6-^b APPENDIX. — D. 



witliout a long series of expei-iments. Fortiiuately this is a 

 question of little amount ; as there is little likelihood of any 

 inoculation taking place from the lifeless carcase. 



I now return to the text of Mr. Blaine : — " Having thus 

 traced, says he, the rabid poison from its rise and origin to its 

 insertion into the animal body, let us now proceed to inquire, 

 what are the chances that it will prove baneful ; what time 

 usually intervenes between its insertion and active operation ; 

 and, when so acting, what are the symptoms it produces, and 

 what irs supposed modus operandi 1 



" Of the numbers bitten by a rabid animal, many escape without 

 infection. — A variety of circumstances may tend to this favorable 

 issue, among which may be reckoned the intervention of sub- 

 stances between the teeth of the biter and the flesh of the bitten ; 

 as the wool of sheep, the thick hair of some d(3gs, and the clothes 

 of human persons. 



" The inherent aptitude in different classes of animal bodies to 

 receive it is, also, not the savie. — As might be expected, it is 

 greatest in the caninse, particularly in the dog and wolf; yet it 

 is probable that not one-half of either of these germinate the 

 virus received. The proportions among other quadrupeds we 

 are more in the dark about. Mr. Youatt thinks that the ma- 

 jority of inoculated horses perish, but among cattle he is of 

 opinion the proportion is less. I should, however, myself think, 

 that both enjoy a much greater imnmnity than dogs ; otherwise 

 we should meet with more rabid cases among them in agri- 

 cultural districts than we do. Human subjects, both constitu- 

 tionally and fortuitously, are least obnoxious to it. Neither is 

 there room to doubt that the animal frame, generally, is some- 

 times less apt than at others to receive the contagion, dependent 

 probably on a constitutional idiosyncrasy generated within, or 

 gathered from, the operation of external circumstances, as pecu- 

 liarity of situation, variations of temperature, qualities in ali- 

 ments, &c., &c. Not only do facts coincide with this opinion, 

 but it is impossible otherwise to account for the epideinial as 

 well as endemial character which the rabid malady sometimes 

 assumes. 



