112 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



Among country people tliere Is an absurd idea 

 that if any dog bit anybody, mad or not mad, if 

 ever tltat dog in future years went mad, those 

 whom he had bitten would follow suit and go mad 

 too. This is a most absurd fallacy, and for the 

 sake of humanity to man and dog, I pray the 

 reader to remember this. 



If a dog said to be mad bites any one, on no 

 account let that dog he destroyed. Let the dog, 

 if 2)ossible, be caught and confined under lock and 

 key, witli all needful appliances of bed, food, air, 

 and water, so that he shall have every chance to 

 recover from his malady. If he recovers, then 

 the mind of the j^erson bitten is at once relieved 

 of all nervous apprehension ; if the dog dies, the 

 person bitten is no worse off than he would have 

 been had the life of the suspected dog been taken 

 on the first moment. 



In my letter to the Times, of the 7tli of 

 December 1871, consequent on the horrible, and 

 too hasty destruction of tlie Durham Fox- 

 Jiounds, I have therein stated that in over fifty 

 years of personal experience, I never knew but 

 one instance of hydrophobic madness, and that 

 was in a young dog-hound sent me with my 



