246 RABIES CANINA. 



fluids *. We are, nevertheless, constrained to admit that 

 there are respectable authorities who, on the contrary, main- 

 tain an opinion that various other agencies besides the mere sa- 

 liva may operate in producing the diseaset; among whom, Drs. 

 Hamilton and Bardsley stand conspicuous: these gentle- 

 men entertain a notion that the infection may be received in a 

 state of vapour either through tije pores of the skin, or by 

 inhalation, or by both J. Others conceive it possible that it 



* La chair, le sang-, le lait et les humeurs de I'animal enrage, ne 

 communiquent point la rage. — Trolliet, p. 576. 



f Among the antients who ranged under this head, the names of Di- 

 ASCORIDES, Galen, and IVJatiiiolus, apjDear : while, among those of later 

 date, we find the respectable authorities of Boerhaave, Van Swieten, 

 Hoffman, and Sauvages ; and were we to believe the accounts that cre- 

 dulity and ignorance have handed down, we might indeed extend the 

 infectious process to an interminable end. Fernel, with great gravity, 

 relates, that some hunters, having killed a mad wolf, were imprudent 

 enough to eat a part of him, and were all attacked with rabies, although 

 he owns that some of them recovered. — (De ahd. rer. cans.) Sauvages, 

 on the aiithority of one Schenkius, speaks of an aubergiste, who, serving 

 some of his guests with pork of a rabid swine, occasioned hydrophobia 

 in them all : it seems the infection was so subtil, that it did not wait until 

 their departure, but they were immediately attacked. — This is wholesale 

 dealing ! 



I Elaborate as is the work of Dr. Hamilton, its hypotheses are chiefly 

 founded on argument and theory. The Reports of Dr. Bardsley are 

 drawn with care and ingenuity ; and, in support of his opinions, he de- 

 tails some facts which give colour to his arguments, but, unless these 

 facts should be followed by many others of the same nature, and un- 

 questionably authentic, they will avail little towards overturning the 

 contrary opinions above stated, which are supported by still longer ex- 

 perience, more extensive observation, and a wider range of experiment. 

 The immediate fact on which Dr. Bardsley grounds his opinion relative 

 to the capability of receiving rabies by means of infected vapour, was 

 gained from Mr. Trevalyan's experiments. This gentleman, after losing 

 almost a pack of hoimds by madness, was led to suspect that contagion 

 might lurk in the surrounding materials of his kennel. The litter was 

 carefully destroyed, the benches were scalded, the joints, crevices, &c. 

 were painted, and the walls white-washed ; the pavement was also 



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