OR CANINE MADNESS. 251 



I have seen, comparatively, nearly as much of human as of brute 

 practice, in the preventive treatment of rabies. I have myself 

 operated on upwards of fifty persons, who had been unquestion- 

 ably bitten by rabid dogs, and on a few bitten by cats, every one 

 of whom did well ; and which statements I make principally to 

 enforce dependance on the practical truths which have preceded, 

 and on those directions which are to follow. 



Although the removal of the bitten part may be undertaken at 

 any time short of the attack, yet as it is always uncertain at what 

 time this secondary inflammation may take place, so it is prudent 

 to perform the excision, or cauterization, as soon as is convenient ; 

 but it is frequently a matter of great importance to the peace of 

 those unfortunately wounded to know, that, when any accidental 

 cause has delayed the operation, it may be as safely done at the 

 end of several days as it would at the first moment of the accident. 

 I have myself repeatedly removed the bitten parts many days, and 

 not unfrequently weeks even, after the original wound had been 

 perfectly healed up ; yet the operation has always proved completely 

 successful. Of the methods resorted to for the extirpation of the 

 bitten parts, the actual cautery ^ the potential cautery, and excision, 

 are employed, and have each of them their advocates. 



The actual cautery was employed by the ancients, who burned 

 the parts with heated iron, sometimes with brass, silver, or gold. 

 Some of the moderns have also favoured its use ; and as it is a 

 remedy immediately at hand, it is not an ineligible one, particularly 

 where the unnecessary dread of after consequences, from immedi- 

 ate absorption, is fixed in the mind, and also where other assist- 

 ance is not at hand. When, likewise, the wound is of a deter- 

 minate form, and superficical in extent, the actual cautery is a 

 ready and convenient method, particularly with regard to horses, 

 cows, and other large animals, who are not easily restrained. In 

 such cases, a budding iron, so called among farriers, is an appro- 

 priate instrument ; or even a kitchen poker, or any other iron 

 whose surface can be adapted to the form of the wound, when 

 heated red hot, may be used. 



Causticsy or the potential cautery can be applied under many 



