146 RABIES. 



from this tax, unless, perhaps, it is the truck-dog, and his owner should 

 be compelled to take out a licence ; to have his name in large letters on 

 his cart ; and he should be heavily fined if the animal is found loose in 

 the streets, or if he is used for fighting. 



The disease is rarely propagated by petted and house-dogs. They are 

 little exposed to the danger of inoculation ; yet, we pity, or almost detest, 

 the folly of those by whom their favourites are indulged, and spoiled even 

 more than their children. 



We will now suppose that a person has had the misfortune to be bitten 

 by a rabid dog : what course is he to pursue ? What preventive means 

 are to be adopted ? Some persons, and of no mean standing in the medical 

 world, have recommended a ligature. The reply would be, that this liga- 

 ture must be worn during a very inconvenient and dangerous period ol 

 time. The virus lies in the wound inert during many successive weeks 

 and months. 



Dr. Haygarth first suggested that a long continued stream of warm 

 water should be poured upon the wound from the mouth of a kettle. He 

 says that the poison exists in a fluid form, and therefore we should suppose 

 that water would be its natural solvent. Dr. Massey adds to this, that it 

 the wound is small, it should be dilated, in order that the stream may 

 descend on the part on which the poison is deposited. We are far, how- 

 ever, from being certain that this falling of water on the part, may not by 

 possibility force a portion of the virus farther into the texture, or cause it 

 to be entangled with other parts of the wound.* 



There is a similar or stronger objection to the cupping-glass of Dr. 

 Barry. The virus, forced from the texture with which it lies in contact 

 by the rush of blood from the substance beneath, is too likely to inoculate, 

 or become entangled with, other parts of the wound. 



There is great objection to suction of the wound ; for, in addition to this 

 possible entanglement, the lips, or the mouth, may have been abraded, and 

 thus the danger considerably aggravated. There also remains the un- 

 decided question as to the absorption of the virus through the medium of 

 a mucous surface. 



Excision of the part is the mode of prevention usually adopted by the 

 human surgeon, and to a certain extent it is a judicious practice. If the 

 virus is not received into the circulation, but lies dormant in the wound 

 for a considerable time, the disease cannot supervene if the inoculated 

 part is destroyed. 



This operation, however, demands greater skill and tact than is gene- 

 rally supposed. It requires a determination fully to accomplish the desired 

 object ; for every portion of the wound with which the tooth could possibly 

 have come into contact, must be removed. This is often exceedingly diffi- 

 cult to accomplish on account of the situation and direction of the wound. 

 The knife must not enter the wound, or it will be likely to be itself em- 

 poisoned, and then the mischief and the danger will be increased instead 

 of removed. Dr. Massey was convinced of the impropriety of this when 

 he advised that, " should the knife by chance enter the wound that had 

 been made by the dog's tooth, the operation should be recommenced with 

 a clean knife, otherwise the sound parts will become inoculated." 



The physician Apollonius, having other dog to lick the wound, ut idem 

 been bitten by a rabid dog, induced an- medicus esset qui vulneris auctor fuit." 



