HYDROPHOBIA. 177 



rabies. I have baen called to see hundreds of so-called mad dogs, and found they 

 were merely in convulsions, afflicted by epilepsy or suffering from an attack of 

 indigestion or from over excitement, all of which yield to proper treatment." 



Another very able authority is next given: 



In the Animal World, Mr. Rotherhan, a canine practitioner, describes the 

 differences between rabies, apoplexy and epilepsy. He says: "In rabies a dog 

 never foams at the mouth, its tongue and lips are brown and hard-looking, the 

 discharge from the mouth is small in quantity, brownish in color and hangs about 

 the lips like strings of gum; the eyes have an unnatural glare. In apoplexy there 

 is sudden loss of power, the dog falls down, either partially or wholly insensible, 

 the eyes are fixed and bloodshot, the breathing is heavy; there is no unusual 

 discharge of saliva. In epilepsy the dog if> seen to tremble just as the fit is coming 

 on. If the dog tries to move he falls on one side, his jaws begin to champ 

 violently, all voluntary muscles are powerfully convulsed; generally he utters 

 sharp, short cries, but not always; there is a copious discharge of white, frothy 

 saliva, the gums are of a pale leaden hue. When recovering from an epileptic fit 

 the dog has a bewildered look, the eyes having a dull and stupid expression." 



So great is the popular dread of hydrophobia that a slight derangement of 

 the dog's nervous syistem is often mistaken for symptoms of rabies, while a dog 

 in convulsions, in an epileptic fit, or stricken with apoplexy may be shot as mad 

 particularly if it be hot weather before there is a chance of determining the 

 nature of his disease. The principal centers of the nervous system are the brain 

 and the spinal cord. These Stonehenge compares to the electric telegraph. The 

 brain he calls the central office. From that station are issued messages to all 

 parts of the body, and the wires which carry those messages are the nerves bf 

 motion, the nerves of sensation and the nerves of organic life, all of which hav 

 their separate ganglia, or the lesser station masters. 



The normal movements of the body are, says a writer in Our Animal Friends. 

 the result of harmonious, co-ordinated functional activity of the neuro-muscular 

 mechanism, i. e., of the nerve centers, nerves and muscles. In convulsions the 

 movements are purposeless and irregular, and are, of course, wasteful of the 

 animal energies. A dog may have a fit from over-exertion in the heat of the sun, 

 from neuralgic pains or from toothache, from meningitis, excessive fright, para- 

 sites In the nose or brain, acute ear disease, or from the distress of being lost in a 

 largo city; or, if a female, of being deprived of her whelps. Recently it has been 

 shown that mental distress has the power to give a dog diabetes. It stands to 

 reason that so sensitive an animal should never be unduly excited. 



On no account allow one dog to see another in a fit. . The suffering dog 

 ehould have his head wet and should be kept for a time In a dark, quiet place, 

 free from all excitement. In most cases of convulsions a small dose of bromide 

 of potassium will do great good. Hydrophobia, considered as a canine disease, is 

 decidedly a misnomer. The proper term for canine madness is rabies. The 

 rabid dog has "no fear of water." On the contrary, he craves it, and, unloss 

 paralyzed, he has no difficulty in swallowing it. Rabies is a specific disease of 

 the nervous system. In all cases there is an intense inflammation of the brain 

 and spinal marrow, ending in a loss of function, which is a result common to 

 inflamed glands. The mucous glands of the stomach and bowels, the liver, the 

 pancreas and the kidneys are all more or less injected with blood; but the salivary 

 glands are especially affected, and the secretion of saliva is greatly increased. 

 There is the furious or maniacal form of rabies and the paralytic. The paralytic 



