OR MADNESS. 235 



but I have so frequently witnessed the ease with which we 

 may be deceived in this particular, and the g-reat mass of 

 evidence directly contrary to spontaneous origin, that I am 



apparently conclusive. I was requested by a gentleman, residing in 

 Wimpole Street, to examine a dog, which I at once pronounced rabid j 

 on which this gentleman informed me, that if the dog was so, he cer- 

 tainlj' must have become so without infection (which he knew was in di- 

 rect opposition to my opinion); for that this dog, which was a very great 

 favourite, had never, for many months, been out of doors alone, nor, 

 indeed, at anj^ time, out of the sight of either himself or his valet, 

 who was also attached to the dog, and had the express care of him 

 when his master was absent. As, therefore, neither of them had ever 

 seen him bitten, they were positive on the subject. Anxious to arrive 

 at the truth where so important a matter was concerned, I commenced a 

 close examination of the other servants, and it was, at length, remem- 

 bered by the footman, that one morning, when the master's bell rang 

 (during the valet's absence to answer it), this dog accompanied him 

 to the street door, and, while engaged in receiving a message brought, 

 he recollected that the dog went for an instant beyond the door, and was 

 suddenly attacked by a dog that passed seemingly without an owner. 

 Here was an explanation of the apparent difficulty : this dog, there is 

 little reason to doubt, was rabid, and pursuing the usual march of mis- 

 chief. 



' The other case was that of a Newfoundland dog, which was constantly 

 chained to his kennel during the day, and suffered to be at lar^e only 

 during the night within an inclosed yard. This dog became rabid, and, 

 as no dog was known to have had access to the yard, it seemed to be an 

 established certainty in the mind of his owner, that he generated the 

 disease spontaneously. This case I also sifted with great perseverance, 

 to elicit the truth. At length I gained, from the gardener to the family, 

 that he remembered, one night in bed, hearing an unusual noise, as 

 though the Newfoundland dog was quarrelling with another, but which, 

 from the dog's confined situation, made him believe was impossible, and 

 he therefore took no notice of the subject. He also recollected, that, 

 about this time, marks of a dog appeared in his garden, whirh**on ac- 

 count of the height of the wall, surprised him ; and he further remem- 

 bered, that remains of hair were discovered on the wall which separated 

 the garden from the yard where the dog was confined, but which cir- 

 cumstances, until strict inquiry was made, had excited no attention. 

 About the same time, the neighbourhood, it appeared, had been alarmed 

 by the absence of a large dog belonging to one of the inhabitants, which 

 had escaped from confinement during the night, evidently under symp- 

 toms of disease. Here, also, a ready solution of the difficulty occurred ; 



Q 2 



