No. 4.] CATTLE COMMISSIONERS. 529 



ninety-day period of enforced seclusion will not be over 

 until the last of the year. 



More drastic measures for the suppression of rabies would 

 be to shoot all dogs known to have been bitten by rabid 

 animals ; but public opinion would not .support such extreme 

 measures, and a ninety-day quarantine of all dogs bitten, or 

 that may have been bitten, is a great safeguard, although not 

 an absolute protection, as in some cases the latent period is 

 longer than this, and in rare instances is supposed to be 

 capable of covering several months or even a year. 



Muzzling all dogs running at large for two or three months, 

 in localities where there is an outbreak of rabies, is also a 

 protection, if properly carried out ; all dogs running at large, 

 without muzzles, to be caught and impounded, and, if not 

 claimed by their owners within a reasonable length of time, 

 to be killed. This method was resorted to in Swampscott 

 and Lynn last spring. Owing to the many reports of cases 

 of rabies coming from these two places, and Salem, early 

 in April, the chairman and secretary of the Board visited 

 these three towns, with the result, after conferring with 

 the health authorities, that the boards of health of Lynn 

 and Swampscott ordered all dogs running at large upon 

 the streets to be muzzled until the 15th of June. The con- 

 sequence was that no more reports of cases of rabies came 

 from these localities until after the expiration of the muzzling 

 order, when the last of June another case was reported in 

 Lynn in a dog that came from Swampscott. Since then, 

 however, but two more cases have been reported from Lynn 

 and none from Swampscott and Salem, neither of which have 

 proved to be rabies as yet by the rabbit test. 



Another important measure for the suppression of rabies 

 is a thorough enforcement of the license law, as it is the 

 homeless, neglected mongrel or cur that is most likely to 

 disseminate, this malady. Any one who cares enough for a 

 dog or is responsible enough to pay a license fee will prob- 

 ably keep it under observation to a certain extent ; and, if 

 the animal is noticed to be ailing or acting strangely, it may 

 be secured, so that the danger of its doing damage is less 

 than that of the homeless, ownerless dog, who may run 



