\U RABIES, OH MADNESS. 



first attack is sudden ; and, possibly, he will fall twice or thrice before he reaches 

 his stable. 



In the great majority of cases— or rather, with very few exceptions— a state of 

 excitation ensues, which is not exceeded by that of the dog under the most 

 fearful form of the malady, but there are intervals when, if he had been naturally 

 good-tempered and had been attached to his rider or his groom, he will recognise 

 his former friend and seek his caresses, and bend on him one of those piteous, 

 searching looks which, once observed, will never be forgotten : but there- is dan- 

 ger about this. Presently succeeds another paroxysm, without warning and 

 without control; and there is no safety for him who had previously the most 

 complete mastery over the animal. 



I was once attending a rabid horse. The owner would not have him destroyed, 

 under the vain hope that I had mistaken a case of phrenitis for one of rabies, 

 and that the disease might yield to the profuse abstraction of blood that I had 

 been prevailed on to effect, and the purgative influence of the farina of the 

 croton-nut with which he had been abundantly supplied in an early stage of 

 the malady. I insisted upon his being slung, so that we were protected from 

 injury from his kicking or plunging. He would Jbend his gaze upon me as if 

 he would search me through and through, and would prevail on me, if I could, 

 to relieve him from some dreadful evil by which he was threatened. He would 

 then press his head against my bosom, and keep it there a minute or more. All 

 at once, however, the paroxysm would return. He did not attempt to bite me ; 

 but, had it not been for the sling, he would have plunged furiously about, and I 

 might have found it difficult to escape. 



I had previously attended another horse, which the owner refused to have des- 

 troyed, and to which attendance I only consented on condition of the animal being 

 slung. He hadbeen bitten in thenear hind-leg. When I approached him on that 

 side, he did not attempt to bite me, and he could not otherwise injure me ; but he 

 was agitated and trembled, and struggled as well as he could ; and if I merely 

 touched him with my finger, the pulsations were quickened full ten beats in a 

 minute. When, however, I went round to the off side, he permitted me to pat 

 him, and I had to encounter his imploring gaze, and his head was pressed against 

 me — and then presently would come the paroxysm ; but it came on almost 

 before I could touch him, when I approached him on the other side. 



These mild cases, however, are exceptions to a general rule. They are few 

 and far between. The horse is the servant, and not the friend of man ; and if 

 his companion, yet an oppressed one. In proportion to his bulk he has far less 

 of that portion of the brain with which intelligence is connected — less attach- 

 ment — less gratitude. Ho is nevertheless a noble animal. I am not speaking 

 disparagingly of him ; but I am comparing him with — next to man — the most 

 intellectual of all quadrupeds. There is neither the motive for, nor the capability 

 of, that attachment which the dog feels for his master, and therefore, under the 

 influence of this disease, he abandons himself to all its dreadful excitement. 



The mare of Mr. Karslake, when the disease was fully developed, forgot 

 her former drooping, dispirited state : her respiration was accelerated — 

 her mouth was covered with foam — a violent perspiration covered every part of 

 her, and her screams would cow the stoutest heart. She presently demolished all 

 the wood- work of the stable, and then she employed herself in beating to pieces 

 the fragments, no human being daring to expose himself to her fury. 



The symptoms of the malady of Mr. Moneyment's pony rapidly increased 

 — he bit everything within his reach, even different parts of his own body — 

 he breathed laboriously— his tail erect— screaming dreadfully at short intervals, 

 striking the ground with his fore-feet, and perspiring most profusely. At length 

 he broke the top of his manger, and rushed out of the stall with it hanging to 



