OR CANINE MADNESS. 257 



(lunar caustic) to the shape and size of the wound ; this he would 

 insinuate by degrees into it, making it embrace the sides fully, and 

 extend it completely to the bottom, where it should be worked 

 around sufficiently long to insure a complete destruction of the 

 inoculated surface. A lacerated wound I would recommend to 

 have its ragged edges removed, and its sinuosities enlarged, that 

 the caustic may reach every part of the wounded surface ; which 

 it is evident must be most particularly attended to. As the slough 

 hardens during the process, remove it by means of a probe, and 

 then retouch all the parts every or every other day. When the 

 punctures were deep in operating on a human subject, I always 

 repeated full cauterization at the end of every second or third day 

 for at least twice. By applying the caustic gradually at first, the 

 pain it gives is by no means intense, and it even lessens the further 

 it is proceeded in. If much heat and pain follow, envelope the 

 whole part in a poultice. There is every reason to suppose that 

 keeping up a continued discharge in the part, after the entire de- 

 struction of wounded surfaces, is unnecessary ; I never practised it 

 •myself, and I have had no reason to regret the omission. 



Having thus reached the close of the practical detail, I shall 

 finish this important subject by offering a few remarks, calculated, 

 I would hope, to ease the minds of many individuals on some 

 material points which are apt to occasion much unnecessary dread 

 and much false alarm. I would first notice, that, by a very dis- 

 torted view of the risk incurred by association with him, the dog, 

 at once our faithful friend, gallant protector, and useful servant, 

 is in danger of being proscribed altogether. Many of those who 

 are otherwise wai-mly attached to the animal, yet dare not indulge 

 in the pleasure of his company, from a totally unnecessary dread, 

 grounded on a supposition that he can become rabid from a variety 

 of other circumstances besides the bite of another affected dog. I 

 would beg to assure those who think thus, that they are entirely 

 in error : nothing but a successful inoculation can produce it ; 

 nor, out of those actually bitten, do more than a third, probably, 

 become mad, even when an effectual inoculation has been made ; 



R 



