RABIES. 



109 



turn one way and not the other. They are unwilling to lie down, from 

 experience of the difficulty they would have in rising again. Tiiese are 

 evident injuries of the spine, and a loss of some of the joints of the bins 

 or back, and are without remedy ; and so, often, is palsy. Bleeding, 

 physicking, antimonial medicines, and stimulating embrocations, are the 

 most likely means of cure. 



RABIES, OR MADNESS. 



There is another disease of the nervous system, of which we must 

 speak — Rabies, or Madnkss — that incurable malady which results from 

 the bite of a rabid or mad animal. Tlie poison of tlie saliva remains in the 

 wound for an uncertain time, varying from three to eight weeks in the 

 horse, and then begins to produce its dreadful effects on the system. The 

 attack of rabies (or hydrophobia as it is commonly, but very improperly 

 called in the horse and other quadrupeds, for tliey have no dread of water) 

 is usually very sudden. The animal will go to work apparently well : all 

 at once he will stop, tremble, heave, paw, stagger, and fall. Almost im- 

 mediately he will rise ; draw his load a little farther ; again stop, look about 

 him, and once more fall. This cannot be confounded with megrims, 

 because the horse is perfectly sensible. The sooner he is led home the 

 better, for the progress of tlie disease is. most rapid, and if he is not im- 

 mediately destroyed, he sliould be slung, for sometimes a state of the 

 highest excitation speedily ensues. The horse kicks and plunges in the 

 most violent manner; attempts furiously to seize and bite the other horses, 

 or his attendants; "and will level with the ground every thing before him, 

 'himself sweating, and snorting, and ibaming, aniidst the ruins." In both 

 the ferocious and the harmless variety of the disease, staggering and palsy 

 of the hinder extremities soon follow. We remember to have seen a beauti- 

 ful mare, sitting on her iiaunches, and unable to rise, yet pawing furiously 

 with her fore-feet, and striking at every thing within her reach. The thirst 

 is excessive, and the act of swallowing is usually performed with a forced, 

 gulping effort, and the head is, in a few instances, snatched violently from 

 the pail. The disease rarely extends beyond the third day. 



After death there is uniformly found inflammation at the back part of 

 the mouth, and at the top of tlie windpipe, and likewise in the stomach, 

 and on the membrane covering the lungs, and where the spinal marrow first 

 comes from the brain. 



When the disease can be clearly connected with a previous bite, the 

 sooner the animal is destroyed the better, for there is no cure. If the 

 symptoms bear considerable resemblance to rabies, although no bite be 

 suspected, the horse should at least be slung, and the medicine, if any be 

 administered, given in the form of a drink, and with the hand well pro- 

 tected ; because, if it should be scratched in baHing the horse, or the 

 skin should have been previously broken, the saliva of the animal ia 

 capable of communicating the disease. Several farriers have lost their 

 lives from being bitten or scratched in the act of administering medicine 

 to a rabid horse. 



It is always dangerous to encourage dogs much about the stable, and 

 especially if^ they become fond of the horses, and are in the habit of jump- 

 ing up and licking them. The corners of horses' mouths are often sore 

 from the pressure of the bit ; and when a coach-dog in a gentleman's 

 .stable — and it is likely to happen in every stable, and with every dog — 

 becomes rabid and dies, the horse too frequently follows him at no great 

 distance of time. 



If a horse should be bitten by a dog under suspicious circumstances, ha 



