Ill PASTEUR AND HYDROPHOBIA 133 



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Death results from spasm of the respiratory muscles, 

 the patient dying asphyxiated. The desire to bite is 

 rare. The disease invariably, as in the dog and other 

 animals, terminates fatally, and usually between the 

 second and fifth day after the symptoms have been 

 first observed, though it sometimes runs on to the 

 ninth day. 



It is held by veterinaries that " rabies " in a dog is 

 invariably fatal, and one test of the presence of the 

 disease is a fatal termination to the symptoms. Inas- 

 much as it is very usual to kill dogs suspected of rabies 

 without waiting to actually prove that they suffer from 

 this disease, and further, inasmuch as dogs not suffer- 

 ing from rabies are nevertheless frequently savage 

 or snappish and bite human beings, thus leading 

 to the assumption that the person bitten has incurred 

 the risk of developing hydrophobia, there is necessarily 

 a complete absence of trustworthy statistical informa- 

 tion as to (1) the actual number of dogs annually 

 affected with rabies in any given country, and (2) as 

 to 'the number of persons effectively bitten by really 

 rabid dogs, who acquire hydrophobia as a consequence. 

 The dogs are killed before it is proved that they suffer 

 from rabies, and the human beings bitten are treated 

 by caustics and excision of injured surfaces before it is 

 proved that they really are in danger of developing 

 hydrophobia, and it is not known in case of escape 

 whether the danger was ever really incurred. The 

 extreme anxiety to avoid the awful consequences 

 not unfrequently following the bite of a rabid dog 

 has produced a course of action which, whilst it is 



