256 RABIES CANINA, 



Process of operation for the rabid bite, — When a dog, or 

 any other animal, has been attacked by one that is rabid, it is 

 evident that a difficulty presents itself which does not exist in the 

 human subject under similar circumstances. The incapability of 

 the wounded animal to point out the wounds that may have been 

 received, and which the hair may prevent from being observed, 

 renders it necessary that a very minute examination of every part 

 of the body should take place, by turning the whole hair delibe- 

 rately back ; after which, to remove any rabid saliva that may ad- 

 here to the hair in other parts, the animal should be washed all 

 over, first with simple warm water, and, next, with water in which 

 a sufficient quantity of either potash or soda is dissolved, to render 

 it a moderate ley, in doing which the eyes must be carefully 

 guarded. Having finished this operation, which will render the 

 dog or other animal secure from accidental virus hanging about, 

 it might increase the safety of the operation if the wounds were 

 bathed with an arsenical solution, made by pouring four ounces of 

 water on two drachms of arsenic : in many instances, a mere ab- 

 lution of them and his bitten parts with an arsenical solution of 

 greater strength than here noted has been trusted to solely as 

 a preventive, and which, from the results, appeared sufficient for 

 the purpose. Prudence however forbids the ablution here, and of 

 any thing short of the extirpation of the wounded surface. 



Therefore, after these precautions have been attended to, proceed 

 to the actual removal of the bitten part by whatever mode may 

 appear most eligible to the operator. The means of destroying 

 the bitten surfaces by incision and cautery, actual or potential, as it 

 is termed, are as follow. A sportsman who might choose to act for 

 himself, would find a ready one, when the wound was a simple 

 puncture or punctures made into the hide of a horse or dog, to 

 thrust in a blunt-pointed iron heated to a red heat; after which 

 the part might be further treated with any escharotic he may have 

 at hand, as muriate of antimony ("butter of antimony Jy sulphate 

 of copper fblue vitriol J ^ &c. &c. The regular practitioner would, 

 in the case of simple punctures, adapt a portion of nitrate of silver 



