HYDROPHOBIA 237 



"It is in restlessness and agitation without ap- 

 parent cause that the first signs of the inroads of 

 rabies manifest themselves. The dog cannot stay 

 in one place, it goes without any object from one 

 spot to another, and retires to a corner where it 

 turns round without being able to find a position 

 that suits it. Its look expresses gloom and sadness. 

 It seems obsessed by a fixed idea from which the call 

 of a loved voice may draw it for a moment; then 

 it relapses into sadness. 



"Food is not yet refused. On the contrary, the 

 dog pounces gluttonously on the food set before it; 

 sometimes its depraved appetite is such that it even 

 devours substances having no nutriment, such as 

 wood, straw, and anything found in its way, even 

 its own excrement. Water is drunk with the same 

 avidity. As soon as this unreasonable agitation, 

 this deep sadness, this excess of affection, and this 

 depraved appetite show themselves, the dog should 

 be suspected of rabies ; prudence demands that it be 

 chained and closely watched. 



1 ' Suspicion becomes complete certainty if the ani- 

 mal from time to time utters a peculiar and quite 

 characteristic cry, which is called the mad-dog howl. 

 In the midst of one of these attacks of lugubrious 

 sadness, all at once the dog springs with a bound at 

 an imaginary enemy. Then, muzzle uplifted, it 

 gives an ordinary bark that ends bruskly and pe- 

 culiarly in a piercing howl. At this discordant 

 sound one might be reminded of the manner in 

 which roosters sometimes crow, at least so far as 



