SPECIES AND VARIETIES. 695 



his limbs are alternately stretched out and contracted, as 

 if he felt himself engaged in some contest with a fellow, 

 or rushing upon his victim in the chase ; and sometimes 

 he utters cries, and starts from his dream bewildered and 

 amazed. 



But far beyond a passing excitation of the nerves, is that 

 terrible malady to which this faithful creature is subject, 

 and which has excited in every age so painful an interest. 

 The Rabies, or Madness of the Dog, is unlike anything else 

 in the same class of diseases, inasmuch as it not only affects 

 the individual, but impels him, by an irresistible impulse, to 

 communicate to other creatures the venom with which his 

 own system is tainted. The miserable dog will not spare 

 the friend for whom he would have laid down his life ; but 

 more frequently he communicates the poison when licking the 

 hand that caresses him, for it is remarkable, that the affection 

 of the animal for his master increases after the taint has 

 been received, as if he knew that they must soon part for 

 ever. But even when the disease has reached the crisis, the 

 dog does not seek for human victims, but rather shuns the 

 path of man. It is upon the lower animals, and, above all, 

 those of his own species, that he is urged as if by the in- 

 fluence of some malignant power. Stealing upon his victim, 

 he inflicts in an instant the fatal wound, and then pursues 

 his haggard flight, snapping at any creature that crosses his 

 path, or which his bewildered senses permit him to reach. 

 He runs along with reeling gait, his eyes inflamed, his tongue 

 hanging out, his , lips tumid and black, until exhausted he 

 falls down, biting the ground. Sometimes he sinks into a 

 deep slumber, which lasts for many hours, and then start- 

 ing from his trance, pursues his way as before, until, faint 

 arid blind, he sinks down and dies. 



When a dog has received the venom by the bite of another, 

 the first symptoms observed are an agitated look, and rest- 

 less change of place, an insatiable thirst, and a perverted 

 appetite, which causes the animal to devour the most revolt- 



