282 RABIES CANINA^ 



be effected^ yet if, as I believe, it will be found that it pos- 

 sesses some considerable preventive virtues, its importance 

 will be evident; for circumstances often arise which render 

 the resorting" to the external means of excision or cauteriza- 

 tion impracticable, from the difficulty of detecting" the wound- 

 ed part in animals covered with hair. I have searched a dog- 

 over most carefully for an hour without discovering- any 

 wound, but which dog- has afterwards become rabid : and 

 when one or two bites are detected, others may remain. I 

 have found this happen so frequently, that a preventive re- 

 medy, with only a moderate deg-ree of efficacy, is of the ut- 

 most importance to the welfare of the brute creation. Nei- 

 ther would the benefits of such a prophylactick remedy be lost 

 on the human subject, where, from extensive laceration, the 

 complete extirpation of the bitten part is rendered doubtful, 

 or where the dread of the operation, or the peculiar situation 

 of the patient, or of the wounded part itself, renders the ex- 



the latter in by far the greater proportion. It may naturally be 

 presumed, that ungrounded fear operated in some instances, and that it 

 was given to animals who were suspected only to have been in danger* 

 Some of the remainder, it may also be supposed, would have remained 

 safe, had nothing been done for them. In others, washings, cauteriza- 

 tions, &c., had been added to the box remedy j yet, still a very consi- 

 derable number, after all these admissions, must have remained ex- 

 posed to the preventive power of this preparation alone, out of which 

 number only nine or ten cases of its failure occurred. In a few of these 

 it is reasonable to suppose that the medicine was not all got down, 

 or otherwise was returned; but five or six of them were palpable and 

 fair instances of failure, the medicine having been all given and retain- 

 ed. It is remarkable, that, of these palpable failures, the majority 

 were wounded in the head— one of these was a horse, bitten in the lip ; 

 which further agrees with what I have already remarked, that the ino- 

 culation more certainly takes effect, and the disease makes its attack 

 earlier, when received in the head than elsewhere. 



efficacy, although three or four of these persons, at their own express desire, 

 trusted solely to it. Its real efficacy appears unequivocally proved by the nu- 

 jiierous instances of canine safety which foMowcd from its use. 



