228 RABIES CANINA, 



the property of Mr. Adam, of Mount Nod, Streatham, died on the 

 third ; and I have a recollection of one or two others which did 

 not survive longer. 



What other canine diseases may hy possibility he confounded 

 with rabies ? — The importance of the subject makes such an in- 

 quiry necessary ; but it must be prosecuted in a note below^^ ; it 



•5 Thousands of innocent dogs have been sacrificed to mistaking some other 

 disease for this ; and thousands of persons have been rendered miserable in 

 their minds by needless fears from the same errors. I know not the numbers 

 of epileptic dogs which have been killed under a supposition of their being 

 rabid ; and, on the other hand, not unfrequently dogs really rabid have been 

 fondled, and had remedies administered to them at great personal risk, from 

 a supposition that they laboured under some other complaint. Epileptic fits, 

 whether occasional or the consequence of distemper, are often mistaken for 

 rabies : but it should be remembered, that there is no rabid symptom whatever 

 that at all resembles such a fit, whether in the irritable or in the dumb variety. 

 An epileptic fit is sudden ; it completely bewilders the dog, and after a deter- 

 minate period leaves him perfectly sensible, and not at all irritable, but ex- 

 actly as he was before: in rabies there is no fit, i. e. no loss of recollection, no 

 tumbling about wildly in convulsion ; neither is there any marked break in 

 the natural irritability attendant on rabies. If a dog in an epileptic fit should 

 be so convulsed as to attempt to bite, it is evidently done without design ; his 

 attack is spasmodic, and pain may make him seize any thing, and it is quite 

 as likely to be himself as any thing beside. The irritability and mischievous 

 attempts of the rabid dog have always method with them, and they evidently 

 result from a mental purpose to do evil. The mad dog has usually a disposi- 

 tion to rove, the distempered one never. A puppy in distemper, particularly 

 if he have worms, may pick up stones, or eat coals, or he may in a trifling 

 degree take unusual matters as food ; yet no dog but a rabid one will take in 

 hay, or wood, or rag, or will distend his stomach almost to bursting. The 

 discharge from the nose and eyes which sometimes occurs in rabies, I have 

 often seen mistaken for distemper, and that even by veterinary surgeons : it is, 

 indeed, the most deceitful of all the appearances which occur, particularly 

 where it continues for some time, as is occasionally the case. Usually, how- 

 ever, it is the permanent attendant on distemper, and a temporary one only of 

 rabies: while the previous emaciation, cough, and gradual increase of the flow, 

 from thin and watery to muco -purulent, and then to pus, are distinguishing 

 symptoms of distemper. A tetanic attack has been mistaken for rabies ; but 

 the extreme rarity of this disease renders such error not of very likely occur- 



