Ill PASTEUR AND HYDROPHOBIA 129 



tendencies of the previous stage, though it will yet bite every one 

 man or beast that it can reach with its teeth, especially if 

 irritated. 



The mad dog that is not killed perishes from paralysis and 

 asphyxia. To the last moment the terrible desire to bite is 

 predominant, even when the poor creature is so prostrated as to 

 appear to be transformed into an inert mass. 



Such is the pathetic account of the features of this 

 terrible malady as seen in man's faithful companion. 

 Let us now for a moment look at the symptoms and 

 course of the disease as exhibited in man where it 

 produces a condition so terrible and heart-rending to 

 the onlooker that it becomes a matter of astonishment 

 that mankind has ever ventured to incur the risk 

 of acquiring this disease by voluntarily associating 

 with the dog, and a matter of the most urgent desire 

 that some great deliverer should arise and show us how 

 to remove this awful thing from our midst. 



In both the dog and man the disease is traced 

 to the infliction of a bite or scratch at a more or less 

 distant period by an animal already suffering from 

 rabies. The length of time which may elapse between 

 the bite and the first symptoms of " rabies " in the dog 

 or of " hydrophobia," as it is termed, when developed 

 in man, varies. Briefly, it may be stated that the 

 interval in the dog varies from seven to one hundred 

 and fifty days, and is as often a longer as a shorter 

 period. In man, on the other hand, two-thirds of the 

 cases observed develop within five weeks of the 

 infliction of the infecting bite ; hydrophobia may 

 show itself as early as the eighth day after the 

 infection ; it is very rare indeed, though not unknown, 



K 



