HYDROPHOBIA 231 



others to spontaneous madness. Here we have a 

 new and very weighty reason why we should take 

 good care of our dogs. To let them suffer cruelly 

 is to expose them to the inroads of a horrible ail- 

 ment that may perhaps be our own destruction. 



1 ' 'Spontaneous madness once developed in a dog, 

 the malady, unless precautions are taken, is propa- 

 gated in others with frightful rapidity. Ten dogs, 

 a hundred dogs, can in a short time themselves be- 

 come mad. An animal attacked with rabies is, in 

 short, tormented with an irresistible desire to bite 

 others. Wild-eyed, tail between its legs, hair erect, 

 lip frothing, it springs with lowered head on the first 

 dog it meets, bites it, and immediately springs at 

 another, then another, as many as it comes across. 

 Now, every dog bitten becomes itself mad in a few 

 days, some sooner, some later, and propagates the 

 evil in the same way unless energetic measures cut 

 this scourge short. 



"The disease is communicated to man also by the 

 bite. A mad dog bites animals and human beings 

 without distinction; it springs furiously at passers- 

 by, and even springs at its master, whom it no 

 longer recognizes. If the tooth, moistened with sa- 

 liva, pierces the skin so as to draw blood, it is all 

 over with the victim: hydrophobia has been com- 

 municated. " 



"It is the same here, then, as with the viper's 

 venom?" asked Jules. 



"Exactly the same. From the mad dog's mouth 

 runs a deadly saliva, a real venom which, mingling 



