No. 12. 



Rabies, or Canine Madness. 



363 



great surprise we find Dr. Gregory, the 

 translator of Professor Liebig's work, ap- 

 pending to it Doctor Klotzsch's proposition 

 as confirming his author's speculation. He 

 thinks that by strengthening the potatoe 

 plant it will be better able to resist the dis- 

 ease, an opinion that we have expressed a 

 hundred times. He believes that this 

 strengthening may be effected by repeated- 

 ly stopping the growth of the branches by 

 pinching off" their shoots, so as to strengthen 

 the tubers and prevent those changes which 

 result in the production of flowers and fruit, 

 or, as he terms it, "to restrict the metamor- 

 phosis of the leaves." What that has to do 

 with impeded perspiration we are unable to 

 perceive. His object is to give the plant 

 more vigor, by diverting into a smaller num- 

 ber of leaves the food obtained by the roots 

 and sent upwards into the stem, which food, 

 under ordinary circumstances, is dispersed 

 through a large number of leaves. In prin- 

 ciple this method is like our English plan of 

 destroying the flowers, and which has not 

 been attended with success; for although in 

 the e.xperiments in the Garden of the Horti- 

 cultural Society, in 1847, topped or stopped 

 potatoes were less diseased than others un- 

 lopped, yet disease existed in both cases, and 

 the difference was only as 9.56 to 13 per 

 cent. There are, however, some peculiari- 

 ties in the plan of Dr. Klotzsch, which make 

 it desirable to try it this year e.xactly in the 

 manner which he indicates. So far, how- 

 ever, from pretending that the disease is 

 impeded perspiration, he expressly declares 

 himself" unable to explain the nature of the 

 disease." 



For ourselves, we regard it with as much 

 uncertainty as ever; of this, however, we 

 are persuaded, that be it what it may, it is 

 not explained by our own original hypothe- 

 sis, now produced as a novelty by Professor 

 Liebig. — {Lindley.) 



Rabies, or Canine Madness. 



Hydrophobia has been chiefly observed 

 in Europe. It has, however, never been de- 

 scribed as occurring beyond the Artie Circle; 

 and indeed, according to some authors, it is 

 seldom if ever heard of at Archangel, To- 

 bolsk, or in the country north of St. Peters- 

 burgh. Lisbon swarms with dogs, which 

 prowl about by night and day without any 

 owner, and yet it is said that no cases of hy- 

 drophobia are ever heard of there, notwith- 

 standing the fact that the thermometer is 

 sometimes at 110 degrees Fahrenheit. To 

 appease the thirst of these animals, a certain 

 number of tradesmen place vessels of water 

 at their shop doors. The disease has never 



been observed at Constantinople, which city 

 swarms with dogs; and it is stated to be 

 rare also in the northern parts of Turkey, 

 and more so in the southern provinces. In 

 the warmest regions of America it rarely 

 occurs, but is common in the northern part 

 of that continent. Hillary saw some cases 

 of the disease at Barbadoes. It ip, however, 

 extremely rare in the West Indies; in many 

 of the islands it seems never to have been 

 noticed. John Hunter says that in the hot 

 island of Jamaica, where dogs are exceed- 

 ingly numerous, not one was kiiov\n to go 

 mud during forty years. The disease did 

 not occur there formerly, but now it does. 

 It occurs in India, but not often. Count Ja- 

 copo Graberg di Hemso, in his work on Mo- 

 rocco, states that dogs never have rabies in 

 Northern Africa, nor in any Muhommedan 

 country. At Aleppo and other parts of Syria, 

 where great numbers of dogs perish for want 

 of food and water, and the heat of the cli- 

 mate, this disorder is unknown. Though 

 they abound in Egypt, and often suffer from 

 hunger and thirst in that region, which is 

 subject to a burning climate, yet, as Clot 

 Bey assures us, no one instance of hydropho- 

 bia, either among men or animals, has been 

 known there. The Egyptian dogs, which 

 are somewhat fox-like, are during the day- 

 time almost constantly in the shade, near 

 basins which are daily filled with fresh wa- 

 ter by the inhabitants. These dogs only run 

 about in the night time, when they seek for 

 carrion and offal. In disposition they are 

 meek and peaceable, seldom fighting even 

 among themselves. 



A precaution commonly adopted in Paris 

 consists in fastening over the noses of the 

 dogs slight baskets, like muzzles, which are 

 easily fixed on ; and while they do not in- 

 commode the animal, nor prevent it from 

 eating and drinking, they preclude it from 

 biting. Dogs running about without this 

 safeguard are very properly destroyed by 

 the police. In a small town on the western 

 frontier of France, during the hot days of 

 1624, placards were posted up to announce 

 that poisoned sausages would be thrown to 

 all dogs found straying. A gentleman who 

 kept a pack of hounds, finding, notwith- 

 standing great precaution, that his dogs fre- 

 quently contracted rabies, at length suc- 

 ceeded in completely excluding it from his 

 kennel, by making every new dog he ad- 

 mitted previously perform quarantine. 



What is termed the tcorm underneath the 

 dog's tongue, is a muscle which assists the 

 movement of that important organ. From 

 a belief that the absence of the worm pre- 

 vents the dog going mad, it is not unusual 

 to remove it. Pliny recommends the worm- 



