RABIES. 137 



jaw began to be dependent ; the rattling, choking noise in his throat louder. 

 He carried straw about in his mouth. He picked up some pieces of old 

 leather that lay within his reach and carefully concealed them under his 

 bed. Two minutes afterwards he would take them out again, and look 

 at them, and once more hide them. He frequently voided his urine in 

 small quantities, but no longer lapped it. A little dog was lowered into 

 the den, but he took no notice of it. 10 P.M. Every symptom of fever 

 returned with increased violence. He panted very much, and did not 

 remain in the same posture two seconds. He was continually running to 

 the end of his chain and attempting to bite. He was eagerly and wildly 

 watching some imaginary object. His voice was hoarser more of the 

 howl mixing with it. The lips were distorted, and the tongue very black. 

 He was evidently getting weaker. After two or three attempts to escape, 

 he would sit down for a second, and then rise and plunge to the end of 

 his chain. He drank frequently, yet but little at a time, and that without 

 difficulty or spasm. 12 P.M. The thirst strangely increased. He had 

 drunk or spilled full three quarts of water. There was a peculiar eager- 

 ness in his manner. He plunged his nose to the very bottom of his pan, 

 and then snapped at the bubbles which he raised. No spasm followed 

 the drinking. He took two or three pieces from my hand, but immediately 

 dropped them from want of power to hold them. Yet he was able for a 

 moment suddenly to close his jaws. When not drinking he was barking 

 with a harsh sound, and frequently started suddenly, watching, and catch- 

 ing at some imaginary object. 24th, A.M. He was more furious, yet weaker. 

 The thirst was insatiable. He was otherwise diligently employed in shat- 

 tering and tearing everything within his reach. He died about three, 

 o'clock. 



It is impossible to say what was the origin of this disease in him. It is 

 not connected with any degree or variation of temperature, or any parti- 

 cular state of the atmosphere. It is certainly more frequent in the summer 

 or the beginning of autumn than in the winter or spring, because it is a 

 highly nervous and febrile disease, and the degree of fever, and irrita- 

 bility, and ferocity, and consequent mischief are augmented by increase of 

 temperature. In the great majority of cases the inoculation can be dis- 

 tinctly proved. In very few can the possibility be denied. The injury is 

 inflicted in an instant. There is no contest, and before the injured party 

 can prepare to retaliate, the rabid dog is far away. 



It can easily be believed that when a favourite dog has, but for a mo- 

 ment, lagged behind, he may be bitten without the owner's knowledge 

 or suspicion. A spaniel belonging to a lady became rabid. The dog was 

 her companion in her grounds at her country residence, and it was rarely 

 out of her sight except for a few minutes in the morning when the servant 

 took it out. She was not conscious of its having been bitten, and the ser- 

 vant stoutly denied it. The animal died. A few weeks afterwards the 

 footman was taken ill. He was hydrophobous. In one of his intervals of 

 comparative quietude he confessed that, one morning, his charge had been 

 attacked and rolled over by another dog ; that there was no appearance of 

 its having been bitten, but that it had been made sadly dirty, and he had 

 washed it before he suffered it again to go into the drawing-room. The 

 dog that attacked it must have been rabid, and some of his saliva must 

 have remained about the coat of the spaniel, by which the servant was 

 fatally inoculated. 



