DISEASES OF CATTLE 237 



from the bite is profuse, there is a possibility that the virus will be 

 washed out of the wound and thus obviate the danger of subsequent 

 appearance of the disease. 



The virus after being deposited in the wound remains latent for 

 an extremely variable period of time, which also depends on the size 

 and depth of the wound as well as its location and the amount of the 

 virulent saliva introduced. Experiments have proved that the virus 

 follows the course of the nerves to the spinal cord and along the lat- 

 ter to the brain before the symptoms appear. Gerlach having col- 

 lected the statistics from 133 cases has found this time, known as the 

 period of incubation, to vary from fourteen to two hundred and 

 eighty-five days. The great majority of cases, however, contract the 

 disease in one to three months after the bite has been inflicted. 



Symptoms. As in dogs, both furious and dumb rabies are met 

 with, the former being more common in cattle. However, a sharp 

 line of distinction can not be drawn between these two forms of the 

 disease, as the furious form usually merges into the dumb, due to the 

 paralysis which always appears prior to death. The typical cases of 

 dumb rabies are those where the paralysis appears at the beginning of 

 the attack and remains until the death of the animal. The disease 

 first manifests itself by a loss of appetite and rumination and stop- 

 ping of the secretion of milk, great restlessness, anxiety, manifesta- 

 tion of fear, and change in the disposition of the animal. This pre- 

 liminary stage is followed in a day or two by the stage of excitation, 

 or madness, which is indicated by increasing restlessness, loud roar- 

 ing at times with a peculiar change in the sound of the voice, violent 

 butting with the horns and pawing the ground with the feet, with an 

 insane tendency to attack other animals, although the desire to bite 

 is not so marked in cattle as in the canine race. A constant symptom 

 is the increased secretion of saliva with a consequent frothing at the 

 mouth, or the secretion may hang from the lips in long strings. Con- 

 stipation is marked, and there is manifested a continual, although 

 unsuccessful, desire to defecate. Spasms of the muscles in different 

 parts of the body are also seen at intervals. About the fourth day 

 the animal usually becomes quieter and the walk is stiff, unsteady, 

 and swaying, showing that the final paralysis is coming on. This 

 is called the paralytic stage. The loss of flesh is extremely rapid, and 

 even during the short course of the disease the animal becomes ex- 

 ceedingly emaciated. The temperature is never elevated, it usually 

 remaining about normal or even subnormal. Finally, there is com- 

 plete paralysis of the hind quarters, the animal being unable to rise, 

 and but for irregular convulsive movements lies in a comatose condi- 

 tion, and dies usually from the fourth to the sixth day after the ap- 

 pearance of the first symptom. 



TRANSMISSION OF THE DISEASE BY MILK AND MEAT. 



While the virus of rabies is most frequently found in the central 

 nervous system and the salivary glands, it may also be found in 

 other glands and secretions, including the mammary glands and the 

 milk. That rabies may at times be excreted with the milk has been 

 proved by Nocard, Perroncito, Bardach, and the writer. In these 



