124 PASTEUR AND HYDROPHOBIA HI 



which the action of a specific virus or poison took 

 no part ; it was, in fact, by some physicians regarded 

 as a variety of lock-jaw or tetanus. 



The number of cases of hydrophobia reported in 

 England, France, Germany, and Austria has varied a 

 good deal each year since the time when statistics of 

 disease were instituted by the Governments of these 

 several countries; but its occurrence is sufiiciently 

 frequent at certain periods to excite the greatest 

 anxiety and alarm. In England as many as thirty- 

 six persons died from the disease in 1866 ; in France 

 288 persons were its victims in 1858, and in Prussia 

 and Austria it has been more frequent than in 

 England. 



The general belief, both among medical men and 

 veterinary surgeons, as well as the public, has been 

 that the condition known as hydrophobia in man does 

 not follow from any ordinary bite or injury, but 

 that in order to produce it the human subject must 

 be bitten by a dog, wolf, pig, or other animal which 

 is suffering from a well-marked disease known as 

 "rabies." What it is which starts "rabies" amongst 

 dogs is not known, and has not even been guessed at, 

 but the condition so named is communicated by 

 "rabid" or "mad" dogs to other dogs, to pigs, to 

 cattle, to deer, to horses, and indeed to all warm- 

 blooded animals — even birds. Any animal so infected 

 is capable by its bite of communicating the disease to 

 other healthy animals. Kabies in a dog is recognised 

 without difficulty by the skilled veterinarian. The 

 disease has two varieties, known as " dumb madness " 



