RABIES ORIGINAL CAUSE. 117 



poured out by the stomach, or the lining membrane of the lungs, 

 would, if introduced into a wound, act in the same way as the 

 saliva ; but as this latter fluid is the only one which the bite will 

 carry into the part bitten, so it has become the sole object of our 

 fears and observations. It is very remarkable that carnivorous 

 animals only have the power of producing the disease in another 

 animal ; the dog, cat, wolf, and fox can each be shown to have 

 infected others of their own species, and also sheep, horses, cows, 

 and man himself. But the latter have never, as far as we know, 

 carried on the contagion, though there are many instances of mad 

 horses biting their fellows, and their grooms besides, but without 

 any ulterior bad effect. Why this should be so is not known, and 

 though the difference of the salivary apparatus in the ruminating 

 animals has been adduced as a reason, yet this will not extend to 

 horses, and still less to man, in whom the salivary glands and 

 stomach are so closely allied to those of the dog. The effects of 

 the bite usually manifest themselves between the 30th and 60th 

 day usually about the 40th and, in the meantime, the wound 

 generally heals, but often reopens on the appearance of the 

 attack. 



ORIGINAL CAUSE. This has been attributed by different authors 

 to bad and putrid food, hunger, thirst, confinement, suppressed 

 salacity, heat, cold, violence, hydatid under the tongue, worms, 

 and epidemic, or self-generated poison without bite. But none of 

 these causes can be traced throughout a series of cases, with the 

 exception of confinement ; for, in spite of Mr. Youatt's assertion 

 to the contrary, I am inclined to believe that a greater number of 



