Ill PASTEUR AND HYDROPHOBIA 125 



and " raving madness"; and it is held by veterinarians 

 to have two modes of origin viz. spontaneous, and as 

 the result of infection from another rabid animal. It 

 is quite permissible to doubt the spontaneous genera- 

 tion of rabies in any given case, although it must be 

 admitted that the disease had a beginning, and that it 

 is not improbable that whatever conditions favoured 

 its first origin are still in operation, and likely to 

 result in a renewed creation of the disease from time 

 to time. The disease was well known in classical 

 antiquity, and is of world- wide distribution, occurring 

 both in the tropics and in the arctic regions, though 

 much commoner in temperate regions than in either 

 of the extremes of climate. There are some striking 

 cases of certain well -peopled regions of the earth's 

 surface in which it is at present unknown ; no case 

 appears to be on record of its occurrence in Australia, 

 Tasmania, or New Zealand. It is a mistake to sup- 

 pose that the disease is commoner in very hot weather 

 than in cooler weather, or that great cold favours it. 

 Climate, in fact, appears to have nothing to do with 

 it, or rather, it should be said, is not shown to have 

 anything to do with it. 



Professor Fleming, in his admirable treatise on 

 Babies and Hydrophobia (London, 1872), says : 



It is a great and dangerous erron to suppose that the disease 

 (in the dog) commences with signs of raging madness, and that 

 the earliest phase of the malady is ushered in with fury and 

 destruction. The first perceptible or initial symptoms of rabies 

 in the dog are related to its habits. A change is observed in 

 the animal's aspect, behaviour, and external characteristics. The 

 habits of the creature are anomalous and strange. It becomes 



