212 RABIES CANINA, 



and certainly of equal importance, and is a question on which nega- 

 tive and affirmative alleged facts can be ranged in almost equal 

 numbers ; it therefore will require further time, and still closer 

 observation, to set the matter at rest. Every poison is governed 

 by its own laws ; were it otherwise, we might analogically conclude 

 a mucous surface to be open to receive the virus, for such surfaces 

 receive the syphilitic poison. With still less probability, and with- 

 out any authentic facts to support their theory, some suppose that 

 the surface of the skin throughout is capable of being pene- 

 trated with the poison by the simple application of it to the un- 

 abraded surface^. A very few only have been led into an opinion 

 that it was possible for the rabid virus to enter the circulation 

 through the medium of matters taken into the stomach. 



The activity of the rabid virus ; does it remain after death, 

 and how long 9 is a question not yet solved. Mr. Youatt thinks 



bitten, becoming hydrophobous ; but it was afterwards recollected that he had 

 made use of his teeth to untie a knot with which a rabid dog had been hung. 

 On the other hand, it is known that the salivary spume has reached both the 

 eyes and mouth of persons when in attendance on hydrophobous patients 

 If this were an ordinary source of inoculation, we must naturally meet with 

 the consequences; instead of which, no such case is on record. Neither would 

 the practice of sucking out the rabid virus have been so common among the 

 ancients, as to have become a profession principally confined to certain fami- 

 lies, as already noticed. It is also very probable that, if the disease really 

 have been taken through the means of a mucous surface, it was an abraded 

 one : how often are the lips chapped, and how common is it to have little ex- 

 coriations in the mouth, or on the nose, eyelids, &c. 1 



• A fact sufficient to negative the power of the general cuticle to absorb the 

 rabid virus is my own safety. When the disease was very prevalent, my 

 hands must have been, almost every day, in contact with it. I was become, 

 by habit, entirely fearless of dogs generally, and equally so of those that were 

 rabid. I examined them unhesitatingly ; assisted my servants to force their 

 medicines while living ; and examined them without precaution when dead : 

 and I may safely assert, therefore, that I have had rabid saliva over my hands 

 more than a hundred times. Mr. Youatt's prosecution of the matter, and his 

 present health, are equally confirmatory instances of its inadmissibility through 

 an unabradcd cuticle. 



