200 RABIES CANINA, 



are all suppositions equally erroneous, although even now pre- 

 valent. 



T%e history of the rabid malady may properly commence by an 

 inquiry into its origin. I have already noticed its antiquity ; but 

 its direct flow in the stream of time is difficult to follow : in the 

 obscurity of our early records we have no means of tracing the 

 place of its first appearance. 



The spontaneous origin of rabies, like that of small-pox, 

 measles, and syphilis in the human, is unquestionable : all arose 

 from some peculiar morbid combinations, communicable to other 

 individuals of the species by inoculation or contagion. The human 

 diseases quoted are by long experience now very generally allowed 

 to be confined to a contagious origin only ; for it is well known 

 thai these maladies were not indigenous to any of the newly dis- 

 covered countries, however extensive their tract, and whether intra 

 or extra-tropical, but that they only followed the march of their 

 invaders. Now, as canine madness stands precisely in the same 

 situation with syphilis, small-pox, and measles, there being yet 

 many countries where it is unknown ; are we not warranted in 

 concluding that neither does that also now ever arise sponta- 

 neously? But we must not content ourselves with analogy in 

 searching after important truths, and this is a mdst important one ; 

 as upon it must be grounded our capability, or otherwise, of a total 

 extermination of the disease. Opinions grounded on experience 

 are valuable ; hypotheses from minds accustomed to deep reasoning 

 and extensive research are to be respected ; but it is on facts only 

 that we must mainly rest. There are authorities of respectability 

 who maintain that rabies is yet spontaneously generated^; and if 



3 The illustrious Boerhaave seems to have indulged such an opinion. 

 ♦< Oritur fere semper ab aliis animalibus prius rabiosis suscepta oontagio; 

 tanien et sponte quibusdam orta legitur et observatur." Aphorism. 1130. 

 Sauvages favoured an opinion of its present contagious origin, and Orfila has 

 even carried the capability into other animals also. Dr. Hamilton, an elabo- 

 rate writer on rabies, advocates the probability of a spontaneous origin from a 

 new poisonous compound, generated from putridsordos, surrounding the animal, 

 when the body h in a particular situation or condition. Query, What situation 



