246 WILD NEIGHBORS CHAP. 
and as good as suckling-pig, which it resembles. 
This of course implies that the animal has been 
carefully skinned and freed from its glands. The 
voyageurs of the Northwest were accustomed to 
skin and dissect the animal under running water, 
which rid it of its skunkiness; in Nova Scotia, at 
the other end of the continent, the Indians ate it 
without minding whether it was tainted or not, 
according to Gilpin. 
One topic in connection with this subject might 
be debated at length here, did it seem worth while; 
namely, the exhibition of rabies in the skunk, com- 
municating hydrophobia to any human being bitten 
by an affected animal. Very full discussion of this 
may be found in the “American Journal of Science 
and Art’! for May, 1874, by the Rev. H. C. Hovey; 
and this has been extensively quoted and com- 
mented upon by Dr. Elliott Coues in his “ Fur- 
Bearing Animals,” by William A. Baillie-Grohman 
in his “Camps in the Rockies,” and by other 
competent authorities, so that the facts connected 
with the subject are accessible to most readers. 
In a word, the occasional appearance of rabies 
among skunks is a well-known fact in all parts of 
the country, and it has frequently happened that 
men and dogs bitten by these animals have subse- 
quently died of hydrophobia. It has been alleged 
that this was a disease distinguished as mephitic 
1Third series, Vol. VII, No. 41, Art. XLIV, pp. 477-483, May, 
1874. 
