178 EVERYTHING ABOUT DOGS. 



is kiiown as dumb rabies. Absolutely typical cases of either form are as rare as 

 is the disease. Death, however, usually results in from two to ten days in the 

 furious form, while in dumb rabies the period is much shorter. 



The howl or bark of a mad dog is very remarkable. It is totally unlike his 

 ordinary voice, and is sonorous and melancholy to an extreme. No one need 

 mistake it. The dog's appetite is so perverted that he will swallow stones, sticks, 

 straws and almost any filth. His biting and snapping are reflex actions; that 

 should not be regarded as deliberate. It is then that he is really dangerous. 

 Irritability is an advanced stage of rabies. In the earlier stages the animal is 

 sullen and inclined to hide away in corners. His eyes grow wild and suspicious. 

 If at large he will roam over wide tracts of country at a jog trot, with his head 

 down and his tongue out. In dumb rabies there is an entire absence of excite- 

 ment. The muscles of mastication are paralyzed so that the lower jaw is dropped ; 

 there is no maniacal stage at all, 



Epileptical convulsions are due to an irregular discharge of the nerve cells. 

 They occur unexpectedly, are of variable duration, and the spasms are of two 

 kinds. A prolonged muscular contraction is called a tonic spasm. Following the 

 tonic spasm are the clonic bpasms, which consist of alternate contraction and 

 relaxation. The dog, like the human subject, will froth at the mouth and bite 

 the tongue. Epilepsy may be hereditary, or may be due to teething and worms. 



Apoplexy differs greatly from epilepsy. The convulsions are not prominent; 

 the pupils of the eyes are either contracted or dilated; there is long-continued 

 unconsciousness and more or less paralysis. 



Meningitis, so often mistaken for rabies, is yet very different. The tempera- 

 ture is very much elevated, which it is not in rabies; the dog snaps, but shows no 

 tendency to bite, and there is no particular bark and howl combined, although the 

 dog's voice is high-pitched. 



Phrentitis is simply inflammation of the brain. It is sometimes a complica- 

 tion of distempers, and is the only disorder whch resembles rabies. It generally 

 occurs in the hottest weather. The dog can not propagate phrentitis by salivary 

 inocculation. 



"Hydrophobia in human beings," saye a writer, "results from accidents of a 

 nervous order, sometimes mortal, sometimes curable, according as they derive 

 from disorders analogous to tetanus (lockjaw) produced by a wound or from 

 purely mental disorders." According to Dr. Gaffe, "Spontaneous rabiform hydro- 

 phobia is the only rabies that exists, and that is a mortal rabies." Before M. 

 Pasteur's system was invented about nineteen persons annually were officially 

 reported to have died of hydrophobia. Now, strange as it may seem, the number of 

 persons who annually report themselves bitten by rabid dogs averages from 1,500 

 to 2,000. Rabies is a rare disease, rarer to-day than in the past, and hydrophobia 

 is more or less a form of hysteria. Were there less talk about it, it would be 

 better for the community. A little more knowledge of our own nervous system, 

 a little less ignorance of the dog's, and we shall be far more likely to escape 

 hydrophobia entirely than to die from it or to be saved by inoculation. 



1 will now give a most important and valuable interview with the famous 

 medical expert, Prof. Edward C. Spitzka, of New York. Prof. Spitzka declares 

 the Pasteur rabies theory and treatment a humbug from the start to finish, and 

 rabies to be a hoax. Ex-United States Surgeon General Dr. Wm. A. Hammond 

 indorse* his decision. Such arguments as Prof. Spitzka's, a most eminent 

 authority, should convince every one who reads it that he is correct: 



"Although Pasteur was undoubtedly as sincere in his work as his follower, 



