RABIES. 401 



atmosphere of awe and mystery, and it is not surprising that myths, 

 fallacies, and misconceptions in regard to it have been common and 

 widely accepted. As the investigations by which we have come to 

 a tolerably clear understanding of the facts concerning rabies have 

 been comparatively recent, and for the most part, have appeared in 

 scientific periodicals, fallacies in regard to the disease continue to 

 have a strong hold upon the public mind. For instance, it is still a 

 widely prevalent belief that if persons or animals are bitten by a 

 dog they are liable to become rabid if the dog should contract the 

 disease at any future time. There is no foundation for this impres- 

 sion, and it would be a great comfort to many people who are now 

 and then bitten by animals if the fallacy of this idea were known. 

 All experience, both scientific and practical, goes to show that rabies 

 is transmitted only by animals that are actually diseased at the time 

 the bite is inflicted. Rabies is an infectious disease involving the 

 nervous system and characterized by extreme excitability and other 

 nervous disorders and always terminating in death. The contagion 

 of this disease has never been isolated, but the fact that it is caused 

 by a specific organism principally found in the nervous system is 

 indisputable. For instance, if an emulsion of the brain of a rabid 

 animal is filtered through a germ-proof filter, the filtrate will be 

 harmless. This fact indicates that the infectious principle is not 

 in solution, but is an organism withheld from the filtrate by the 

 filter. This contagion can be propagated only in the body of an 

 animal. It is transmitted naturally from one animal to another 

 solely by bites, and the old idea of spontaneous appearance of the 

 disease is absolutely fallacious. It may be produced artificially by 

 inoculating susceptible animals with an emulsion of the brain or 

 spinal cord, as well as the saliva, milk, and other secretions of the 

 affected animal. The blood, on the contrary, seems to be free from 

 the infectious principle. The saliva contains the virus, which, under 

 natural conditions, is introduced into or under the skin on the tooth 

 of the rabid animal. The disease is widespread, being found in 

 many countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in certain sections 

 of the United States. 



Owing to the rigid quarantine regulations enforced against dogs 

 imported into Australia, that country remains absolutely free from 

 the disease. Following the canine race, cattle seem to be the most 

 frequently affected, probably because rabid dogs, next to their mor- 

 bid desire to attack other members of their own race, have a better 

 opportunity to bite grazing cattle than any other species of animal. 

 The relative frequency of rabies* in these two species of animals is 

 indicated by the carefully compiled statistics of the German Empire, 

 which shows that 904 dogs and 223 cows died of rabies in 1898, while 

 33071°— 16 26 



