174 DISEASES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



after a careful analysis of both diseases the difference is as easily appre- 

 ciated. The great danger of confounding them lies in the anxiety which 

 invariably possesses people, who sacrifice dogs on the first appearance 

 of symptoms which indicates the barest possibility of rabies; they jump 

 to conclusions and a diagnosis without sufficiently studying the case. 



To kill an animal suspected of being mad, is not the first but the last 

 thing to do. He should be secured and every possible precaution institu- 

 ted to prevent injury to those around him, and then be carefully watched. 

 The wisdom of this plan is all the more evident if the animal has bitten 

 anyone; many a mind has been nearly crazed, by days of terror and hor- 

 rible expectancy which might have been averted, had not panic stricken 

 friends hurried the poor dog out of the world, when he should have been 

 allowed to die naturally from meningitis, or possibly some other disease, 

 in the course of which a few symptoms of rabies appeared. 



The manner of the attack will aid much in diagnosis. Acute meningitis 

 occurs more often after an accident, injury, some unusual exposure, or is 

 developed in connection with some other disease. There is no melan- 

 cholic stage as is seen in rabies, no shrinking from strangers ; the disposi- 

 tion to worry articles, carpets, chair legs, etc., to eat indigestible substances, 

 to lap urine, cold stones, and iron, to stray away, to attack other dogs, is 

 absent in meningitis. Again while the voice is altered, the bark is short, 

 shai'p, high in pitch, entirely unlike the hoarse, croupy, blended howl and 

 wail heard in rabies. 



In that dread malady, wood work is bitten, straw shaken in the teeth of 

 animals infected; sticks extended are held savagely in the mouth and 

 withdrawn only with great effort. In meningitis these symptoms are ab- 

 sent ; an animal ill with the disease will bite at a stick extended, but almost 

 immediately relinquish it, and another important diagnostic difference is, 

 while maniacal excitement occurs in paxoxysms, it cannot be induced by 

 worrying the animal as in the case of madness. 



In the latter disorder there appear peculiar illusions; the unfortunates 

 will see as it were, bugs, spiders, and the like crawl along the walls, and 

 follow them with their eyes in their imaginary course ; this symptom does 

 not appear in meningitis; neither is there a disposition to bite other ani- 

 mals as is the case in rabies. In the former affection vomiting generallj- 

 occurs, and what is of great importance to consider, is the fact that it is an 

 inflammatory disease, and the febrile movement is more or less marked. 



Prognosis . —Acute meningitis is a grave disease and recovery will but 

 rarely take place. When developed in connection with other disorders as 

 distemper, a fatal result may be anticipated. 



Treatment. — An animal manifesting the symptoms should be secured, 

 and a measure of anxiety will be removed if care in handling is observed. 



