240 RABIES CANINA, 



Caffres feed their dog-s wholly on putrid flesh, and no such 

 disease is seen among- them. Abstinence from water is an old 

 and popular supposed cause of madness ; but, in India, where, 

 from the drying- of the water-tanks, many brutes perish, mad- 

 ness is not observed to be occasioned by it. In fact, in the 

 rage for experiment dog-s have been purposely subjected to 

 all these supposed causes, but without having- once produced 

 the disease *. It is unnecessary to combat the opinion of 

 Dr. Mead, and others, that an acrid state of blood, from the 

 want of perspiration in the dog-, is a remote cause of mad- 

 ness. Neither have we more reason to suppose that any 

 state or peculiarity of atmosphere can give rise to it, although 

 it may favour the extension and activity of the contagion. 



But if none of these causes engender the rabid malady, can 

 we yet attribute the extreme variations in its prevalence at 

 one time in preference to another; its visitation of one districts 

 and its almost total absence from those around it ? Can we 

 account for these on the simple principle of contagionf ? I 

 readily answer yes, for I think there is little reason to doubt, 

 that, in certain situations, or during certain seasons, circum- 

 stances more peculiarly favourable to the germination of the 

 rabid virus occur. In this way, one hundred dogs may be 

 inoculated at one time, and the poison infect only a few of 

 them, while, at another time, a great majority of the num- 

 ber might become rabid. The same circumstances, also, may 

 occasion a more early developement of the disease (as I have 

 already proved with regard to heat and excitement), and in 

 this way increase its prevalence. It may be brought about, 

 likewise, by an occasional or peculiar idiosyncrasy in the ani- 



* Dissertation sur la Rage, par M. Bleynier, Paris. 



f If the Great Author of Nature had not, in his mercy, put some 

 bounds to the production and reproduction of morbid compounds, sick- 

 ness and misery would have been endless. The scourges of rabies, 

 syphilis, small-pox, and manj^ other diseases, are, therefore, although 

 first generated within the animal body, now confined to contagion ; and 

 thus we are enabled to avoid their evils by vigilance and care. 



