72 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



The Occurrence of Rabies in Ontario. By J. J. Mackenzie, B.A.,. 

 Bacteriologist to the Provincial Board of Health. 



(Read December 12, 1896.) 



There is good evidence that there have been at least five outbreaks of this disease 

 in Ontario since 1890. We have knowledge of eight individuals having been bitten by 

 rabid dogs and having been subsequently treated at the Pasteur Institute, New York. 

 A study of the Registrar General's returns for the Province of Ontario since Confederation 

 does not show that rabies has ever been set down as a cause of death. 



The evidence that rabies occurs in Ontario rests chiefly upon the results of inocu- 

 lations made upon rabbits in the Laboratory of the Provincial Board of Health, in the 

 case of an outbreak in the County of Middlesex, in 1895, ^"d another in the town of 

 Paris in 1896. 



It has not been possible to trace any connection between these various outbreaks, 

 although it seems probable that the one which occurred in Paris, in 1896, was preceded 

 by one in 1895, in the district surrounding that town. This outbreak, however, was not 

 investigated. 



The question as to the origin of the disease in Ontario is a difficult one to decide- 

 It does not seem probable that it is due to wild animals, as all the outbreaks occurred in 

 the southern and older parts of the Province. It is more likely due to the introduction 

 of the virus in imported dogs, chiefly from the United States. 



In regard to the prevention of the disease, it seems as if the destruction of masterless 

 dogs and the enforcement of a muzzling law for some months after an outbreak in any 

 district in which it occurs would be sufficient. 



A general muzzling law cannot be regarded as necessary. 



