160 THEORY AND PRACTICE 



part, bites it, tears it, wounding himself severely. There is no 

 fever, the animal dies comatose. Death occurs about the fifth 

 day. The course and termination of this disease indicates that 

 it is specific. The symptoms in other animals will be taken up 

 by Dr. White 'and Dr. Wright. 



Differential Diagnosis. — There is no danger in making a mis- 

 taken diagnosis for no other disease resembles it. In the horse 

 cerebro-spinal meningitis has some similar symptoms. In the 

 dog acute indigestion must be differentiated. Dogs vomit in 

 indigestion, but not in rabies. Because a dog bites, he is not 

 necessarily mad. He will bite in case of worms, brain trouble, 

 etc. In dog practice it is sometimes difficult to make a diagnosis 

 between the diseases of the brain and those of the stomach. 



Treatment. — Rabies is always fatal, consequently medicinal 

 treatment is useless and the only thing is preventive treatment. 



Pasteur discovered the efficacy of inoculating an animal with 

 attenuated virus. He inoculated chicken broth with attenuated 

 saliva of a rabid dog (saliva was old) and it gave no results. 

 Then he inoculated a rabbit with an emulsion of the brain of a 

 rabid dog; then he used the inoculated animal to inoculate the 

 next and so on until he had inoculated 50. He found that the 

 50th attenuation w.as very mild in action, and when an emulsion 

 from such an animal was used, it was slower to act. He used 

 attenuations of the 50th degree up to the 12th, making the inocu- 

 lations 3 or 4 days apart, and this course of treatment produced 

 immunity. 



The Pasteur treatment as carried out today is practically 

 the same. An emulsion of spinal cord of a rabbit is used and 

 kept in the incubator for 3 days at 70° F when it is sufficiently 

 attenuated. This attenuated virus is used for the inoculation. 

 Dr. Lagoria inoculates for 21 days, using a 3rd day attenuation 

 for 3 days, 2nd day attenuation for 5 days, etc. If the bite oc- 

 curs on the face or neck, the treatment should be given immedi- 

 ately. In all cases it should begin by the 3rd day. 



