HYDROPHOBIA. 183 



specially educated to undertake the duty, that we can ever hope to discover a cure. 



"Among the numerous superstitions <hat hang like clouds round canine mad- 

 ness, obscuring any possibility of a clear view of it, I will refer to one only, most 

 of them being altogether unworthy of notice. It has long been a popular belief that 

 a person bitten by a dog, even if the animal be in perfect health at the time, is 

 never safe from an attack of rabies so long as the dog lives; for it is held, that 

 should the dog become mad at any future period, however distant, the person bitten 

 will also fall a victim to the disease. Cases supposed to prove that rabies may be 

 communicated by a dog free from it are constantly cropping up, and I know of a 

 case of a woman who is said to have died from hydrophobia, caused by the bite 

 of a dog that was clearly proved to be free from rabies at the time, and has re- 

 mained so ever since. The woman, it appears, was in an upper room with her 

 child, and the entrance of a small dog so alarmed her for her child's safety that 

 she seized the intruder and threw it out of the window, and was bitten in the 

 struggle; the woman was taken ill and died, showing all the symptoms.of hydro- 

 phobia, and the surgeon who attended her certified that death was from that dis- 

 ease. I do not intend to dispute the opinion thus given, but I venture to say had 

 the whole facts of the case been carefully investigated, say, by a' jury of physi- 

 cians of experience, it would have proved that the bite of that dog had but a small 

 share in causing the woman's death. To me it appears as reasonable to believe 

 that the dog could have bitten the woman without being in the same room with 

 her, as that the bite could communicate rabies when the disease did not at that 

 time e^ist. Such cases should not be passed by, but thoroughly sifted by qualified 

 men, that the truth might be elicited and the fears of the nervous allayed. The 

 practical lesson to be learned from this is, care and caution in dealing with dogs, 

 especially strange ones, and to curb unnecessary alarm, which often brings about 

 the evil it would avoid. When an accident does occur, have the wound promptly 

 cauterized to its full depth with caustic, and let the nervous, in addition, obtain 

 medical advice. 



"I recommend those having much to do with dogs to carry in the pocket at all 

 times one of those wooden cases of caustic which costs but sixpence, and with this 

 safeguard about them, and the presence of mind and nerve to use it promptly and 

 thoroughly taking care the caustic reaches as deep as the tooth did the bite 

 even of a mad dog will do them no harm. 



"Since the above was written, ten years ago, rabies in dogs has unfortunately 

 been rather frequent, and a few years ago from the number of deaths from hydro- 

 phobia, caused by the bites from mad dogs, quite a panic arose, with the. result that 

 the attention of medical men and veterarians at home and abroad has been very 

 much directed to its nature; as yet, however, no cure has been discovered, and I see 

 no reason to alter what I have already said; but it will be useful very briefly to 

 notice one or two points of special interest. Latest researches seem to point con- 

 clusively that the rabid poison exists in the saliva, and in none of the other secre- 

 tions. 



"Although its propagation by a bite or by the poisoned saliva coming in contact 

 with an abraised or highly vascular surface are clearly enough the means of trans- 

 mission and propagation, how it originates is unknown; exposure to great heat, 

 feeding on salt meat, compelled abstinence from water, and many other causes, 

 have been suggested as a producing cause, but proved not to be so. The old notion 

 that it is peculiarly a disease of the dog days, is fabulous, nor is it connected with 

 the functions of procreation, further than the present law in this country permits 

 owners oi' bitches when in season to be fought over by excited males, furnishes 



