238 RABIES CAN IN A, 



known that many countries under the torrid zone are entirely 

 free from canine madness; neither does it appear to gain 

 any accession to its frequency or morbid character in these 

 countries*. We have Burrows' authority for stating, that 

 it is almost, if not entirely, unknown over the vast continent 

 of South America*. In many of the western isles it is a 

 strangert ; and, in Egypt, Volney says he never heard of 

 it. Larrey, Brown, and others, inform us, that it has never 

 visited the burning clime of Syria. Neither is it more preva- 

 lent in cold climates ; and although it sometimes visits northern 

 latitudes, it shews no preference for them, and, in Green- 

 land, is said to be altogether unknown. In temperate cli- 

 mates, on the contrary, it is most prevalent, not perhaps 

 owing any thing to an extra-tropical situation, but merely 

 because in such latitudes the most populous countries are 

 usually situated, and in such matters of interest are more 

 likely to be noticed. In the United States of America it is 

 sufficiently Irequent J, and throughout Europe we are but too 

 well acquainted with it. 



Seasons have also been alleged as the probable cause of 

 madness among dogs ; and though it is wholly a vulgar error, 

 yet the dog-days are supposed by many to ov/e their name to 

 the prevalence of this malady during the heats of a summer 

 solstice. But a more extended experience and more exten- 

 sive examination have now^ rendered it suificiently notorious 

 that rabies is not more prevalent at one season than at an- 

 other §. 



* It cannot, however, be denied, that heat accelerates the individual 

 attack, particularly when conjoined with great bodily excitement. In 

 this way, a dog that has been bitten, but in which the disease might not 

 appear probably for weeks, by taking long and severe exercise in very 

 hot weather, is almost certain to be attacked with it the next day. This 

 I have witnessed in several instances, but in no dog that I could not 

 distinctly trace to have been bitten. 



f Bibliotheqne Raisonne'e, 422, i^vril, Mai, Juin, 1750. 



:|: Med. Trans. Pfdlndclph., \o\.i.— Med. Incjnir. Philadelph., 1798. 



§ II n'est point vrai que cetto maladie soil plus ((jiinnunr pendant Ic* 



