HYDROPHOBIA 193 



investigation of them by men specially educated to undertake the duty, 

 that we can ever hope to discover a cure. 



"Among the numerous superstitions that hang like clouds round ca- 

 nine madness, obscuring any possibility of a clear view of it, 1 will refer 

 to one only, most of them being altogether unworthy of notice. It has 

 long been a popular belief that a person bitten by a dog, even if the. ani- 

 mal be in perfect health at the time, is never safe from an attack of 

 rabies so long as the dog lives; for it is held, that should the dog become 

 mad at any future period, however distant, the person bitten will also fall 

 a victim to the disease. Cases supposed to prove that rabies may be com- 

 municated by a dog free from it are constantly cropping up, and I know 

 of a case of a woman who is said to have died from hydrophobia, caused 

 by the bite of a dog that was clearly proved to be free from rabies at the 

 time, and has remained so ever since. The woman, it appears, was in an 

 upper room with her child, and the entrance of a small dog so alarmed 

 her for her child's safety that she seized the intruder and threw it out of 

 the window, and was bitten in the struggle; the woman was taken ill and 

 died, showing all the symptoms of hydrophobia, and the surgeon who at- 

 tended her certified that death was from that disease. 1 do not intend to 

 dispute the opinion thus given, but I venture to say had the whole facts 

 of the case been carefully investigated, say, by a jury of physicians of 

 experience, it would have proved that the bite of that dog had but a small 

 share in causing the woman's death. To me it appears as reasonable 

 to believe that the dog could have bitten the woman without being in the 

 same room with her, as that the bite could communicate rabies when the 

 disease did not at that time exist. Such cases should not be passed by, 

 but thoroughly sifted by qualiled men, that the truth might be elicited and 

 the fears of the nervous allayed. The practical lesson to be learned from 

 this is, care and caution in dealing with dogs, especially strange ones, and 

 to curb unnecessary alarm, which often brings about the evil it would 

 avoid. When an accident does occur, have the wound promptly cauterized 

 to its full depth with caustic, and let nervous, in addition, obtain medical 

 advice. 



"I recommend those having much to do with dogs to carry in the 

 pocket at all times one of those wooden cases of caustic which costs but 

 sixpence, and with this safeguard about them, and the presence of mind 

 and nerve to use it promptly and thoroughly — taking care the caustic 

 reaches as deep as the tooth did — the bite even of a mad dog will do them 

 no harm. 



"Since the above was written, ten years ago, rabies in dogs has un- 

 fortunately been rather frequent, and a few years ago from the number 

 of deaths from hydrophobia, caused by the bites from mad dogs, quite a 

 panic arose, with the result that the attention of medical men and vet- 

 erarians at home and abroad has been very much directed to its nature; 

 as yet, however, no cure has been discovered, and I see no reason to 

 alter what I have already said; but it will be useful very briefly to notice 

 one or two points of special interest. Latest researches seem to point 

 conclusively that the rabid poison exists in the saliva, and in none of the 

 other secretions. 



"Although its propagation by a bite or by the poisoned saliva coming 

 in contact with an abraised or highly vascular surface are clearly enough 

 the means of transmission and propagation, how it originates is unknown; 

 exposure to great heat, feeding on salt meat, compelled abstinence from 

 water, and many other causes, have been suggested as a producing cause, 

 but proved not to be so. The old notion that it is peculiarly a disease of 

 the dog days, is fabulous, nor is it connected with the functions of procrea- 

 tion, further than the present law in this country permits owners of bitches 

 when in season to be fought over by excited males, furnishes excellent op- 

 portunities for its spread as well as being an insult to decency. It is the 

 duty of men who keep dogs to have some knowledge of their nature, and 

 the law should punish the ignorance or carelessness that causes an offense 

 and a danger to the public. 



