296 VETERINARY HYGIENE 



The reintroduction of rabies into Great Britain during 1918 

 was due to abnormal war conditions. " The executive preventive 

 authorities at the ports had to meet a very abnormal situation, in 

 which their ordinary powers and facilities were greatly curtailed; 

 this was accentuated by aerial traffic. The dog-importing public 

 was also enormously increased and altered in character." The 

 first suspicious case was brought to the notice of the Ministry (then 

 the Board) of Agriculture on 30th August, but as the material sent 

 for examination was not fresh the result was inconclusive though 

 highly suspicious. As the result of inquiry rabies was declared to 

 exist on 7th September, and an Order was issued prohibiting the 

 movement of dogs out of Cornwall and Devon and applying muz- 

 zling regulations to an area around Plymouth. Later the muzzling 

 regulations were extended. From 24th August to 31st December, 

 1918, 112 cases of rabies were confirmed. It is certain that the 

 disease had been in existence for some time undiscovered, and this 

 greatly increased the difficulty of tracing infected animals. " Two 

 important fortuitous circumstances, however, aided the operations. 

 Firstly, the majority of the cases were of the paralytic form, which 

 greatly curtailed their wanderings and their ability to bite; and, 

 secondly, the majority of cases which ran elected to take a westerly 

 direction, and by so doing came up against an effective sea barrier. 

 Had it not been for these factors the situation might have been 

 very much worse."* 



The period of incubation is variable, and rarely less than 15 

 days in natural cases and generally 1 to 3 months. In 3 horses 

 bitten by a rabid dog Beurnier and Bocquetf noted the incubation 

 period to be respectively 21, 88, and 105 days. * At times the period 

 may extend to a year or more. The course once symptoms are 

 shown is very short, generally about 4 to 7 days. The mortality 

 in dogs is very high, though experimental cases occasionally 

 recover; thus HogyesJ states that of 159 dogs experimentally 

 infected 13 recovered, though admittedly 7 of these had received 

 anti-rabies treatment. According to Remlinger, cases of recovery 

 are occasionally noted in nature, thus a good many examples have 

 occurred of persons having died of rabies who had been bitten 

 by dogs which had remained alive. This observer also noted that 

 the virus persisted in the saliva of a dog experimentally infected 



* Annual Report of C.V.O. of Bd. of Agric., 1918, 

 Abs. from Journ. Comp. Path., Vol. XXXII., Dec., 1919. 



t Journ. Comp. Path., 1889, Vol. II., p. 70, Trans. 

 $ Journ. Comp. Path., 1889, Vol. II., p. 359, Trans. 

 % Journ. Comp. Path., 1907, Vol. XX., p. 266, Trans. 



