ON RABIES CAMNA, OR DOG MADNESS. 105 



spontaneously, or from the effects of a wound inflicted 

 by the teeth of a rabid animal alone. Facts, however, 

 as we have been often told, are " stubborn things," 

 and to facts alone ought we to look for a proof of that 

 doctrine which we may wish to establish. The dis- 

 ciples of Dr. Hamilton are considerably on the decline, 

 but are still occasionally to be met with, although 

 Mr. Blaine, in his "Canine Pathology," has most 

 clearly explained that the disease is not produced 

 without inoculation. In page 226, he says, in one of 

 the marginal notes, in speaking of the epidemic fury 

 with which it seemed at times to have raged, according 

 to many historical accounts, " Not that I believe the 

 rabid malady ever arises spontaneously, but that 

 sometimes the inoculation of it takes place under 

 circumstances particularly favourable to its rise and 

 future propagation." And in page 234, we find 

 the folio wins: remark : "As far as mine own ex- 

 perience goes, as far as close observation, and 

 attentive consideration, have enabled me to judge, 

 I have no hesitation to give it as my opinion, 

 that the disease is never now of spontaneous origin. 

 Among my most unlimited opportunities of remarking 

 the subject, I never met with one instance of rabies in 

 a dog wholly excluded from the access of others." If 

 any one will give himself the trouble, or rather the 

 pleasure of reading Mr. Blaine's chapter upon canine 

 madness, he will meet with abundance of anecdotes 

 illustrative of the positive proof of the disease being 

 propagated by inoculation alone, and of the extreme 

 folly of supposing that it is produced by excessive 

 heat, unwholesome food, an acrid state of the blood, or 



