194 RABIES CANINA, 



Diascorides. Other of the ancients likewise notice it^^, — History 

 has continued to furnish us with numerous traces of it, particularly 

 in Europe, where it seems sometimes to have raged with epidemic 

 fury, and at others to have been but little knowni7. In 1500, 

 Spain was ravaged by it. In 1604 it was very common in Paris^^ ; 

 and 100 years after this, Germany became the theatre of this 

 dreadful scourge among its wolves as well as dogs. Historians 

 of every age have left short but frightful records of its dreadful 

 visitations. Boerhaave may, perhaps, be considered the first who, 

 by attentive observation, threw much light on canine madness^^. 

 In England, little had appeared worthy of notice before the account 

 presented by Mr. Meynell. This celebrated sportsman published 

 his memoir in the tenth volume of the Medical Commentaries ; 

 and if his account of canine madness does not exactly coincide with 

 future representations drawn from a wider field of observation, it 

 nevertheless characterizes the disease with considerable precision ; 

 and, at the time it was written, was calculated to do infinite good, 

 by banishing some dangerous and erroneous opinions relative to it. 

 In 1806, rabies among dogs became very common in England, 

 and abounded in the vicinity of London, where, during the next 

 year, it increased to such a degree, that a day seldom passed 

 without my being consulted on one or more cases of it ; sometimes 

 I have seen three, four, or five a-day, for weeks together. In the 



'* Aristotle is, however, said to be the first writer who alludes to it. {Hist. 

 Animal., lib. 7, cap. 22). But his opinion, that it was not communicable to 

 man, shews that it was in his time but ill understood. Some doubt also seems 

 to be entertained, whether Hippocrates, in his Coaca Pranotiones, intended 

 to describe the rabid malady, when he says " Phrenetici parum bibentes, 

 strepitum valdfe precipientes, tremuli aut convulsi." 



" Not that I apprehend the rabid malady ever arises spontaneously ; but 

 that sometimes the inoculation of it takes place under circumstances parti- 

 cularly favourable to its rise and future propagation, as will be hereafter ex- 

 plained. 



'^ Journal de Henri IV, tome iii, p. 221. 



^^ Aphorism 1 1 35, where, although some error is apparent, yet much truth 

 also appears. 



