HYDROPHOBIA. 391 



"It is an early symptom in the dog, and it can scarcely be 

 mistaken in him. When he is fighting with his paws at the 

 corners of his mouth, let no one suppose that a bone is sticking 

 between the poor fellow's teeth ; nor should any useless and danger- 

 ous eflfort be made to relieve him. If all this uneasiness arose 

 from a bone in the mouth, the mouth would continue permanently 

 open, instead of closing when the animal for a moment discon- 

 tinues his efibrts. If after a while he loses his balance and tum- 

 bles over, there can be no longer any mistake. It is the saliva 

 becoming more and more glutinous, irritating the fauces and 

 threatening suffocation. 



" To this naturally and rapidly succeeds an insatiable thirst. The 

 dog that still has full power over the muscles of his jaws continues 

 to lap. He knows not when to cease, while the poor fellow 

 labouring under the dumb madness, presently to be described, and 

 whose jaw and tongue are paralysed, plunges his muzzle into the 

 water-dish to his very eyes, in order that he may get one drop of 

 water into the back part of his mouth to moisten and to cool his 

 dry and parched fauces. Hence, instead of this disease being 

 always characterised by the dread of water in the dog, it is 

 marked by a thirst often perfectly unquenchable. Twenty years 

 ago, this assertion would have been peremptorily denied. Even 

 at the present day we occasionally meet with those who ought to 

 know better, and who will not believe that the dog which fairly, 

 or perhaps eagerly, drinks, can be rabid." — Touatt, pp. 135-6. 



From my own experience I can fully confirm the above account, 

 having seen seven cases of genuine rabies, in all of which thirst 



