210 RABIES CANINA, 



put the matter to the test of experiment ; and it would have been 

 more satisfactory had M. Trolliet done the same. It is enough, 

 however, for our present purpose, that we know that the saliva is, 

 at least, the principal medium of communication from the sick to 

 the healthy. It has analogical proofs, also, that it is the only one : 

 the blood, the milk^^, and the flesh, have all been proved to be 

 inocuous, while the saliva enjoys a potency which even powerful 

 chemical agents cannot destroy^^. Among the dissenters to the 

 rabid virus being confined to the salivary secretion, are Drs. 

 Hamilton and Bardsley. These gentlemen entertain a notion 

 that the infection may be received, in a state of vapour, either 

 through the pores of the skin, or by inhalation, or by both^S. But 

 this doctrine is now discredited, and was never supported by pal- 

 pable facts. 



universally impressed with a belief that the saliva alone contained the morbific 

 virus ; and particular families or tribes (the Marii and Psilii, Africans who 

 practised at Rome, were of this kind) enjoyed the privilege of drawing out the 

 poison in these cases by suction with the mouth.' — (Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. vii.) 

 ^lianus, Hist. Animal., lib. i, chap. 51 ; Lucain Pharsal., lib. ix, v. 891. 



*' It is a point of great practical interest to ascertain that the milk taken 

 from a cow in the first stage of rabies is not hurtful. The following autho- 

 rities are to the purpose : — Nova Acta Nat. Cur. vol. i, Obs. 55 ; Baudot, in 

 Mem. de la Soc. Royale de Mid., an 1782 et 1783, t. ii, p. 911. 



'^ Dr. Zincke, of Jena, inoculated a dog in the fore legs with rabid salivary 

 virus, and to which belladonna was daily given, but the animal died on the 

 eighth day. Another, who was inoculated with morbid saliva, mixed with a 

 strong solution of arsenic, wholly escaped ; while a cat, inoculated with the 

 same saliva, diluted with a tincture of cantharides, became rabid nine days 

 after. A rabbit was inoculated with a mixture of rabid saliva and volatile 

 alkali; it died on the eleventh day. Another, inoculated with virus and hu- 

 man saliva, escaped disease. A dog, inoculated with the same morbid saliva, 

 mixed with a diluted solution of phosphorus, although he became sick on the 

 fifth day, nevertheless escaped infection. A cock, inoculated with the same 

 saliva, mixed with some of the gastric juice of a cat, died on the fourteenth 

 day. 



'^ The work of Dr. Hamilton is, as might be expected, elaborate, but theo- 

 retical. Dr. Bardsley has united what he supposes proofs with his theory ; 

 but as a long experience, among those best fitted to judge of the subject, has 



