth. In these cases the 

 blood poison apparently principally affects the spinal 

 cord and certain of its nerves. 



A very marked symptom of rabies canina is the 

 strange craving the animal has for seizing and 

 swallowing all kinds of rubbish, e.g., paper, straw, 

 hair, wool, wood, stones, nails, etc. etc. 



POST-MORTEM. There is no specific lesion which 

 indicates after death the absolute certainty that the 

 dog was rabid. Generally the tongue is relaxed and 

 swollen, and the mucous membrane lining the fauces, 

 pharynx, and larynx, congested or inflamed. The 

 stomach is congested, and in some cases acutely 

 inflamed (gastritis), and if the dog has not been 

 confined, it invariably contains many curious articles. 

 The membranes of the brain and the spinal cord may 

 also be congested. 



But all these post-mortem appearances, and the 

 foreign bodies in the stomach, may be found when no 

 such disease as rabies has existed. Indigestion and 

 gastric affections are common to the dog, from the 

 irregularity in feeding and the variety of food of which 

 the dog partakes when he has to forage for himself, 

 and, as every one knows, it is stray dogs which are so 

 frequently seized by the police as rabid animals. 



When a dog has suffered from indigestion and 

 gastric irritation for a time, just like the cow eating 

 bed-clothes, old leather shoes, etc., and the horse 

 swallowing sand, stones, and other rubbish, so the 

 dog commences to swallow rubbish, and sooner or 

 later becomes raging mad, although not rabid. On 

 this point Prof. Crookshank, in his standard work on 

 Bacteriology, makes the following remarks : " Dogs 



