BABIES, HYDROPHOBIA, OR CANINE MADNESS. J12 



no doubt that the fear of the disease is as fatal as the disease 

 itself. 



Eabies is essentially a disease of the blood, occasioned by 

 the presence of a poison, either introduced into it by inoculation, 

 or developed in it from some unknown cause. Now it is a law 

 in the economy of all animals, as far as we know, that when a 

 poison is introduced or developed in the blood there is a tendency 

 to get rid of it by some excessive secretion. Thus the poison of 

 small-pox occasions the eruption which relieves the blood, by 

 separating the enormous quantity of matter contained in the 

 pustules spread over the body. Thus, also, in scarlet fever, 

 there is a new cuticle formed on the skin, and also a new 

 epithelium or lining of the mucous membrane of the stomach 

 and intestines. The same holds good with the bites of venomous 

 snakes, in which a discharge of serum, large or small according 

 to the virulence of the snake, takes place into the cellular mem- 

 brane of the limb bitten, sometimes extending to the whole body. 

 Cholera, again, is an example of a similar natural attempt at 

 the removal of a poison, and is most fatal when the shock is 

 so great as to prevent entirely the discharge of serum. We 

 find the same, again, with typhus fever, which is severe in propor- 

 tion to the cessation of all the natural secretions. 



I believe, therefore, that in rabies the disease is so fatal, 

 because there is so little natural attempt to remove the poison, 

 and because man, generally in self-defence, prevents one of the 

 chief means of effecting the removal. Now, what are these 

 means ? My belief is, that they consist in an immense secretion 



