HYDROPHOBIA. 793 



anfrequently occur in the eruption, so that the disease seems to have 

 subsided until another cold abscess begins to form or a new eruption 

 breaks out. In chronic glanders and farcy also, the majority of pa- 

 tients finally perish of marasmus, and there are very few instances in 

 which the disease is reported to have ended in recovery. 



TREATMENT. One of the important tasks of a sanitary police 

 should be to diminish the opportunity for the propagation of the virus 

 as much as possible, by the enforcement of strict regulations. Such 

 precautions alone can be productive of certain results, while the 

 utmost vigilance and care will not furnish security, when, either from 

 carelessness or selfishness, the regulations are neglected. 



Prevention of constitutional infection, by vigorous destruction of 

 the point of inoculation of the glanders, can only be hoped for imme- 

 diately after contact of the virus with the wound. The remedies 

 proposed for the cure of pronounced glanders, calomel in large doses, 

 iodine, Fowler's solution, injections of a strong solution of creosote into 

 the nostrils, and the cold-water cure, are all productive of but little 

 benefit, according to our present experience. A treatment of the 

 symptoms, in which local disturbance, fever, and the strength of the 

 patient, are taken into account, is the one most to be commended. 



CHAPTER II. 



HYDROPHOBIA LYSSA K ABIES. 



ETIOLOGY. The difficult question about the nature of rabies and 

 its proper position in the nosological system remains unsettled. The 

 fact that the poison, the absorption of which induces the disease, is 

 reproduced in the body of the patient, goes far toward proving that it 

 is infectious. This view is also favored by the symptoms occurring 

 among certain classes of animals. The two chief forms of rabies in 

 dogs, the quiet and raging, remind us of the febris nervosa stupida anc? 

 febris nervosa versatilis of old authors. On the other hand, there are 

 certain objections to classing lyssa among typhus fevers, the acute 

 exanthemata, and other acute infectious diseases. I would especially 

 call attention to the variable duration of the period of incubation in 

 different persons. We do not certainly know the length of time 

 between the action of the contagion and the outbreak of the malady in 

 all infectious diseases, but we suppose that the difference of this 

 interval is only slight in different persons. In lyssa the period of 

 incubation varies weeks and months, even if we do not consider 



