

RABIES. 151 



ment with the account which I have given of the connexion between 

 the previous temper and habits of the rabid dog, and the mischief that 

 he effects under the influence of this malady. The wolf, as he wanders 

 in the forest, regards the human being as his persecutor and foe ; and, 

 in the paroxysm of rabid fury, he is most eager to avenge himself on his 

 natural enemy. Strange stories are told of the arts to which he has 

 recourse in order to accomplish his purpose. In the great majority of 

 cases he steals unawares upon his victim, and the mischief is affected 

 before the wood-cutter or the villager is conscious of his danger. 



The following observations and experiments respecting rabies, by Dr. 

 Hertwich, Professor at the Veterinary School at Berlin, are well worthy 

 of attention. 



1 . Out of fifty dogs that had been inoculated with virus taken from a 

 rabid animal of the same species, fourteen only were infected. 



2. In the cases where inoculation had been practised without effect, no 

 reason could be assigned why the disease should not have taken place. 

 This consequently proves that the malady is similar to others of a conta- 

 gious nature, and that there must exist a predisposition in the individual 

 to receive the disease before it can occur. In one experiment, a mastiff 

 dog, aged four years, was inoculated without exhibiting any symptoms of 

 the malady, while seven others, who had been inoculated at the same time 

 and place, soon became rabid. Several of these animals had been inocu- 

 lated several times before any symptoms showed themselves, while, in 

 others, on the contrary, once was sufficient. 



3. It appears that in a state of doubtful rabies, one or two accidental or 

 irtificial inoculations are not sufficient to create a negative proof of its 

 3xistence. 



4. This disease has never been communicated to an individual from 

 }ne infected by means of the perspirable matter ; this, therefore, is a proof 

 hat the contagious part of the disease is not of a volatile nature. 



5. It does not only exist in the saliva and the mucus of the mouth, but 

 jikewise in the blood and the parenchyma of the salivary glands; but not 

 i n the pulpy substance of the nerves. 



6. The power of communicating infection is found to exist in all stages 

 < >f the confirmed disease, even twenty-four hours after the decease of the 

 rabid animal. 



7. The morbid virus, when administered internally, appears to be in- 

 c apable of communicating this disease ; inasmuch as of twenty dogs to 

 v/hom was given a certain quantity, not one exhibited the least symptom 

 ( f rabies. 



8. The application of the saliva upon recent wounds appears to have 

 leen as often succeeded by confirmed rabies as when the dog had been 

 titten by a rabid animal. 



9. It cannot now be doubted that the disease is produced by the wound 

 i self, as was supposed by M. Girard of Lyons, not by the fright of the in- 

 c ividual, according to the opinion of others, but only from the absorption 

 o f the morbid virus from its surface. 



10. Several experiments have proved to me the little reliance there is 

 t< > be placed on the opinions of Baden and Capello, who believe that, in 

 t iose dogs who become rabid after the bite of an animal previously 

 a tacked with this disease, the contagious properties of the saliva is not 

 continued, but only exists in those primarily bitten. 



