6o6 MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIERY 



RABIES, OR HYDROPHOBIA. 



In the dog this disease is termed " Rabies 

 Canina," canine madness : in the human subject, 

 Hydrophobia, from the dread of drinking water, the 

 sense of suffocation felt in the act being awful. The 

 dog as a rule laps liquids with facility, but the pouring 

 of water from one tumbler into another is sufficient in 

 some persons rabid to bring on powerful spasms of 

 the muscles of deglutition. 



This is a specific disease which develops primarily 

 (if such an expression or opinion is allowable) in dogs, 

 wolves, jackals, foxes, and cats, but the specific poison 

 or organism on which it depends once having de- 

 clared itself present in these creatures, may by inocu- 

 lation (bite or abrasion) produce the disease in men, 

 cattle, sheep, deer, rabbits, horses, swine, etc. 



The virus is contained in the saliva, salivary 

 glands, the tissues of the brain, medulla oblongata, 

 medulla spinalis, cerebro-spinal fluid, and portions of 

 the pneumogastric nerves. 



Symptoms. — Like all other specific diseases, there 

 is a period of incubation from the reception of the 

 virus until symptoms of indisposition are exhibited, 

 and this period varies widely, from eight days to 

 several months. The symptoms also vary according 

 to the form it takes, or, in other words, according to 

 the structures invaded. In the dog we have two 

 well-marked forms of the disease — (i) Raging mad- 

 ness : here the so-called blood poison acts powerfully 

 on the brain, and the animal barks and bites and 

 furiously attacks all objects which come within its 

 range of action. (2) Dumb madness : here the dog 

 neither barks nor bites, but sits gazing at objects, 

 his hind limbs being paralysed, as also his lower javv^ 



