No. 4.] CATTLE COMMISSIONERS. 531 



treatment by the State, if rabies is to continue to be as 

 prevalent as it has been the past two or three years. 



If the State is to furnish the means for producing diph- 

 theria antitoxin and tetanus antitoxin, there are just as good 

 reasons for furnishing the Pasteur protective inoculation to 

 patients ; as it is rather too expensive a process to be 

 carried on by a private laboratory, and it is a great hardship 

 and expense for persons of limited means to go a long 

 distance for treatment, as has been the case with many 

 of those bitten during the past year or two. 



Of course only a small per cent., probably but twelve to 

 fifteen per cent., of all the persons bitten by rabid dogs 

 develop rabies. If the animal bites through clothing, or 

 has previously bitten several articles, the virus may be 

 wiped off the teeth so that none is introduced into the 

 wounds it inflicts, in which case no evil results ensue, but 

 bites upon the bare hands or face of persons attacked are to 

 be looked upon as very dangerous. In rare instances 

 patients have developed rabies when undergoing, or soon 

 after finishing, the Pasteur treatment ; but these cases have 

 followed bad bites upon the bare arms or face, or too much 

 delay before commencing the treatment. 



In cases of supposed rabies in dogs the police authorities 

 frequently adopt anything but a wise course in shooting the 

 animal, and calling it mad without positively knowing 

 whether it is or not. In these instances, especially if any 

 persons are bitten, the dog should be secured at once 

 if possible, and safely chained or shut up where he can be 

 observed for awhile. If laboring under some other form 

 of mental excitement than rabies, it will probably recover in 

 time ; if it becomes worse, so as to have to be killed, it 

 should be chloroformed, and the head sent at once to the 

 laboratory w T hile fresh, to inoculate rabbits. Shooting is 

 objectionable from a scientific point of view, as it injures 

 the brain and introduces septic organisms that interfere with 

 the test on the rabbits. If after shooting the dog is buried 

 for two or three days, and then dug up as an after thought 

 to ascertain whether it was rabid or not, decomposition 

 of the brain will be still farther advanced, and may be so 

 much so as to render it valueless to determine correctly 



