Rabies in Cats and in Horses. 479 



short and indicated by few eonspicnons s^Tnptoms of excite- 

 ment; then not infrequently the melancholic stage is followed 

 almost without interruption by the paralytic symptoms, particu- 

 larly paralysis of the muscles of the jaw and throat, to which 

 is then added the paralysis of the hind parts of the body. This 

 form of the disease, during the course of wdiich most patients 

 are weak from the beginning and neither bark nor bite, and 

 which is generally fatal in 3 to 4 days, is usually called dumb 

 rabies in contrast to the typical violent rabies. 



The eaiise of the differences in the course of the disease is not 

 exactly known, but it seems in some way to be connected with the 

 species and earlier life of the animals. Experience teaches that symp- 

 toms of violent excitement are particularly observed in biting dogs 

 of a lively temperament living in the open, while gentle house dogs, 

 in which aggressiveness and the desire to bite appear more rarely and 

 less conspicuously, are attacked more frequently by dumb rabies (accord- 

 ing to Hjortland, in Greenland the disease nearly always assumes the 

 form of dumb rabies). 



Rabies in cats shows the same symptoms as in dogs, but, 

 these animals being of a less confiding nature, generally seek 

 dark corners in the beginning of the disease and do not leave 

 them any more or they show by continuous mewing a more 

 aggressive behavior and a desire to escape. Then they attack 

 both persons and animals, including dogs, which come in their 

 way, jumping at their faces or biting their legs from behind, 

 inflicting severe wounds with their teeth and claws. Ainslie 

 observed in one case that the cat jumped at objects held before 

 it, did not lap water, but was attacked with violent spasms 

 when sprinkled with water. Later the voice becomes hoarse 

 with a peculiar howling tone owing to paralysis of the vocal 

 cords, and 2 to 4 days after the appearance of the first s^anp- 

 toms, paralysis of the hind parts appears. 



In artificially infected cats, Dammann and Hasenkamp first ob- 

 served great unrest, fright and a desire to take hold of strange objects; 

 later the movements became staggering, and finally total paralysis of 

 the hind extremities appeared (but not of the masseter muscles or 

 the constrictor muscles of the anus or bladder). In the beginning very 

 little water and no food was consumed; the animals bit furiously at 

 a stick held liefore them mewing and spitting at the same time, and 

 when sprinkled with water they fell into violent convulsions. 



In horses, the increased sensitiveness of the scar formed at 

 the point of infection (mostly the lips, nostrils or front extrem- 

 ities) often gives the first indication of the beginning disease. 

 The animals gnaw at the site of the bite on the body or rub it 

 against objects, which behavior in otherwise quiet horses, par- 

 ticularly if they have been bitten several weeks previously by a 

 dog, arouses a reasonable suspicion of an approaching attack of 

 rabies. The increased reflex excitability is also indicated earlv 



