176 PHYSIOGNOMY OF DISEASE. 



from imitation or idleness, while biting the person may be 

 the result of 



1 . Ferocity of temper there being no provocation. 



2. Annoyance or teasing by man intentional irritation, 

 as well as mere play on his part. 



3. A desire simply to attract man's attention (Houzeau). 



4. Pretence or make-believe, as in the case of the dog ; 

 but in both cases there is the same risk of ' fun ' passing too 

 readily into c earnest.' 



Snappishness, the propensity to snap and snarl, literally 

 or figuratively, is a common synonym for bad temper or 

 morbid irascibility, both in man and other animals. 



Licking of man's face, hands, feet, or other uncovered 

 parts of the body, though usually innocuous, and a common 

 expression of affection, attachment, respect, confidence, or 

 gratitude on the part of the dog and cat, is nevertheless a 

 practice not to be too much encouraged, because, in certain 

 diseased states, the morbid saliva may readily gain access 

 to man's system through any trivial, perhaps unnoticed 

 scratch or cut, and may thus produce the much-dreaded 

 hydrophobia. It is in fact in this way by the application 

 of the morbid saliva to, and its absorption by, some cut, 

 scratched, or otherwise wounded surface, some simple abra- 

 sion perhaps of man's skin that the introduction of the 

 rabietic virus frequently, if not usually, takes place. 



On the other hand, Houzeau regards the dog's lick as 

 often equivalent to man's embrace, kiss, or hand-shake ; it 

 is a friendly, or more than friendly, act of salutation. Lick- 

 ing its master's feet by the dog is quite comparable to the 

 Pope's foot or toe kissing by his fellow-men in the Eoman 

 Vatican ; in both cases it is an act of adoration, neither more 

 nor less. In the cat, rabbit, guinea pig ( c Animal World '), 

 and domestic animals in general (Houzeau), in many animals 

 besides the dog, licking may mean or indicate sympathy or 

 compassion only ; or it may express one or more of many 

 other feelings, such as appeal, confidence, friendliness, re- 

 spect, submission, or fear. 



Worrying is common in various forms of disease, mental 

 or bodily. It is, for instance, one of the concomitants or 



