IIABIES, OR MADXESS. 177 



and every muscle cpivermg from the degree of excitement under which 

 he hiboured. A groom, presiiming on the former obedience of the animal, 

 ventured in, and endeavoured to put a headstall upon him. Neither the 

 master nor myself could jDersuade him to forbear. I was sure of mischief, 

 for I had observed the ear lying flat upon the neck, and I could see the 

 backward glance of the eye ; I therefore armed myself with a heavy 

 twitch stick that was at hand, and climbed into the manger of the next 

 box. The man had not advanced two steps into the box before I could 

 see the shifting position of the fore feet, and the preparation to spring 

 upon his victim ; and he would have sprung upon him, but my weapon 

 fell with all the force I could wrge upon his head, and he dropped. The 

 man escaped, bnt the brute was up again in an instant, and we trembled 

 lest the pai'tition of the box should peld to his violence, and he would 

 reahse the graphic description of Mr. Blaine, when he speaks of the rabid 

 horse as ' levelling everything before him, himself sweating, and snorting, 

 and foaming amidst the ruins.' 



I have had occasion more than once to Avitness the evident pain of the 

 bitten part, and the manner in Avhich the horse in the intervals of his 

 paroxysms employs himself in licking and gnawing the cicatrix. One 

 animal had been bitten in the chest, and he, not in the intervals between 

 the exacerbations, but when the paroxysm was most violent, would bite 

 and tear himself until his breast was shockingly mangled, and the blood 

 flowed from it in a stream. 



The most interesting and satisfactory symptom is the evident dread of 

 water which exists in the decided majority of cases, and the impossibiHty 

 of swalloAving any considerable quantity. Professor Dupuy gives an 

 account of this circumstance : — ' A rabid horse was confined in one of 

 the sick-boxes. His food was given to him through an opening over the 

 door, and a bucket was suspended from the door, and supplied with water 

 by means of a copper tube. As soon as he heard the water ftilling into 

 the pail, he fell into violent convulsions, seized the tube, and crushed it to 

 pieces. When the water in his bucket was agitated, the convulsions were 

 renewed. He would occasionally approach the bucket as if he wished to 

 drink, and then, after agitating the water for an instant, he would fall on 

 his litter, uttering a hoarse cry ; but he would rise again almost imme- 

 diately. These symptoms were dreadfully increased if water was throvni 

 upon his head. He would then endeavour to seize it as it fell, and bite 

 mth fury at ever}i;hing within his reach, his whole frame being dreadfully 

 con\iilsed.' 



As the disease progi^esses, not ordy is the animal rapidly debilitated, but 

 there is the peculiar staggering gait which is observable in the dog — 

 referable to evident loss of power in the muscles of the lumbar region. I 

 once saw a mare sitting on her haunches, and unable to rise ; yet using 

 her fore feet with the utmost fary, and sufiering no one to come within 

 her reach. She, too, would sometimes plunge her muzzle into the offered 

 pail ; and immediately withdraw it in evident terror, while every limb 

 trembled. At other times the lowering of the pail would affi'ight her, and 

 she would fall on her side and struggle furiously. Although this symj)- 

 tom is not often observed in the dog, it is a satisfactory identification of 

 the disease, when it is so frequently seen in the horse, and so invariably 

 in the human being. 



The earliest, and perhaps the most decisive, symptom of the near approach 

 of rabies in the horse, is a spasmodic movement of the upper lip, particu- 

 lai'ly of the angles of the Hp. Close following on this, or contemporaneous 

 with it, are the depressed and anxious countenance, and inquiring gaze, 

 suddenly however Hghted up and becoming fiei'ce and menacing, from 



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