Hydrophobia s is? 



"These hydrophobia scares are mainly due to the sensational imagina- 

 tion of the reporter who plays upon the nervousness of a public only too 

 ready to shy a stone at dog, and then when the scare has assumed suitable 

 proportions and a muzzling order goes forth, these writers are again the 

 first to question its advisability and play on tbe feeling of their readers 

 who may own dogs, with the nonsensical statement alluded to above. 



"The very rare disease called hydrophobia can only be produced 

 through- inoculation with the rabial virus, and a dog might mear a muzzle 

 to the end of his natural life, and unless he was actually bitten by a rabid 

 dog he would be none the worse, though, according to his temperament, 

 the incubus might make him bad tempered, irritable, and so excite his ner- 

 vous temperament as to send him into a fit wherein he would probably dis- 

 play some of those symptoms of rabies popularly, but erroneously, asso- 

 ciated with hydrophobia. 



"If such a thing as hydrophobia really exists in a locality there is no 

 surer method to stamp it out than a general muzzling order strictly en- 

 forced. The reason is obvious. This may entail hardship on individual 

 dogs, but the good of the others and the community at large demands it. 



"Speaking of hydrophobia scares we do not hesitate to say that the 

 Pasteur Institute in New York has done more to keep alive an unhealthy 

 state of public mind in regard to the disease than any other agency. The 

 advent of new patients is heralded throughout the country, and patients 

 from distant states are treated on the supposition that they have been bit- 

 ten by mad dogs, but rarely is it proved that the dogs were really rabid. 

 Still they undergo the treatment, and Dr. Gibier claims credit for subse- 

 quent immunity." 



Here are the ideas of Dr. H. Clay Glover, of New York City, one of the 

 highest authorities on canine diseases that we have in America: 



Dr. H. Clay Glover, interviewed on the muzzling question by a New 

 York Herald man, was asked why the muzzle was unnecessary. "Because," 

 said Dr. Glover, "it is of no possible benefit either to the dog or public. The 

 mad dog scare, which has been so long agitated, is a myth, and one calcu- 

 lated to do much injury by the introduction of false hydrophobia induced 

 by fear. During my long experience in canine practice I have never seen 

 but one case of authenticated rabies. I have been called to see hundreds 

 of so-called mad dogs, and found they were merely in convulsions, afflicted 

 by epilepsy or suffering from an attack of indigestion or from over excite- 

 ment, all of which yield to proper treatment." 



Another very able authority is next given: 



In the Animal World, Mr. Rotherhan, a canine practitioner, describes 

 the differences between rabies, apoplexy and epilepsy. He says: "In rabies 

 a dog never foams at the mouth, its tongue and lips are brown and hard- 

 looking, the discharge from the mouth is small in quantity, brownish in 

 color and hangs about the lips like strings of gum; the eyes have an un- 

 natural glare. In apoplexy there is sudden loss of power, the dog falls 

 down, either partially or wholly insensible, the eyes are fixed and blood- 

 shot, the breathing is heavy; there is no unusual discharge of saliva. In 

 epilepsy the dog is seen to tremble just as the fit is coming on. If the dog 

 tries to move he falls on one side, his jaws begin to champ violently, all 

 voluntary muscles are powerfully convulsed; generally he utters sharp, short 

 cries, but not always; there is a copious discharge of white, frothy saliva, 

 the gums are of a pale leaden hue. When recovering from an epileptic fit 

 the dog has a bewildered look, the eyes having a dull and stupid expression." 



So great is the popular dread of hydrophobia that a slight derange- 

 ment of the dog's nervous system is often mistaken for symptoms of rabies, 

 while a dog in convulsions, in an epileptic fit, or stricken with apoplexy 

 may be shot as mad — particularly if it be hot weather — before there is a 

 chance of determining the nature of his disease. The principal centers 

 of the nervous system are the brain and the spinal cord. These Stonehenge 

 compares to the electric telegraph. The brain he calls the central office. 

 From that station are issued messages to all parts of the body, and the 

 wires which carry those messages are the nerves of motion, the nerves of 



