236 DISEASES OF CATTLE, SHEEP, GOATS, ETC. 



continue to have a strong hold upon the public mind. For instance, 

 it is still a widely prevalent belief that if persons or animals are bit- 

 ten by a dog they are liable to become rabid if the dog should con- 

 tract the disease at any future time. There is no foundation for this 

 impression, and it would be a great comfort to many people who are 

 now and then bitten by animals if the fallacy of this idea were appre- 

 ciated. All experience, both scientific and practical, goes to show 

 that rabies is transmitted only by animals that are actually diseased 

 at the time the bite is inflicted. Rabies is an infectious disease in- 

 volving the nervous system and characterized by extreme excitabil- 

 ity and other nervous disorders and always terminating in death. 

 The contagion of this disease has never been isolated, but the fact 

 that it is caused by a specific organism principally found in the ner- 

 vous system is indisputable. For instance, if an emulsion of the 

 brain of a rabid animal is filtered through a germ-proof filter, the fil- 

 trate will be harmless. This fact indicates that the infectious prin- 

 ciple is not in solution, but is an organism withheld from the filtrate 

 -by the filter. This contagion can only be propagated in the body of 

 an animal. It is transmitted naturally from one animal to another 

 solely by bites, and the old idea of spontaneous appearance of the dis- 

 ease is absolutely fallacious. It may be produced artificially by inoc- 

 ulating susceptible animals with an emulsion of the brain or spinal 

 cord, as well as the saliva, milk, and other secretions of the affected 

 animal. The 'blood, on the contrary, seems to be free from the in- 

 fectious principle. The saliva contains the virus, which, under nat- 

 ural conditions, is introduced into or under the skin on the tooth of 

 the rabid animal. The disease is widespread, being found in many 

 countries of Europe, Asia and Africa and in certain sections of the 

 United States. 



Owing to the rigid quarantine regulations enforced against dogs 

 Imported into Australia, that country remains aibsolutely free from 

 the disease. Following the canine race, cattle seem to be the most 

 frequently affected, probably because rabid dogs, next to their mor- 

 bid desire to attack other members of their own race, have a better 

 opportunity to bite grazing cattle than any other species of animal. 

 The relative frequency of rabies in these two species of animal is in- 

 dicated by the carefully compiled statistics of the German Empire, 

 which show that 904 dogs and 223 cows died of rabies in 1898, while 

 in 1899 there were 911 cases in dogs and 171 in cattle. The latter re- 

 ceived bites most frequently on the hind legs and in the hips and 

 about the lower jaw. These places are most accessible to dogs, owing 

 to the habit of cattle to drive their tormentors away by lowering their 

 heads and using their horns. Every animal bitten does not neces- 

 sarily develop the disease, but the percentage of fatalities has been 

 variously estimated and averages from 25 to 30 per cent of the bitten 

 cattle. This, however, depends on the location and size of the wound, 

 as well as the amount of hemorrhage produced, and various other 

 conditions. In general, the nearer the bite is located to the central 

 nervous system and the deeper the wound inflicted, the greater the 

 danger of a fatal result. In cases where the hemorrhage resulting 1 



