I<i0 DISTINGUISHING SYMFTOMiS. 



reined, or which we bear up in harness, whilst those having the head Ioo» 

 rear and paw off the offender, or being at large, evade or trample upon him; 

 but however slight the bite, the mischief is already committed, so that avoidance 

 by flight is the only preventive of an irremediable evil, unless we are prepared 

 to shoot the caitiff, or to run him through. We hear the free use of horseflesh 

 for keeping dogs in England, charged as one main cause for engendering rabies, 

 or at least quarrelsomeness ; add to this, the denial of water to which some of 

 them are subjected at a season when dilution is most required — " what time 

 the dog-star reigns," and we think the suggestion is not very far removed from 

 the fact. At least, we are informed that this appalling disorder is compara- 

 tively small in other parts of the world, where horseflesh is less plentiful, or 

 water, the antidote, is found in abundance, and Lisbon is adduced in proof, 

 where dogs perform the office of scavengers, and further are supplied with 

 water by individual housekeepers.* Our own towns, too, in which water is 

 easily obtained, are much seldomer subject to epidemic visitations of rabies 

 than others more arid, yet lying open to an access of carrion in abundance. 

 Dogs invariably take water with much eagerness in every stage of the disorder, 

 so far as I have seen, or heard of, orally ; some printed accounts differ. Man 

 dreads it; but when he can get it down, which has been done within a day or 

 two of his dissolution, he finds the raging heat of his stomach alleviated by the 

 effort. 



Svmptoms of hydrophobia. In the dog, its approach may be known by a 

 marked deviation from the general habits of his kind, amounting to disHke 

 of former friends, a symptom which ought to be particularly regarded. They 

 have been seen to eat their own excrement, and lap their own urine, besides 

 other marks of depraved appetite; though at this early stage of the complaint 

 they are less likely to attack a horse than to resent an affront, or be guilty of 

 treachery towards friends. But as the disorder increases, he shows an inor- 

 dinate desire to gnaw any substance whatever, and evinces augmented an- 

 tipathy to cats. Even the dog called Danish, though mostly kept with, and 

 very fond of horses, would, as soon as affected, be the most likely to snap at 

 his old companions' noses. As the malady increases, his eyes become in- 

 flamed, and are affected with a blearing from the lids. He howls horribly 

 when the throat is inflamed at the larynx, or part where the voice (barking) 

 proceeds from ; the sound of which whoever has once heard, he can never af- 

 terwards forget or mistake, unless he himself be bit, or become deaf The 

 confirmed mad dog now usually sits upon his rump to howl his obstructed 

 bark; through very pain from apparent intestinal inflammation. If suffered 

 to range about as the last stages approach, he seems bewildered and devoid 

 df sight, and should be either avoided or attacked with clubs and other wea- 

 pons to extirpation ; feeble opposition is obviously dangerous. 



The symptoms of hydrophobia coming on upon the horse are direct and 

 positive; bkxxl on the lip, and other marks of violence, convey the first intelli- 

 gence that the mischief has been inflicted ; for neither horses, sheep, nor neat 

 cattle incur rabies without inoculation. We are further told, by M. Huzart, 

 ihat they do not possess the power of communicating the disease by bite to 

 other animals, even though labouring under the highest degree of hydrophobia 

 at the time; a fact I do not further vouch for, but which, when proven by 

 well-marked cases, would go far towards inspiring confidence and certainty 

 in applying any of the alleged remedies. What man is bold enough to ad- 

 minister a ball, for example, whose own life is at stake, ingloriously, by the 



the horse by the nose, a.nd retained its hold, though the horse ran away, overturned the gig, and 

 llirew the par.y rnto a hedge. Still the ferocious brute retained its hold, urtil its throat was cat 

 nn Jive spot. Vide Annals of Snortins, No. 58, page 238. 

 *ln '' Annals of Sporting," No. 46, "page 217, signed J. B. 



