Diseases of the Nervous System. 245 



Anger and pain are alike uninfluential in the origin of 

 rabies.* 



Pain may produce frenzy, but not rabies. A dog may 

 be driven frantic with torture or furious with rage, but his 

 bite is harmless, so far as production of rabies is concerned. 



* In reply to this theory, advanced by Dr. Verity in the Manchester 

 Courier, 1876, and his assertion of possessing a cure "for the malady 

 I wrote the following : — 



" That the bite of a dog or cat is rendered poisonous from anger at 

 the time of its infliction is as absurd as it is false. 



" That rabies is a specific disease usually produced by inoculation, 

 but that it may, as I stated in ' Land and Water,' some four years since, 

 and unquestionably does, arise spontaneously. Certain peculiar changes 

 in the system, possibly due to atmospherical influence, or some cause 

 not fully understood, act in producing it. I have always had a strong 

 opinion that breeding in-and-in tends to do so. 



" That if once the virus enters the system through inoculation, no 

 amount of treatment, however scientific, will in my opinion prevent the 

 awful result that must sooner or later take place. 



" That when such result is established, there are as yet no positive 

 means of preventing death. 



" That the only means of preventing its introduction into the system 

 are in immediate excision or suction, if possible, of the part, and the 

 application of nitric acid or lunar caustic. 



" That many diseases have been mistaken by persons having a smat- 

 tering of a dog knowledge for hydophobia {rabies canina), particularly 

 epilepsy. 



" That I have no doubt a person whose nervous system is highly 

 sensitive may, from the excitement consequent on the bite of a dog 

 (especially a ferocious one), exhibit symptoms resembling hydrophobia, 

 and that it is probably from such cases as these that Dr. Verity has de- 

 rived his imagination of a cure. 



" That individuals ever have true hydrophobia, from pure fright, I 

 do not for a moment believe. 



" That in all supposed cases of hydrophobia, the public may rest 

 assured that either the inoculation was not hydrophobic, or that the 

 saliva was wiped off when the teeth passed through the garments. 



"That in all instances where the animal which has inflicted the 

 wound is suspected of rabies, he should be confined, and not slaughtered 

 until a sufficiently long period has elapsed to prove the suspicion 

 correct or otherwise. This, if it were adopted, would soon test the 

 truth of enumerated cures and the value of marvellous specifics." 



