RABIES CANINA, OK CANINE MADNESS. 193 



any of those in general use. The complaint itself is, unquestion- 

 ably, one of great antiquity ; for we have authentic accounts of it 

 for more than 2000 years. It is described both by Aristotle and 



rabies as significant of unqualified rage, fierceness, and promptitude to do 

 mischief {Iracundc et ruble se facere aliquid, Cicero), must be equally so. 

 Hydropliohia, by which the canine rabies has been sometimes called, is even 

 more uncharacteristic ; in fact, it is a complete misnomer ; because a repug- 

 nance to water, or dread of it, either taken inwardly or when outwardly ap- 

 plied, forms no pathognomonic symptom here, but, on the contrary, may be 

 considered as almost uniformly absent. I now say almost, because although 

 I myself, out of some hundred cases, never saw a single instance, Mr. Youatt 

 informs us, that he has seen one or two rabid dogs that manifested a marked 

 aversion to water. Anomalies will occur even in diseases which are noted for 

 the pathognomonic character of their symptoms. Neither has it a full claim 

 to be retained for the human malady : for hydrophobia is by no means inva- 

 riably present in it ; and if it were, it must have an adjunct to give it precision, 

 seeing that a dread of water is a symptom common to several other diseases 

 also, as hysteria, gastritis, angina, &c. Were it likewise peculiar to this 

 complaint alone, and did it invariably mark and accompany every case, it must 

 even then be objectionable ; for water is not alone the dreaded object ; and it 

 can be only considered as a type of every thing liquid : for not only does every 

 thing of this nature produce equal horror, but also whatever can, by a forced 

 analogy, recal fluids to the recollection, does the same. This circumstance 

 has, therefore, occasioned hygrophobia to be proposed as a substitute for 

 hydropJiobia. Caelius Aurelianus informs us, that some of the old writers 

 called it aerophobia, from the effect which the motion of the air even produces : 

 and others, determined to foil all criticism, have named it patitephobia, or a 

 dread of every thing. Dr. Parry has proposed rabies contagiosa as a substi- 

 tute for hydrophobia ; but if he meant to apply it as a new term, he was in 

 error ; for Jos. de Aromatarius published a treatise De Rabie Contagiosa, at 

 Frankfort, in 1626. Rabies, however, equally exhibits an unfaithful picture 

 of the irritability of the human character under the disease as of that of the 

 dog : neither can we yield our suffrages to the adjunct contagiosa ; for the 

 best writers are not yet agreed on the extent of its contagious character, nor 

 of the animals capable of propagating it. The term of cynanthropia, by 

 which it has also been called, from a morbid supposition in the mind of the 

 patient that he was personally identified with the dog, needs no comment ; but 

 in my own opinion there are less objections to cynolyssa, provided that }vTff» 

 may be critically translated into torment from the bite of a venemous animal, 

 which is said to be the case. 



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