542 



these laws are not carried out witli the rigidity with which they should 

 be. In other States where an indemnity is allowed on declaration on 

 the i)art of the owner, the appraisement of the animal is not fairly 

 made. If the owners of infected animals are to be encouraged to 

 declare the presence of the disease in order to protect their neigh- 

 bors from the danger of contagion thcj" should be paid, not what the 

 animal affected with the disease is considered worth, when it is value- 

 less, but the one-half or two-thirds of what would be its market value 

 without the disease, and the community should share the loss which 

 the owner should make in order to protect others. 



RABIES IX THE HORSE. 



Synonyms: Hydrophobia, madness, Ij'ssa, rage, Widhlcranlcheit. 



Rabies is a contagious disease, which is usually transmitted by a 

 bite and by the introduction of a virus contained in the saliva of an 

 affected animal, but may be transmitted in other ways. It is char- 

 acterized by symi)toms of aberration of the nervous system, and inva- 

 riably terminates fatally. It is a disease essentiall}^ of the dog, but 

 is transmitted to the horse, either from dogs or from any other animal 

 affected with it. 



As a disease of the horse it is useless to enter into the etiology fur- 

 ther than to assume that in this animal it is invariably the result of 

 the bite of a rabid animal, usuallj^ a dog. 



Perhaps no disease in medicine has been the object of more contro- 

 versy than rabies. Certain medical men of prominence have even 

 doubted the existence of the disease. Many medical men have 

 claimed for it a spontaneous origin. The experience, however, of 

 ages has shown that contagion can be proved in the great majority 

 of cases, and by analogy with other contagious diseases we may only 

 believe that the development of one ease reciuired the preexistence of 

 a previous case from which the virus has been transmitted. M. Pas- 

 teur has further added to our knov\iedge of the disease by showing 

 that a virus capable of cultivation exists in the nervous system, espe- 

 cially in the loAver part of the brain (medulla oblongata), and in the 

 anterior part of the spinal column. M. Pasteur has further shown 

 that that x)ortion of the nervous system which contains the virus, tlie 

 exact nature of which has not yet been demonstrated, will retain it 

 for an indefinite time if kept at a very low temperature, or if left 

 surrounded by carbonic acid; but if the nerve matter, which is viru- 

 lent at first, is exposed to the air and by substances which will absorb 

 the surrounding moisture is kept from putrefaction, it will gradually 

 lose its virulence and become inoffensive in about fifteen days. lie 

 lias further shown that the action of a weak virus on an animal will 

 prevent tlie development of a stronger virus, and from this he has 

 formulated his method of prophylactic treatment. This treatment 



