OR CANINE MADNESS. 211 



Can the poison make its way into the constitution through the 

 medium of an epithelium, or mucous surface, as that of the nos- 

 trils, lips, or eyelids^o ? involves an opinion of greater probability, 



never confirmed tliem, it may be supposed that they owed their origin to other 

 sources. The principal fact on which he grounds his opinion relative to tlie 

 capability of receiving rabies by means of infected vapour was gained from 

 Mr. Trevalyan's experiments. This gentleman, after losing almost a pack of 

 hounds by madness, was led to suspect that contagion might lurk in the sur- 

 rounding materials of his kennel. The litter was carefully destroyed, the 

 benches were scalded, the joints, crevices, &c. were painted, and the walls 

 white-washed ; the pavement was also scalded ; nevertheless the rabies again 

 appeared. Mr. Trevalyan was now more than ever convinced that some subtle 

 contagion lodged concealed within the apertures of the benches or pavement ; 

 the whole was therefore removed, and the edifice was again white-washed and 

 painted, after which no rabies appeared. Puzzling as this appears to one who 

 argues that no contagion can lurk thus unseen, and be generated by inhala- 

 tion, it may yet be satisfactorily accounted for by another statement, equally 

 true, that fell under my own immediate cognizance. I was requested, in 1821, 

 by Mr. Yates, of Tring Park, to examine two servants, a huntsman and whip- 

 per-in, who had been bitten by a hound evidently rabid. I cauterized the 

 wounds many days after the accident, and neither of them felt any future in- 

 convenience from the wounds. Three or four of the hounds had already be- 

 come rabid in succession, and it was proposed to destroy the remainder : to 

 which I objected, and recommended that a minute examination should be 

 made of them individually every day. Every now and then, however, for 

 months afterwards, an individual was attacked with madness, and, at length, 

 the whole were destroyed, and Mr. Y. procured a new pack, which have never 

 become aflected, although living in the same kennel, without any precautions 

 having been made use of to prevent latent contagion ; which I made it a par- 

 ticular point of ascertaining, having many subsequent opportunities of personal 

 inquiry, 



^ The following authorities lend themselves to the opinion, that a sound 

 mucous surface can receive the contagion: Palmerius, de Morhis Contag.; Por- 

 tal, Obs. sur la Rage, p. 131 ; Matthleu in Mim. de la Soc. Royale de Med. 

 p. 310, &c. A father, when dying of hydrophobia, is said to have imparted a 

 fatal kiss to his infant. On the authority of Dr. Perceval, Dr. Bardsley tells us 

 of a man who, during his sleep on the ground, was licked about the mouth (but 

 not bitten) by an infected dog. He was seized with hydrophobia, and died of 

 the disease ; but this case, it should be remembered, was always considered 

 questionable. We are also told of a man, who was not known to have been 



o 2 



