OR CANINE MADNESS. 213 



it ceases with the Hfe of the animal ; and it may do so. Nothing, 

 however, but a series of experiments can determine this ; and, until 

 then, I should be most unwilling to try it on myself. 



Having thus traced the rabid poison from its rise and origin to 

 its insertion into the animal body, let us now proceed to inquire, 

 what are the chances that it will prove baneful ; what time usually 

 intervenes between its insertion and active operations ; and, when 

 so acting, what are the symptoms it produces, and what its sup- 

 posed modus operandi 9 



Of the numbers bitten by a rabid anim/il, many escape without 

 injection. — A variety of circumstances may tend to this favour- 

 able issue, among which may be reckoned the intervention of sub- 

 stances between the teeth of the biter and the flesh of the bitten ; 

 as the wool of sheep, the thick hair of some dogs, and the clothes 

 of human persons. 



T%e inherent aptitude in different classes of animal bodies to 

 receive it isy also, not the same. — As might be expected, it is great- 

 est in the caninae, particularly in the dog and wolf; yet it is pro- 

 bable that not one-half of either of these germinate the virus 

 received. The proportions among other quadrupeds we are more 

 in the dark about. Mr. Youatt thinks that the majority of inocu- 

 lated horses perish, but among cattle he is of opinion the propor- 

 tion is less. I should, however, myself think, that both enjoy a 

 much greater immunity than dogs ; otherwise we should meet with 

 more rabid cases among them in agricultural districts than we do^. 

 Human subjects, both constitutionally and fortuitously, are least 

 obnoxious to it^. Neither is there room to doubt that the animal 



' Are we not, also, warranted in concluding this aptitude in the cat to be 

 small, from the fact that rabid dogs seek these unfortunates with an instinctive 

 aversion, and great numbers must by these means become bitten ? yet a rabid 

 cat is, comparatively, a rare occurrence ; but it is to be observed, that when 

 rabies does make its appearance in the cat, it shews itself with much of its 

 phrenetic and mischievous characters. 



3 In the human subject, there is reason to suppose that the interposed dress 

 wipes the saliva from the teeth, and saves many who would be otherwise fatally 



