224- RABIES CANINA, 



are all indiscriminately bitten. When such a dog has roved about 

 for an indeterminate period, as ten or even twenty hours, he will 

 return home quietly, if not discovered and destroyed in his 

 progress^ 1. 



The affection of the larynx produces an invariable alteration in 

 the voice, and a very marked one it usually is. A few are alto- 

 gether mute, from engorgement of the parts. The sounds emitted 

 of themselves forai a strong characteristic of the complaint. In 

 the irritable variety, the alteration is first observed by a more 

 quick and hasty method of barking, with some difference also in 

 the usual tones of the bark ; by degrees, an occasional howl either 

 follows the bark, or takes place of it altogetheri^. This howl, 

 which is common to both varieties of the complaint, in the dumb 

 kind has a choaking hoarseness with it : the whole, however, is of 

 so peculiar a kind, that it may be said never to be heard under any 

 other circumstance than from a rabid dog^^. 



" In cities and large towns this return after a march of mischief is suffi- 

 ciently common ; but in the country it is different, and, therefore, this pecu- 

 liarity ]ias not an opportunity to shew itself; for there the unfortunate animal 

 is soon detected by his manner, and is immediately hunted. If not overtaken, 

 he is too much alarmed to return soon ; and, before he has time to recover his 

 fright, he is discovered in some other situation, and falls a sacrifice to the 

 anger of his pursuers. The very hunting will, of course, do to him what it 

 would to any other dog ; it will beget fury : otherwise there would very seldom 

 be much ferocity apparent, and, in most instances, such a dog would return 

 home when thoroughly tired. 



'2 It is evident that it is not easy to form a written description of any pecu- 

 liarity of voice, but the rabid howl may not unaptly be resembled to the tones 

 produced by what is called, among sportsmen, the giving tongue of the old 

 heavy southern harrier. It appears composed of something between a bark 

 and a howl, being made up of tones longer than the one and shorter than the 

 other, and always with the head thrown up; and is usually single and repeated 

 at uncertain intervals only, and is altogether so peculiar, that, when once heard, 

 it can never be forgotten ; and so characteristic, that it may be, I may say, 

 implicitly relied on. I have, in several instances, been attracted to houses 

 where dogs have been confined, by the sound alone, in time to warn the inha- 

 bitants of their danger. 



'^ Boerhaave seems to have this howl in view, when he says, "muti quoad 

 latratum, murmurantes tamen." 



