Rabies and Hydrophobia. 273 



months (Pasteur), or even six months (Perrin). Rare as these 

 are they must apparently be accepted, and must qualify to some 

 extent the trust reposed in immunization. 



Diagnosis. The early diagnosis of rabies in the dog is of 

 supreme importance as enabling the owner to destroy or seclude 

 the dangerous animal before he has developed the disposition to 

 bite and to propagate the disease. If the dog himself is known to 

 have been bitten, every premonitory symptom should be carefully 

 looked for and critically studied. Any change in the general 

 habit, unusual liveliness or dulness, restlessness, or somnolence, 

 unwonted affection or taciturnity, special watchfulness with 

 vision, or hearing, change in the character or tones of the 

 voice or the disposition to use it, propensity to swallow 

 foreign nonalimeutary bodies, retching, vomiting or costive- 

 ness, propensity to hide away in a dark corner or to leave 

 home and disappear for a day or more, disposition to gnaw 

 and tear up wood or clothing, or hyperaesthesia affecting any of 

 the senses should be carefully noted. Note especially any ex- 

 aggeration of the generative instinct, any strabismus, or redness 

 of the eyes, any turning of the eyes or head after imaginary 

 objects or snapping at them, any disposition to anger or attack 

 when another dog or cat is presented and any disposition to growl 

 at or to bite a stranger. This tendency to anger and resentment 

 though not always present is usually a symptom of the very 

 greatest value. If a dog is known to have bitten or attempted to 

 bite any person or animal he should be tied or shut up in a safe 

 place for four days at least, under veterinary supervision, and set 

 free only on condition that no symptoms have developed at the 

 end of this period. A hasty decision that a suspected dog is not 

 rabid must lay a veterinarian open to the most serious charges, in 

 case rabies occurs in man or beast from the bites. 



Diagnosis is less difficult after the paroxysmal stage has set in. 

 Then there is the extreme irritability and hyperaesthesia, the 

 appearance of reflex spasms of the pharyngeal muscles and chest 

 under the influence of any peripheral excitement, the derange- 

 ment of the senses, the dilated pupil, the flashing eye, the 

 squinting, the taciturnity and the propensity to bite. Later still 

 the lack of coordination of movement or the paralysis, especially 

 of the hind limbs and of the jaws. 

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