f?44 APPENDIX. D. 



" From what lias already l)eeii stated with regard to the 

 rationale ot" the rahid hioculation, it will readily appear, that, 

 provideil the virus be immediately taken into the cirrula;ion, it 

 must yet return to the part it was originally rereived Ijy ; and it 

 must there commence a new irritation, by which snme new 

 morbid compound is generated ; and it is the absorption of this 

 compound that is alone capahh nf producing the maladij. Again, 

 on t!ie more popular theory, that the rabid virus does not enter 

 tlie constitution, but lies dormant in the part where it was first 

 rceived, it is still the same, as regards the preventive treat- 

 ment, which it is evident is only eftected with certainty by the 

 entii-e removal of the inoculated poition ; because, that being 

 absent, no new morbid compound can be formed on the first 

 supposition, nor can any local excitement arise on the second. 



" Provided, therefore, that the wounded part or parts a)t? com- 

 pk'tclij destroyed, the patient will, to a demonstration, bo ren- 

 dered as secure as though never liitten ; which is a most 

 consolatory circumstance in the consideration of this dire disease. 



'• It is also rendered doubly so, since the rationale of the action 

 of the morbid virus teaches us, that it is indifferent at what time 

 this removal takes place, provided it be within the limits of the 

 inoculation and those of the morbid symjitoms. This circum- 

 stance is of immense importance to the human subject ; and it 

 is as fully supported by facts, as consistent with the theory laid 

 down. I am as confident on the subject as a very long expe- 

 rience and close observation of innumerable cases can make 

 me, that not only is the destruction of the bitten part a certain 

 preventive, hut that such removal of it is as effectual at any time 

 previously to the symptoim appearing, as at the first moment after 

 the hite. My professional education as a human surgeon being 

 not altogether unknown to the public, it is not to be wondered 

 at that this recollection, when united to some notoriety which 

 attached to my attention to this particular and then prevailing 

 disease, and to my vast opportunities of observing it, should 

 have produced some direct confidence in my opinion. It, tliere- 

 fore, often happened, that, frojii being consulted about the rabid 



