138 RABIES. 



Another case of this fearful disease must not be passed over. A dog 

 that had been docile and attached to his master and mistress, was missing 

 one morning, and came home in the evening almost covered with dirt. 

 He slunk to his basket, and would pay no attention to any one. His 

 owners thought it rather strange, and I was sent for in the morning. He 

 was lying on the lap of his mistress, but was frequently shifting his posture, 

 and every now and then he started as if he heard some strange sound. I 

 immediately told them what was the matter, and besought them to place 

 him in another and secure room. He had been licking both their hands. 

 I was compelled to tell them at once what was the nature of the case, and 

 besought them to send at once for their surgeon. They were perfectly 

 angry at my nonsense as they called it, and I took my leave, but went im- 

 mediately to their medical man, and told him what was the real state of 

 the case. He called as it were accidentally a little while afterwards, and 

 I was not far behind him. The surgeon did his duty and they escaped. 



In May, 1820, I attended on a bitch at Pimlico. She had snapped at 

 the owner, bitten the man-servant and several dogs, was eagerly watch- 

 ing imaginary objects, and had the peculiar rabid howl. I offered her 

 water. She started back with a strange expression of horror and fell into 

 violent convulsions that lasted about a minute. This was repeated a little 

 while afterwards, and with the same result. She was destroyed. 



The horrible spasms of the human being at the sight of, or the attempt to 

 swallow, fluids occur sufficiently often to prove the identity of the disease 

 in the biped and the quadruped ; but not in one in fifty cases is there in the 

 dog the slightest reluctance to liquids, or difficulty in swallowing them. 



In almost every case in which the dog utters any sound during the dis- 

 ease, there is a manifest change of voice. In the dog labouring under 

 ferocious madness it is perfectly characteristic. There is no other sound 

 that it resembles. The animal is generally standing, or occasionally 

 sitting, when the singular sound is heard. The muzzle is always elevated. 

 The commencement is that of a perfect bark ending abruptly and very 

 singularly, in a howl a fifth, sixth, or eighth higher than at the com- 

 mencement. Dogs are often enough heard howling, but in this case it is 

 the perfect bark and the perfect howl rapidly succeeding to the bark. 



Every sound uttered by the rabid dog is more or less changed. The 

 huntsman who knows the voice of every dog in his pack, occasionally 

 hears a strange challenge. He immediately finds out that dog, and puts 

 him as quickly as possible under confinement. Two or three days may pass 

 over, and there is not another suspicious circumstance about the animal ; 

 still he keeps him under quarantine, for long experience has taught him 

 to listen to that warning. At length the disease is manifest in its most 

 fearful form. 



There is another partial change of voice to which the ear of the practi- 

 tioner will by degrees become habituated, and which will indicate a change 

 in the state of the animal quite as dangerous as the dismal howl ; I mean 

 when there is a hoarse inward bark with a slight but characteristic eleva- 

 tion of the tone. In other cases, after two or three distinct barks will 

 come the peculiar one mingled with the howl. Both of them will termi- 

 nate fatally, and in both of them the rabid howl cannot possibly be mistaken. 



There* is a singular brightness in the eye of the rabid dog, but it does 

 not last more than two or three days. It then becomes dull and wasted ; 

 a cloudiness steals over the conjunctiva, which changes to a yellow tinge, 



