224 

 duluess, and when the affection of the throat has 

 been considerable, and the weakness and paralysis of 

 the hinder extremities have been considerable ; there 

 is sure to be found much inflammation in the bowels. 

 The mesentery is also very vascular and charged with 

 blood, and the diaphragm and liver also have some 

 appearances of inflammation. But the lungs, stomach, 

 and bowels, are so invarialily aflfected, that I have 

 not the least hesitation in considering what is called 

 madness, but what should be termed rabies, as a spe- 

 cific inflammation of these organs ; and that all the 

 svmptoms observed, are to be accounted for by the 

 effects arising from inflammation of these organs, 

 superadding the specific character of the complaint to 

 the inflammation. It is to be remarked, that dogs 

 having died of madness very soon become putrid ; but 

 there is no peculiarity in the smell, nor do other dogs 

 avoid the efl^uvia that arises from them. Neither do 

 do"s avoid a mad dog when alive, any more than 

 they do any other dog, the dread that is supposed to 

 be impressed on their minds at the sight of a mad dog 

 being merely imaginary. 



We shall now proceed to detail the preventive re- 

 5nedy that was hinted at in the begiiming of this arti- 

 cle. For some years I had been informed that there 

 lived a cottager near Watford, of the name of Webb, 

 who dispensed what is commonly called a drink as a 

 preventive of madness ; and the many testimonies I 

 had received relative to it gave me reason to suppose 

 that it possessed some preventive qualities : but till 

 the year 1807 I had not embraced any opportunity of 

 putting its qualities to the test of experiment. To- 

 wards the latter part of that year, I was myself un- 



