HYDROPHOBIA. 



23 



Ing ; an eager search for indigestible substances 

 as bits of thread, hair, straw, and dung ; an occa- 

 sional inclination to eat its own dung, and a general 

 propensity to lap its own urine. The two last are 

 perfectly characteristic. The dog becomes irritable ; 

 quarrels with his companions ; eagerly hunts and 

 worries the cat ; mumbles the hand or foot of his 

 master, or perhaps suddenly bites it, and then 

 crouches and asks pardon. As the disease proceeds, 

 the eyes become red; they have a peculiar bright 

 and fierce expression ; some degree of strabismus, or 

 squinting, very early appears not the protrusion of 

 the membrana nictitans, or haw, over the eye, which, 

 in distemper, often gives the appearance of squinting, 

 but an actual distortion of the eyes ; the lid of one 

 eye is evidently more contracted than that of the 

 other ; twitchings occur round that eye ; they 

 gradually spread over that cheek, and finally over 

 the whole face. In the latter stage of the disease, 

 that eye frequently assumes a dull green colour, and 

 at length becomes a mass of ulceration. After the 

 second day, the dog usually begins to lose a perfect 

 control over the voluntary muscles. He catches 

 at his food with an eager snap, as if uncertain 

 whether he could seize it ; and he often fails in the 

 attempt. He either bolts his meat almost unchewed, 

 or, in the attempt to chew it, suffers it to drop from 

 his mouth. This want of power over the muscles of 

 the jaw, tongue, and throat increases, until the 

 lower jaw becomes dependent, the tongue protrudes 

 from the mouth, and is of a dark, and almost black 

 colour. The animal is able, however, by a sudden 

 convulsive effort, to close his jaws, and to inflict a 

 severe bite. The dog is in incessant action ; he 

 scrapes his bed together, disposes it under him in 

 various forms, shifts his posture every instant, starts 

 up, and eagerly gazes at some real or imaginary 

 object ; a peculiar kind of delirium comes on ; 

 he traces the fancied path of some imaginary object 

 floating around him ; he fixes his gaze intently on 

 some spot in the wall or partition, and suddenly 

 plunges and snaps at it ; his eyes then close, and his 

 head droops, but the next moment he starts again to 

 renewed activity ; he is in an instant recalled from 

 this delirium by the voice of his master, and listens 

 attentively to his commands ; but as soon as his 

 master ceases to address him, he relapses into his 

 former mental wandering. His thirst is excessive 

 (there is no hydrophobia, or fear of water, in the 

 dog), and, the power over the muscles concerned in 

 deglutition being impaired, he plunges his face into 

 the water up to the very eyes, and assiduously, but 

 ineffectually, attempts to lap. (In Johnson's 

 Shooter's Companion, the author observes, " In 

 those instances of hydrophobia which have fallen 

 under my notice, the animal has always been capable 

 of lapping; however, in the disease called dumb 

 madness, I have noticed symptoms similar to the 

 above.'') His desire to do mischief depends much 

 on his previous disposition and habits. I have 

 known it not to proceed beyond an occasional snap, 

 and then only when the animal was purposely 

 irritated ; but with the fighting dog, the scene is 

 often terrific. He springs to the end of his chain ; 

 he darts with ferocity at some object which he con- 

 ceives to be within his reach ; he diligently tears 

 to pieces every thing about him ; the carpet or rug 

 is shaken with savage violence ; the door or partition 

 is gnawed asunder ; and so eager is he in this work 

 of demolition, and so regardless of bodily pain, that 

 he not unfrequently breaks one or all of his tushes. 

 If he effects his escape, he wanders about, sometimes 

 merely attacking those dogs whicn fall in his way ; 

 and at other times he diligently and perseveringly 

 hunts out his prey : he overcomes every obstacle to 



effect his purpose ; and, unless he has been stopped 

 in his march of death, he returns in about four and 

 twenty hours, completely exhausted, to the habitation 

 of his master. He frequently utters a short and 

 peculiar howl, which, if once heard, can rarely be 

 forgotten ; or if lie barks, it is with a short, hoarse, 

 inward sound, altogether dissimilar from his usual 

 tone. In the latter stages of the disease, a viscid 

 saliva flows from his mouth, with which the surface 

 of the water that may be placed before him, is 

 covered in a few minutes ; and his breathing is at- 

 tended with a harsh, grating sound, as if impeded by 

 the accumulation of phlegm in the respiratory pas- 

 sages. The loss of power over the voluntary muscles 

 extends, after the third day, throughout his whole 

 frame, and is particularly evident in the loins ; he 

 staggers in his gait ; there is an uncertainty in all 

 his motions ; and he frequently falls, not only when 

 he attempts to walk, but when he stands, balancing 

 himself as well as he can. On the fourth or fifth 

 day of the disease, he dies, sometimes in convulsions, 

 but more frequently without a struggle. After 

 death, there will invariably be found more or less 

 inflammation of the mucous coat of the stomach ; 

 sometimes confined to the rugae, at other times in 

 patches, generally with spots of extravasated blood, 

 and occasionally intense, and occupying the whole of 

 that viscus. The stomach will likewise contain 

 some portion of indigestible matter (hair, straw, 

 dung), and, occasionally, it will be completely filled 

 and distended by an incongruous mass. The lungs 

 will usually present appearances of inflammation, 

 more intense in one, and generally the left lung, 

 than in the other. Some particular points and 

 patches will be of a deep colour, while the neigh- 

 bouring portions are unaffected. The sublingual and 

 parotid glands will be invariably enlarged, and there 

 will also be a certain portion of inflammation, some- 

 times intense, and at other times assuming only a 

 faint blush, on the edge of the epiglottis, or on the 

 rima glottidis, or in the angle of the larynx at the 

 back of it. 



The hydrophobia seems to be spontaneous, and 

 capable of being communicated only in certain 

 animals the dog, the wolf, the fox, and the cat. 

 All animals which have become rabid by a bite, do 

 not appear to be able to transmit it to others; as the 

 hog, cow, sheep. In regard to man, it is not certain 

 whether the disease is communicable from the human 

 subject. The hydrophobia is not commonly manifested 

 in the time of greatest cold or greatest heat, but 

 usually in March and April in wolves, and in May 

 and September in dogs. It is rare in very warm or 

 very cold climates. No particular cause of the rabies 

 is known ; it is a mistake to attribute it to a total 

 privation of food, as a great number of experiments 

 prove that this is not the effect of such a treatment. 

 All observations seem to prove the existence of a 

 rabid virus, which is more violent when it proceeds 

 from wolves than from dogs; as, out of a given 

 number of persons bitten by a rabid wolf, a greater 

 number will die than out of the same number bitten 

 by a dog. The communication of the virulent hy- 

 drophobia by inoculation cannot be denied, and is the 

 best proof of the existence of the virus. The virus 

 appears to be contained solely in the saliva, and does 

 not produce any effect on the healthy skin. But if 

 the skin is deprived of the epidermis, or if the virus 

 is applied to a wound, the inoculation will take effect. 

 The development of the rabid symptoms is rarely 

 immediate ; it seldom takes place before the fortieth 

 or after the sixtieth day. It begins with a slight 

 pain in the scar of the bite, sometimes attended with 

 a chill; the pain extends and reaches the base of the 

 breast, if the bite was on the lower limbs, or the 



