244 RABIES CANINA, 



posed to be capable of receiving it, and some late experi- 

 ments seem to confirm this opinion*. 



Having- endeavoured to satisfy ourselves what animals are 

 capable of communicating the rabid malady, and what are 

 able to receive it only, we will proceed to inquire the mode 

 by which this morbid communication is effected between 

 them. We have abundant evidence that this disease is pro- 

 duced by the insertion of a poison diffused throug-h the salivaf 

 of certain animals when labouring- under rabies, and which 

 insertion is usually effected by means of a bite %• That the 



* Dr. ZiNKE, oi Jena, produced rabies in a cock by inoculation with 

 the saliva of a mad dog. — Valentin, Lettre sur la Rage, Journ. de Med. 



vol. XXX. 



f In a voluminous work before mentioned, written by a Mons. Trol- 

 HET, it is attempted to prove, that the rabid virus is not generated 

 within the salivary glands, neither is the saliva the vehicle of the con- 

 tagion. On the contrary, the frothy slime or slaver (have ecumeuse), 

 furnished by the bronchial surfaces, alone contains it : but as this is a 

 new view of the subject, and propagated by an author of respectability 

 and talent, I shall present his aphorismal summary of it: 



Propositions Aphoristiques : 1. "La salive n'est point le vehicule du virus 

 *' de la rage. 2. Les gland salivaires ne presentent ni douleur dans le 

 *' cours de la maladie, ne traces d'alteration apres la mort. 3. La have 

 " equemeuse est etrangere a la salive ; elle vient des vois aeriennes. 

 *' 4. La membrane muqueuse des bronches est le siege d'un inflamma- 

 *' tion specifique ; elle produit le virus de la rage, comme la membrane 

 *' muqueuse de I'urethre inflammee prodviit le virus de la blenorrhagie 

 *' syphilitique." — Nouveau Traitt de la Rage, p. 673. 



\ This idea of the origin of the rabid malady is as old as the disease 

 itself. In antient times, particular families or tribes (the Marii and 

 PsiLii, Africans, who practised at Rome, were of this kind) enjoyed 

 the privilege of drawing out the poison in these cases by suction with the 

 mouth. — (J* Li^. Hist. Nat. lib. vii.) ^lianus, Hist. Animal, lib. i, chap. 

 51 ; LucAiN Pharsal. lib. ix, v. 891. 



It was also an opinion entertained by many among the antients, that 

 the salivary secretion alone contained the seeds of the disease. Among 

 the moderns, Salius Diversus, Ponteau, Duchoisei,, Baudot, Bonnet, 

 MoRGAGNii, Lieutaud, are neighbouring authors who have signalized 

 themselves by their researches in this interesting subject, and they all 

 maintain the same, and cite numerous facts to prove, that neither by 



