DISEASES AND THEIR CURES 253 



A dog bite is always an unpleasant thing, less 

 from the pain, which is little, than from the sub- 

 sequent anxiety. The odds are so great against 

 there being serious danger of hydrophobia, that it 

 is never worth while worrying. Sir Henry Smith, 

 quoting medical experts, shows that even in tropical 

 India the chances are inappreciable. The very 

 name ^'hydrophobia" shows how little our ances- 

 tors knew about the matter. Should there be rabies, 

 or the fevered condition of some poor brute that is 

 mistaken for it, when he is tied up, far from shrink- 

 ing from water, he eagerly seeks for it, in un- 

 quenchable thirst. If left to himself, in place of 

 bolting ahead through the country, his inclina- 

 tion is to curl up and sulk in some dark corner. 

 In place of being specially affected in the dog-days, 

 attacks of the sort are more common in the spring, 

 and if not bullied and hunted into unwelcome 

 exertion, there is nothing like such frothing of 

 the mouth as in the cases of epilepsy or ordinary 

 sickness. Never have a dog shot that has bitten 

 you. In the first place, very likely it was merely 

 a pardonable ebullition of temper ; but if he were 

 really mad, the rabies may not develop for weeks 

 or months, and so you are left in anxiety. Un- 

 doubtedly the safer course is to have the bite 

 immediately cauterised. Personally — and I have 

 been occasionally bitten by friends, casual acquaint- 

 ances, and entire strangers — I have never had 

 recourse to such heroic measures. Sucking, en- 

 couraging the bleeding, and carefully washing the 



