372 DR. LEGEAR'S STOCK BOOK. 



Causes. The theory of ;i spontaneous development of rabii - 

 is still a question of controversy among our best authors. It i- 

 now universally accepted that the poison is communicated alm i 

 invariably by means of the bite of a rabid or infected animal. 

 Climate does not appear in the least to exert any amount of in- 

 fluence over its production. It is very generally imagined by 

 people that dogs are more liable to have the disease during very 

 hot weather. Experience, however, proves that hot weather has 

 not the slightest influence, so far as being the actual cause or 

 producing the disease is concerned. Statistics show that Janu- 

 ary and August, the coldest and hottest months, furnish th- 

 fewest cases. In Egypt and Syria, both very hot countries, the 

 disease is unknown, and Greenland, on the other hand, being a 

 very cold country, is also exempt. So far as is known, the con- 

 tagious principle or virus exists only in the fixed form, and is 

 found in every tissue of the body. In the brain, spinal cord, and 

 saliva, it is found in its most potent forms, but its vitality i- 

 soon lost after death. We are justified in saying that hydro- 

 phobia is a specific blood disease, due to an unknown germ. .V 

 yet, the germ has not been isolated or cultivated, but, by the 

 process of inoculation, sufficient proof has been found of its 

 presence in the- blood of an affected animal. This virus, without 

 doubt, is developed in the saliva of all affected animals, and is in- 

 oculated by a bite or by its coming in contact with an abrasion 

 of the skin or mucous membrane, thus producing the disease in 

 other animals and in man. The virus seems to be weakened in 

 its transmission from one animal to another, so that the first 

 bites of a mad dog are said to be the mo,st dangerous. French 

 authorities go to show that not one-third of those bitten by rabid 

 animals die of rabies, while only 1 per cent of those bitten 

 through the clothing die. Some people think the bite of an 

 angry dog will produce hydrophobia, and all the more so if the 

 animal should go mad, even years after. M. Pasteur, the noted 

 French scientist, says: "The bite of a dog is only dangerous wln-n 



