CHAPTER XXII. 



CONTAGIOUS DISEASES— continued. 



EABIES. 



Definition. — A disease originating in the canine, and, less 

 frequently, in the feline race. During the progress of the 

 malady a specific virus is developed in the saliva of the affected 

 animal, which, being implanted through a wound, bruise, or 

 thin epidermis without wound or abrasion, conveys the disease 

 to other animals and to man. After an indefinite period of 

 latency, it causes pain and stiffness in the bitten part, excite- 

 ment, feverishness, inability to swallow liquids, a tendency to 

 oite, great prostration, and death. The poison is only recognised 

 by its morbid effects in the animal economy. 



HISTOKY. 



Eabies (Hahio, to rave), or, as it is sometimes erroneously 

 called, so far as the lower animals are concerned, hydrophobia, 

 is a disease which has been known from very early times. 



Dr. George Fleming, in his work on Eabies and Hydrophobia, 

 says — " Its great antiquity is undoubted. Plutarch asserts that, 

 according to Athenodorus, it was first observed in mankind in 

 the days of the Asclepiadse, the descendants of the god of 

 medicine, vEsculapius, by his sons Podalirius and Machaon, who 

 spread through Greece and Asia Minor, as an order of i)riests, 

 prophets, and physicians, preserving the results of the medical 

 experience acquired in the temples as a hereditary sect. They 

 were the earliest physicians known to us, and it is not unlikely 



