210 



every other aniinal it deserves the name of madness 

 infinitely more than it does in the dog, for even the 

 peaceable sheep becomes astonishingly ferocious in 

 the malady. In the liorse the sight is most terrific ; 

 I have seen one, clear a six-stall stable of racks, man» 

 gers, standings, posts ; and every thing but the bare 

 walls has been in one huge mass of ruin around him. 

 Even fo^vk are rendered vicious by it. With regard to 

 the cat, so many instances are on record, that I would 

 not lightly pronounce tliat this animal is incapable of 

 producing the disease; but I have never seen it repro- 

 duced by a cat, and from analogy I am disposed to 

 doubt it, in spite of all that has been asserted relative 

 to it. 



Another -erroneous idea prevails, and which I shall 

 probably find great diffictdty in •combating ; but I 

 am certain that no dog breeds madness ; that is, that 

 no dog becomes mad from any cause whatever, but by 

 his being bitten or inoculated by another dog. It is 

 in vain that it is answered. How came the disease at 

 first 1 How came human small po-x, measles, or 

 syphilis? They were first generated, but are never 

 now produced but by infection. Out of the vast va- 

 riety of cases I have met with, I have never met with 

 one instance tliat I could not trace to having been 

 exposed to danger, though I have often had to search 

 very closely to come at the truth ; so willing are 

 people often to deceive themselves. But it will be 

 found an incontrovertible fact, that no dog ever has 

 rabies but such as have been bitten; nor can any dis- 

 ease, or ^ny paiii oj irritation, ever bring on the ma- 

 iadv •, nothing sliort of the actual bite of another dog 

 itt tlie same state can proc»uce it. It is also erroneous 



