specific and Contagious Diseases. 159 



taneous origin. The disposition to bite is evidently due 

 to the condition of the brain, amounting not only to a 

 loss of the normal sensation, but also to mental aberration. 

 This is shown sometimes by apparent violence in the 

 attack as well as seizure, shortly relinquishing his hold 

 after a harmless grip, then turning to resume his way as 

 if nothing had happened. 



In the form known as din/ib rabies the lower jaw drops 

 from paralysis, the tongue hangs loose and becomes of a 

 dark purple hue, the throat also swells. The eyes are 

 dull, heavy and affected with strabismus or squinting, in 

 some cases the pupils being turned towards the nose. 



As a result of previous violence the head is often 

 swollen, and the teeth are broken ; the lips and tongue 

 are likewise swollen and lacerated from the violence of 

 attack on other animals or objects, as well as in unsuc- 

 cessful attempts to gain his liberty. Perverted taste is 

 evident from the very earliest period of the disease, which 

 causes the sufferer to take up all kinds of foreign bodies, 

 large accumulations of which are found in his stomach 

 after death. Vomition, sometimes expelling blood, is 

 present only in the early stages, after which paralysis sets 

 in followed by death. The fondness for urine is deemed 

 a sure evidence of rabies. Sexual excitement is often 

 intense before other really diagnostic signs are recognised ; 

 sometimes also the desire to lick the genitals of other 

 dogs. Fever is present and increases with the develop- 

 ment of the disease. There is a bright red or lurid 

 appearance in the eyes, probably with squinting of both, 

 pus accumulates in the angles, and a discharge flows from 

 the nostrils. As the disease advances the breathing is 

 loud and hollow, and in subsequent stages it is per- 

 formed mainly through the nostrils. The voice is also 

 peculiarly affected : the howl of a mad dog is an experience 

 which will never be effaced from memory. It is utterly 

 impossible to convey its characters by any selection of 

 terras. It must be heard to be really understood. Confined 

 to his cage or otherwise secure he sits on his haunches, 

 the muzzle directed upwards or resting his head on the 

 wall, he attempts an abortive kind of bark which curiously 



