244 "^^^ Management and Diseases of the Dog. 



it were a modern invasion) was well recognised by the 

 ancient Greeks and Romans, and if we are to believe 

 history, the prophylactic value of the hot-bath and accom- 

 panying sweat for bitten persons was well understood by 

 Celsus. 



Further information on this point may be obtained from 

 the Blue Book containing the evidence of the various wit- 

 nesses who attended the select committee on rabies in the 

 House of Lords, 1887. 



The influence of climate, season, or sex, would appear to 

 have little bearing on the subject.* The so-called dog-days 

 no more act in the production of rabies than does cold. In 

 the hottest season of the hottest years, statistics show fewer 

 cases, while in tropical countries, Australia to wit, it has as 

 yet been unrecognised. Heat is more likely to generate 

 brain affections other than rabies. 



With regard to sex, male and female are alike disposed 

 to it, and various conditions of system in the latter, as cata- 

 menia, pregnancy, or suckling, have no influence on the 

 disease, though they may produce symptoms of other cere- 

 bral aberrations. 



* " Professor Guiseppe Canettoli (' Lo Sperimentale,' June, 1875) 

 summaries his studies and researches in hydrophobia in the following 

 propositions : 



" I. Hydrophobia is a disease of all climates and seasons. 



" 2. Extreme climates yield the smallest contingent of cases, and are 

 therefore, it may be said, privileged. 



" 3. The disease is spontaneous in the dog, and communicable to 

 other animals and to mankind. 



" 4. Nothing has been discovered of the nature of the malady or 

 autopsies. 



" 5. The disease may be prevented by having recourse to timely 

 cauterisation — the best means being the galvano-caustic. 



"6. Finally, to explain the duration of incubation, Canettoli supposes 

 that the saliva of the rabid dog is not in itself a poison, but that it 

 becomes so through prolonged retention in the living tissues into which 

 it has been inoculated."—" Veterinary Journal," Oct., 1876. 



