186 Hydrophobia 



The clog would have been immediately killed, and thus all evidence that 

 there was no rabies manifested in the animal would have been destroyed, 

 and another name would have been added to the list of supposed victims to 

 this terrible disease, delusion, or whatever you choose to term it. 



" 'But what was really the matter with the dog, Professor?' queried 

 the Post-Dispatch man. 



" 'Worms,' said Prof. Eberhart, 'nothing but worms. And let me tell 

 you that at the bottom of nearly every illness to which a dog is subjected 

 you will find worms to be the cause. In fact, they cause eight-tenths of all 

 the deaths in the canine world. If owners would keep their dogs' bowels 

 open with an occasional dose of some purgative there would be many less 

 cases of "mad dogs" like that poor little, shivering, sick Italian greyhound 

 lying on the sold stone floor of that Cincinnati station cell. 



" 'But that wasn't the end of that case,' continued the Professor, 'and 

 this part of it shows just how little this question of mad dogs is undersood. 

 After I had gone down town to my office the same morning the dog had 

 been taken home, his owner, who had called for him in the morning, 

 came in. 



" 'Now, Professor,' said he, 'I know and you know that our dog is 

 all right, but my wife has been worrying all night about him, and she 

 was so frightened yesterday over his wild running and jumping that noth- 

 ing but a personal visit from you will reassure her and quiet her fears, 

 and I wish you would call at my house and see her. 



" 'I went out to the gentleman's residence and talked to his wife. I 

 told her how her dog would act under certain conditions. I asked her, if 

 her infant was thrown into spasms from worms if she would be afraid of 

 contracting hydrophobia from it. I showed her that an ailment affected 

 a dog exactly as it would a human. She was a sensible woman and saw 

 the point at once, and I am sure there will be no more "rabies" in her dogs. 



" 'Now, I know of another case,' said the professor, 'where a small 

 child was bitten and a fearful gash cut by the dog's teeth clean to the 

 skull, and that dog died two days later with all the aversion to water that 

 they claim is an infallible symptom of hydrophobia, that he could manifest 

 still the little boy did not have rabies, and simply because he was too small 

 to take part in his parents' worry over the outcome of the bite.' " 



The following appeared editorially in the St. Louis Republic, Feb. 24, 

 1896: 



"Is the Mad Dog a Myth? 



"This is far from dog-day time, but The Republic trusts that the optim- 

 ism of the St. Louis Bench Show's Superintendent will be treasured by ner- 

 vous mothers for use next August. He says that there is no such thing as 

 poisonous rabies in dogs. 



"It is curious that every man who has handled great numbers of dogs 

 bears the same testimony. 



"There is danger of blood poisoning as a result of any animal's bite; 

 and there is lock-jaw as the extreme effect of blood poisoning. But the men 

 who have been longest in charge of dogs agree that there is no rabid con- 

 dition when a bite is more dangerous than at any other time; and that a 

 dog's bite at any time is no more dangerous than the scratch of a cat. 



"It does seem that they ought to know. For the sake of humanity's 

 peace of mind the doctors should find out whether the experience of men 

 who have been bitten dozens of times is worth anything." 



Harry W. Lacy recently wrote in the American Stockkeeper on this 

 subject: "One would think that a man having intelligence enough to write 

 editorials on a leading daily paper would inform himself sufficiently on the 

 subject not to make such a foolish statement as that muzzling dogs was a 

 sure way to produce hydrophobia, but this is what a Boston Standard 

 editorial said last week. Probably there is no subject about which the 

 average newspaper writer gets off more tommy rot than hydrophobia and 

 mad dog scares. 



