226 RABIES CANINA, 



that produces the deep choaking noise ah-eady noticed, and which 

 seems to issue from the bottom of the glottis : all the ordinary 

 symptoms spring from this specific laryngitis and bronchitis, by 

 which these parts are tumefied even to paralysis, yet are totally 

 free from any of the human spasmodic rigors. It is, however, far 

 otherwise with the external muscular tissues : the cutaneous mus- 

 cles become often first affected, twitchings pass over the face, and 

 afterwards the spasmodic and paralytic affection frequently extends 

 also to all the organs of locomotion : in others, it is principally 

 confined to the loins and hinder extremities. When the morbid 

 affection acts very strongly on the bowels, it occasions the hinder 

 parts to be drawn forward by a species of tetanic spasm toward 

 the fore parts, so as to bend the body of the poor sufierer into a 

 circle ; sometimes it fixes the animal on his rump, almost upright. 



A symptom common to dumb madness, and not altogether un- 

 common in the more raging kind also, is a disposition to carry 

 straw, litter, or other matters, about in the mouth, which the dog 

 seems to make a bed of, frequently altering it, pulling it to pieces, 

 and again remaking it. It is also very common to observe dogs 

 scratch their litter under them with their fore feet, not as when 

 making their beds, but evidently to press the straw or litter to the 

 belly. This peculiarity appears to arise from some particular 

 sympathy with the intestines, which, in these cases, are always 

 after death observed to be very highly inflamed. There is also 

 present a disposition to pick up and to swallow, when not prevented 

 by the affection of the throat, indigestible and unnatural substances, 

 selected from whatever is around them, and which the costiveness 

 usually present tends to retain within the body. It appears to be 

 this impulse, likewise, that leads rabid dogs to gnaw boards, or 

 whatever is within their reach ; and this aptitude may be con- 

 sidered as common to every variety of the complaint, except, as 

 already observed, where the tumefaction and paralysis of the 

 throat are so extreme as altogether to prevent it. 



The irritability attendant on dumb madness is even subject to 



