268 Veterinary Medicine. 



country where rabies exists any such change should be the war- 

 rant for instant seclusion of the dog before there is any disposi- 

 tion to bite. The unwonted habit may be of almost any kind. 

 The lively, amiable dog may become suddenly dull, apathetic or 

 taciturn ; the quiet, unexcitable dog may become unusually affec- 

 tionate, fawning and demonstrative, licking the owner's hands and 

 face and perhaps infecting him before any suspicion is aroused. 

 Sudden capricious changes from fawning to apathy or sullenness, 

 or the opposite, should be dreaded. The noisy dog may become 

 suddenly silent ; while the silent dog may take to howling without 

 apparent cause. A great restlessness, watchfulness or nervous- 

 ness, a tendency to start at the slightest sound, and a disposition 

 to move at frequent intervals in search of an easier position or 

 place to lie in, are most dangerous symptoms. A morbid appetite, 

 with a disposition to pick up and swallow all sorts of non-ali- 

 mentary objects (straw, thread, cord, paper, pins, nails, coal, 

 marbles, pebbles, cloth, earth, dung or urine), in a mature dog 

 is most suggestive. Searching around, scraping, tearing sticks, 

 clothes and other objects to pieces, licking of smooth cold stone 

 or metal, of his penis, or of the generative organs of a bitch, are 

 often early phenomena. The dog may hide in a dark corner, 

 going to sleep and grumbling or growling when disturbed. He 

 may make night hideous with his howls, baying at the moon. He 

 may stand with a dull, melancholy, hopeless expression of coun- 

 tenance, as if beseeching his master for relief from his nameless 

 suffering. But as yet there is no disposition to bite. The dog 

 still responds to the call of the master, but with dulness and 

 apathy, in marked contrast with his usual prompt, alert and 

 loving response. There may be congestion, itching and irritation 

 in the seat of the bite, and it may be licked, scratched or gnawed 

 until raw, tender or bleeding. An early change in the voice 

 may be noticeable. There is at first a certain hoarseness, which 

 gradually develops into the pathognomonic rabid howl which is 

 quite recognizable at a distance. The dog turns his nose upward, 

 and with open mouth, emits a howl which, at first hoarse and 

 low, rises into a shriller and higher note before completion and 

 which may be repeated several times without closing the mouth. 

 It is not an ordinary howl but rather a cry of distress, and, to 

 the educated ear a grave note of warning. Sometimes the dog is 

 dumb from the start. 



