BABIES.] 



THE DOG, AND ITS VAEIETIES; 



"[babies. 



of rabies. The quality and quantity of food 

 has been assigned as a cause ; but in dogs 

 which, by chance, have been placed in situa- 

 tions where it was impossible for them to ob- 

 tain food, though on the precincts of actual 

 starvation, the disease has never yet been dis- 

 covered. Experiments innumerable have been 

 made to discover the real origin of this disease, 

 which, in various years, has proved itself to 

 be nothing less than a scourge in diiferent 

 European countries. Spain, Grermany, France, 

 and England have all been visited by its 

 ravages; and there is, perhaps, no pain, no 

 disaster, no disease, so terrifying to the human 

 mind, as that which is supposed to succeed the 

 bite of a rabid dog. Amongst other experi- 

 ments, made with the view of tracing the 

 origin of canine madness, one performed at 

 the veterinary school of Alport is, perhaps, 

 the most striking : — Three dogs were chained 

 and placed in such a situation that the heat of 

 the sun might fall, with all its power, upon 

 them. To one nothing was given but water; 

 to another nothing but salted meat ; and to 

 another neither food nor drink was allowed. 

 The whole three died ; but not one of them ex- 

 hibited the slightest symptoms of rabies ; 

 which we take to be a strong argument in 

 favour of its being generated only by inocula- 

 tion. Eepletion has never caused it ; feeding 

 on putrid meat does not cause it ; nor does 

 the want of water. Its real origin, therefore, 

 must be supposed a kind of puzzle, which all 

 experience has yet been unable to solve to 

 the entire satisfaction of those who have 

 been the most active in experimenting upon it. 

 Considering the fearful consequences which 

 frequently result to those who have had the 

 misfortune to be bitten by rabid dogs, the 

 symptoms of the disease cannot be too clearly 

 explained, or too widely disseminated. Both 

 Mr. Youatt and Mr. Blaine have given much 

 attention to chis subject ; and both had much 

 experience in its treatment, in the canine as well 

 as in the human species. It is a common belief 

 that dogs have a horror of water when aftected 

 by the disease ; but this is by no means the 

 case. "A mad dog," says John Hunter, " can 

 swallow solids and liquids through the whole 

 disease." "A rabid dog," says Dr. Hamilton, 

 " never avoids water, and laps whatever liquid 

 food is set before him, long after the poison 

 47(t 



can be communicated by his bite ;" and Mr. 

 Meynell says, " that mad dogs will even lap it 

 the day before they die from the effects of the 

 disease." The most eminent veterinarians 

 concur in these opinions — a circumstance which 

 we hope will have the effect of completely 

 eradicating from the minds of all those who 

 peruse this book, the baleful prejudice that 

 dogs, when labouring under an affection of 

 rabies, will not drink water. Of the danger of 

 entertaining a prejudice of this kind, Mr. Blaine 

 produces a striking example. An eminent phy- 

 sician having been consulted on the propriety of 

 employing some prophylactic means, in conse- 

 quence of three persons of the family of a 

 well-known horse-dealer having been bitten 

 by a dog under disease, satisfied himself with 

 inquiring whether the animal could drink while 

 under the complaint ? Being informed that 

 he did so, freely, throughout the whole of its 

 duration, he unhesitatingly declared that no 

 precautionary means whatever were necessary, 

 and that he would, therefore, suggest none. 

 Fortunately, the bitten parts of each of these 

 persons were, notwithstanding, excised at the 

 suggestion of Mr. Blaine, and the result proved 

 the correctness of his judgment in the per- 

 forming of such an operation ; as a horse and 

 dog, both known to have been bitten by the dog 

 alluded to, died rabid in three weeks afterwards. 

 We have given the symptoms of rabies, as 

 described by Mr. Eichardson ; and we will now 

 give those, as described by Mr. Blaine, whose 

 extensive practice and experience of this dis- 

 ease, place him in the very "highest position as 

 a safe guide and autliority . Before closing this 

 subject, we would entreat all our readers who 

 keep a dog or dogs, whether as domestic pets, 

 watchers, coursers, hunters, or for any other 

 purpose not implied by these terms, to have, 

 at all times, a vigilant eye upon the condition 

 of their animals. "The symptoms of madness 

 are very variable ; but, as the early ones are 

 not very active, they are apt to be overlooked 

 in sporting dogs ; and it is only in such as are 

 kept immediately about our persons, and within 

 doors, that they show themselves. In these 

 cases of close domestication, the approach may 

 be observed by some slight alteration of manner 

 and habit. In some its approaches are marked 

 by unusual dullness; in others by increased 

 vivacity, accompanied with restlessness or 



