

RABIES. J33 



and lie rushes to the extent of his chain, prepared to meet his imagi- 

 nary foe. 



The expression of the countenance of the dog undergoes a considerable 

 change, principally dependent on the previous disposition of the animal. 

 If he was naturally of an affectionate disposition, there will be an anxious, 

 inquiring countenance, eloquent, beyond the power of resisting its influ- 

 ence. It is made up of strange suppositions as to the nature of the depression 

 of mind under which he labours, mingled with some passing doubts, and 

 they are but passing, as to the concern which the master has in the affair ; 

 but, most of all, there is an affectionate and confiding appeal for relief. 

 At the same time we observe some strange fancy, evidently passing through 

 his mind, unalloyed, however, by the slightest portion of ferocity. 



In the countenance of the naturally savage brute, or him that has been 

 trained to be savage, there is indeed a fearful change ; sometimes the con- 

 junctiva is highly injected ; at other times it is scarcely affected, but the 

 eyes have an unusually bright and dazzling appearance. They are like two 

 balls of fire, and there is a peculiar transparency of the hyaloid membrane, 

 or injection of that of -the retina. 



A very early symptom of rabies in the dog, is an extreme degree of 

 restlessness. Frequently, he is almost invariably wandering about, shifting 

 from corner to corner, or continually rising up and lying down, changing 

 his posture in every possible way, disposing of his bed with his paws, 

 shaking it with his mouth, bringing it to a heap, on which he carefully 

 lays his chest, or rather the pit of his stomach, and then rising up and 

 bundling every portion of it out of the kennel. If he is put into a closed 

 basket he will not be still for an instant, but turn round and round with- 

 out ceasing. If he is at liberty, he will seem to imagine that something 

 is lost, and he will eagerly search round the room, and particularly every 

 corner of it, with strange violence and indecision. 



In a very great portion of cases of hydrophobia in the human being, 

 there is, as a precursory symptom, uneasiness, pain, or itching of the bitten 

 part. A red line may also be traced up the limb, in the direction of the 

 lymphatics. In a few cases the wound opens afresh. 



The poison is now beginning fatally to act on the tissue, on which it had 

 previously lain harmless. When the conversation has turned on this sub- 

 ject, long after the bitten part has been excised, pain has darted along the 

 limb. I have been bitten much oftener than I liked, by dogs decidedly 

 rabid, but, proper means being taken, I have escaped ; arid yet often, 

 when I have been over-fatigued, or a little out of temper, some of the old 

 sores have itched and throbbed, and actually become red and swollen. 



The dog appears to suffer a great deal of pain in the ear in common 

 canker. He will be almost incessantly scratching it, crying piteously 

 while thus employed. The ear is, oftener than any other part, bitten by 

 the rabid dog, and, when a wound in the ear, inflicted by a rabid dog, 

 begins to become painful, the agony appears to be of the intensest kind. 

 The dog rubs his ear against every projecting body, he scratches it might 

 ind main, and tumbles over and over while he is thus employed. 



The young practitioner should be on his guard there. Is this dreadful 

 Itching a thing of yesterday, or, has the dog been subject to canker, in- 

 creasing for a considerable period. Canker both internal and external is 

 ;i disease of slow growth, and must have been long neglected before it 

 will torment the patient in the manner that I have described. The ques- 



