19 



The disease has resulted from the teeth beuig used to loosen a 

 knot upon a rope with which a rabid dog had been tied. 



It has been asserted that the disease may arise from the bite of a 

 healthy dog, but this is improbable. Cases are on reeord, however, 

 in which the disease has followed the bite of a dog which did not at 

 the time or for several weeks afterwards present the recognized 

 symptoms of the disorder. It seems quite possible that in rare 

 cases rabies may affect a dog as a mild and insignificant malady. 

 It is important to recollect that two thirds of the persons bitten by 

 rabid dogs — even when no preventive measures have been used — 

 escape. The impunity may be due partly to the bites being inflicted 

 through clothes, partly to individual insusceptibility, which has been 

 found to exist in animals as well as in man. 



It is rather curious that more males suffer than females. So, 

 too, in dogs. I think that this must be due in the former case to 

 the fact that men, until quite recently, have had much more to do 

 with dogs than women. When I tell you that most cases of hydro- 

 phobia are contracted from pet dogs, you will agree with me in 

 saying that, considering the great increase of dogs of this class, there 

 is need of a great deal more supervision than at present it has been 

 thought necessary to bestow upon such dogs. 



Children frequently suffer on account of their helplessness, and 

 60 are bitten about the face. 



In many cities of the East large numbers of ownerless dogs act 

 the part of scavengers, and rabies is said to be absolutely unknown 

 amongst them. In the western world we have learned to associate 

 the "dog days," as being especially pernicious to the canine race, 

 with " Sirius " but it is now an admitted fact that hot weather has, 

 little influence in producing rabies. We all must remember the 

 old " dog days " in the hot summer weather, and how at that time 

 every dog used to go about muzzled. 



The disease is probably contagious, and in support of this state- 

 ment it may be said that quarantine and other precautions of a 

 similar kind have hitherto excluded the disease from Austraha and 

 New Zealand. 



The period of incubation, that is the time between the introduc- 

 tion of the poison into the skin and the manifestation of the symp- 

 toms, is longer than that of any other acute specific disease, and is 

 irregularly variable. It is rarely less than a month, the shortest 

 on record having been about twelve days, the average period being 

 about six or seven weeks. In about half the cases it is between one 

 and three months. In some cases it is longer, reaching six, nine, 

 or twelve months. 



The symptoms of the disease are many, and for the most part 

 characteristic, but I need only refer to those which are especially 



