290 RABIES CANINA, 



chose to trust themselves to my sole direction, I operated oo 

 upwards of fifty, every one of whom I have the satisfaction 

 of knowing- has remained unaffected. The benefit of this 

 experience, added to a warm interest in, and close attention 

 to, the subject, has enabled me to satisfy myself relative to 

 some disputed points of immense moment to both the safety 

 and the peace of mind of those who may be hereafter endan- 

 gered. 



It is very generally considered, that the destruction of the 

 bitten part is the most certain preventive of hydrophobia ; 

 but it is little credited, that it is of no consequence that the 

 excision, or the cauterization, of the wounded part should 

 be immediately effected. Nevertheless, I firmly believe, 

 and I am borne out by innumerable facts and well-directed 

 experiments, that the operation may be performed, with 

 equal certainty of success, at any time previous to the se- 

 condary inflammation of the part bitten, as though it had 

 been done the first moment after the accident. However, as 

 it is always uncertain at what time this secondary inflamma- 

 tion may take place, so it is prudent to perform the excision, 

 or cauterization, as soon as is convenient: but it is frequently 

 a matter of great importance to the peace of those, unfor- 

 tunately wounded in this manner, to know that, when any 

 accidental cause has delayed the operation, it may be as 

 safely done at the end of one, two, or three weeks as at the 

 first moment of its happening. I have frequently removed 

 the bitten parts many days after the original wound has been 

 perfectly healed up, and the operation has always proved 

 completely successful. I ground this opinion on a full con- 

 viction that the safety of the operation does not consist in 

 preventing immediate absorption; on the contrary, I am 

 firmly persuaded that the rabid poison is absorbed directly, 

 or very soon after, the wound is inflicted, and is immediately 

 from thence carried forward into the circulation. I am, how- 

 ever, persuaded that, in this primary state of its circulation, 

 the virus can never produce rabies in brutes, or hydrophobia 

 in man. It is, on the contrary, absolutely necessary, before 



