270 RABIES CANINAj 



the nervous system and on other parts sympathetically. A 

 less popular opinion, but one which is g-aining- ground every 

 day, is that which considers the infection us remaining- sta 

 tionary within the wounded part until it is excited into action 

 by some irritation in such part, from whence it is carried 

 along- the sensible and irritable fibre to exert a particular 

 morbid action on certain organs. 



The opinion which 1 have long entertained on this subject 

 in some respects differs from both these, but is much more 

 consonant with the latter. The rabid poison, I conceive, 

 enters the circulation very soon, probably immediately, as it 

 is received, exactly in the same manner with the poisons of 

 venomous reptiles and other morbillee. Some sympathy, 

 however, seems to be kept up witli the bitten part, without 

 the agency of which the virus can never germinate into fatal 

 action. The wound, therefore, when first received, not be- 

 ing under the immediate action of the morbid matter, heals 

 as other common wounds, but, after an uncertain period, a 

 secondary and lymphatic inflammation arises within the 

 part, a new morbid compound is formed, and all the symp- 

 tomatic appearances which follow are derived from the ab- 

 sorption of this newly generated poison. 



This opinion appears to be borne out as well by analogy 

 as fact. The action of this virus exactly coincides with the 

 action of some other animal poisons * ; and the circumstance 

 now incontrovertibly established, that the excision of the 

 bitten part, long after the wound has healed, indeed at any 

 time previous to this secondary inflammation taking place, is 

 a certain preventive to the consequences, greatly strengthens 

 the opinion t. 



* Fontana's experiments on the poison of the viper go to prove, that 

 the excision of the wounded part weakens, or wholly prevents, the future 

 ill effects. 



f I am fully aware, that this theory must principally rest on the 

 certainty that a secondary inflammation, or, at least, a morbid altera- 

 tion, does, in every instance, take place in the bitten part, and that be- 



