130 PASTEUft AND HYDEOPHOBIA III 



that this period of incubation is extended to a whole 

 year. The reputed cases of an " incubation period " of 

 two, five, or even ten years may be dismissed as 

 altogether improbable and unsupported by evidence. 

 The uncertainty which this well-known variation 

 in the incubation period produces is one of the many 

 distressing features of the disease in relation to man, 

 for often the greatest mental torture is experienced 

 during this delay by persons who after all have not 

 been actually infected. 



In many respects (says Professor Fleming) there is a striking 

 similarity in the symptoms manifested in the hydrophobia patient 

 and the rabid dog, while in others there is a wide dissimilarity. 

 These resemblances and differences we will note as we proceed 

 to briefly sketch the phenomena of the disease in our own 

 species. 



The period of incubation or latency has been already alluded 

 to, and it has also been mentioned that not unfrequently in man 

 and the dog the earliest indication of approaching indisposition 

 is a sense of pain in or near the seat of the wound, extending 

 towards the body, should the injury have been inflicted on the 

 limbs. If not acute pain there is some unusual sensation, such 

 as aching, tingling, burning, coldness, numbness, or stiffness in the 

 cicatrix ; which usually, in these circumstances, becomes of a red 

 or lurid colour, sometimes opens up, and if yet unhealed assumes 

 an unhealthy appearance, discharging a thin ichorous fluid instead 

 of pus. In the dog, as we have observed, the peculiar sensation 

 in the seat of the inoculation has at times caused the animal 

 to gnaw the part most severely. 



With these local symptoms some general nervous disturbance 

 is generally experienced. The patient becomes dejected, morose, 

 irritable, and restless ; he either does not suspect his complaint, 

 or, if he remembers having been bitten, carefully avoids mention- 

 ing the circumstance, and searches for amusement away from 

 home, or prefers solitude ; bright and sudden light is disagreeable 

 to him ; his sleep is troubled, and he often starts up ; pains are 



