OR MADNESS. 237 



favourers of spontaneous rabies have also described the pro- 

 bable remote or primary causes which operate in its produc- 

 tion ; among- which, heat has long- been considered as one of 

 the most powerful : but this opinion is not tenable, when it is 



parating the spurious from the true^ still maintain the spontaneous ori- 

 gin of the present rabid malady. Without noticing the ridiculous sur- 

 mises of the antients as to the probable origin of the disease, it may be 

 stated, that Sauvages, among the more modern authors, favours the opi- 

 nion of a constitutional generation of the contagious rabies. Even the 

 illustrious BoERHAAVE seems to incline to that opinion: — "Oritur Fere 

 " semper ab aliis animalibus prius rabiosis suscepta contagio ; tamen 

 " et sponte quibusdam orta legitur et observatur." — Aphorism 1130. 



Orfila is an advocate for spontaneous rabies, not only in dogs, but in 

 many other animals also. 



Among our most elaborate writers on this interesting subject, may be 

 reckoned Dr. Hamilton, who is a decided favourer of spontaneous ori- 

 gin. Not, as he argues, from any specific virus remaining long con- 

 cealed, but from a new poisonovis compound, generated from putrid 

 sordes surrounding the animal when the body is in a particular condition 

 or situation. But, in answer to this, I allege, that I have not unfre- 

 quently seen dogs shut up in the midst of every variety of putrid and 

 acrid matter, and in the most confined situation, yet I never saw a case 

 of spontaneous rabies among them. Were this the case, how often must 

 it break out among the dogs of the lower class of dog-dealers and fan- 

 ciers in London, where hundreds of birds, rabbits, guinea pigs, &c., 

 with every variety of dog, are confined in one small close room, or 

 cellar? Mr. Oilman, as before noticed, embraces this opinion apparently 

 on the avxthority of a single case, the correctness of which, as I have al- 

 ready shewn, may be reasonably doubted. 



The favourers of spontaneous origin to rabies have inquired. How can 

 the irregularity of its prevalence be accounted for otherwise ? This may 

 be answered, by inquiring how it is that small-pox often rages in a 

 district, and is then, as it were, lost for a time. But accurate inquiry will 

 shew that it never wholly dies ; solitary cases occur one after the other, 

 and, at last, accidental circumstances call it into full action. It is thus 

 that rabies, although it may occasionally take on an endemial or epi- 

 demial appearance, yet may always be traced to infection ; and by 

 the same means it is extended and perpetuated. I have often been at 

 the pains, when travelling through various parts of England, to inquire 

 when a mad dog had been seen or heard of, and I never remember to 

 have had it peremptorily stated that one had not been seen or heard of 

 within six months. 



