GEEMS. 113 



shown by the experience of the police in London dur- 

 ing the prevalence of the Muzzling Order of 1885- ? 86. 

 In carrying out the duties of capturing stray dogs, the 

 police received hundreds of bites, but in no single in- 

 stance did any of these bites cause hydrophobia, though 

 doubtless many of them were inflicted by rabid ani- 

 mals. 



"The experience of the attendants at the Battersea 

 Dogs' Home is even more striking. That institution 

 had then been thirty years in existence. The bites in- 

 flicted on the attendants during that time amounted 

 to many thousands, some of which must have been re- 

 ceived from rabid dogs. Nevertheless there has never 

 been a case of hydrophobia among the attendants. A 

 certain proof of the rarity of true rabies is to be found 

 in the facts that the old writers attached no impor- 

 tance to it, and did not regard it as a serious danger to 

 human beings, while the people at large paid no at- 

 tention to it at all. Until a very recent period a mad 

 dog was thought to be as rare as a black swan, and it 

 used to be affirmed that there never was more than 

 one in England at a time. But now, a dog has only to 

 appear excited or frightened or to behave in an unusual 

 manner and immediately the cry of f mad dog' is raised, 

 and the unfortunate animal is set upon and killed. 



"I was for many years in medical charge of a large 

 Indian district, with a population of nearly two mil- 

 lions, and had under my superintendence several dis- 

 pensaries, where at least a hundred thousand sick and 

 injured persons, including numerous cases of dog bite, 

 were treated every year, yet, with all this large experi- 



