134 RABIES. 



tion as to the length of time that an animal has thus suffered will usually 

 be a sufficient guide. 



The mode in which he expresses his torture will serve as another 

 direction. He will often scratch violently enough when he has canker, 

 but he will not roll over and over like a football except he is rabid. If 

 there is very considerable inflammation of the lining membrane of the ear, 

 and engorgement and ulceration of it, this is the effect of canker ; but if 

 there is only a slight redness of the membrane, or no redness at all, and 

 yet the dog is incessantly and violently scratching himself, it is too likely 

 that rabies is at hand. 



In the early stage of rabies, the attachment of the dog towards his owner 

 seems to be rapidly increased, and the expression of that feeling. He is 

 employed, almost without ceasing, licking the hands, or face, or any part 

 he can get at. Females, and men too, are occasionally apt to permit the 

 dog, when in health, to indulge this filthy and very dangerous habit with 

 regard to them. The virus, generated under the influence of rabies, is 

 occasionally deposited on a wounded or abraded surface, and in process of 

 time produces a similar disease in the person that has been so inoculated 

 by it. Therefore it is that the surgeon so anxiously inquires of the person 

 that has been bitten, and of all those to whom the dog has had access, 

 " Has he been accustomed to lick you ? have you any sore places about 

 you that can by possibility have been licked by him ?" If there are, the 

 person is in fully as much danger as if he had been bitten, and it is quite 

 as necessary to destroy the part with which the virus may have come in 

 contact. A lady once lost her life by suffering her dog to lick a pimple 

 on her chin. 



There is a beautiful species of dog, often the inhabitant of the gentle- 

 man's stable the Dalmatian or coach dog. He has, perhaps, less affec- 

 tion for the human species than any other dog, except the greyhound and 

 the bull-dog ; he has less sagacity than most others, and certainly less 

 courage. He is attached to the stable ; he is the friend of the horse ; they 

 live under the same roof; they share the same bed ; and, when the horse is 

 summoned to his work, the dog accompanies every step. They are cer- 

 tainly beautiful dogs, and it is pleasing to see the thousand expressions of 

 friendship between them and the horse ; but, in their continual excursions 

 through the streets, they are exposed to some danger, and particularly to 

 that of being bitten by rabid dogs. It is a fearful business when this takes 

 place. The coachman probably did not see the affray ; no suspicion has 

 been excited. The horse rubs his muzzle on the dog, and the dog licks 

 the face of the horse, and in a great number of cases the disease is com- 

 municated from the one to the other. The dog in process of time dies, 

 the horse does not long survive, and, frequently too, the coachman shares 

 their fate. I have known at least twenty horses destroyed in this way. 



A depraved appetite is a frequent attendant on rabies in the dog. He 

 refuses his usual food ; he frequently turns from it with an evident expres- 

 sion of disgust ; at other times, he seizes it with greater or less avidity, 

 and then drops it, sometimes from disgust, at other times because he is 

 unable to complete the mastication of it. This palsy of the organs of 

 mastication, and dropping of the food, after it has been partly chewed, is 

 a symptom on which implicit confidence may be placed. 



Some dogs vomit once or twice in the early period of the disease : when 

 this happens, they never return to the natural food of the dog, but are eager 



