ft 



OR MADNESS. 239 



It has been argued, that peculiarities of aliment, either in m 

 quantity or quality, may occasion it* In dogs which have 

 been accidentally subjected to a deprivation oi food bor- 

 dering upon starvation, no rabid symptoms have ever oc- 

 curred. Repletion has never occasioned it, although it has 

 proved the parent of many other inflammatory affections. 

 Putrid food is not likely to occasion it in predatory animals, 

 whose stomachs must, by nature, be formed to subsist on 

 matter in various stages of decomposition. In Constanti- 

 nople, and other eastern cities, dogs are the only scavengers; 

 and, at the Cape of Good Hope, Barrow informs us, the 



froids rigoureux de I'hiver, ou les chaleurs excessives de I'ete qu'au 

 printemps et en automne. — Trolliet, 575. 



The following table, extracted from the Memoirs of the Royal Society 

 of Paris, shewing the proportions of rabid cases during the several 

 parts of a year, in France, will clearly evince how little season has to 

 do with the prevalence of the disease: — 



WOLVES.- CATS. DOGS. 



January 1 1 3 



February 4 1 12 



March 6 5 



April 6 1 ^ 



May jg 



June 2 



8 



J^^iy 2 2 13 



August 1 1 g 



September 1 1 |^ 



October 2 10 



November § 



December 3 ...,, 9 



26 9 "TTi 



Tt is not a little remarkable that, notwithstanding the opportunities 

 afforded in every country for observing the contrary, the prevalence 

 of rabies in summer should be universally received. Thus Somervilf 

 has, ', 



when Sirius reigns, and Uie Sun's parching beams 

 Bake the dry gaping siuface, visit tliou 

 Each ev'n andniuin, with quick observant eye, 

 The panting pack. If in dark Milieu mood, ice. &c. 



