RABIES. 215 
sometimes springing on the same, but generally biting or snapping as he goes 
by, and rarely turning from the course he is pursuing to attack anything unless 
it be animals of kindred species, which almost invariably excite his rage and 
invite encounters. 
He is evidently deaf as well as partially blind, for he seems oblivious of 
all shouts and yells, never varying for them from his direct course. 
His gait is somewhat characteristic. It is a jog-trot, and unsteady. His 
head hangs low, and his protruding tongue, often torn and bleeding, is swollen 
and covered with dirt, while his tail is carried as usual until weakness causes 
it to droop. 
It would seem that he still retained, to a slight extent, his ability to dis- 
criminate between the objects encountered, for he is somewhat less disposed 
to attack man than other living things. And notwithstanding his evident wild 
insanity, he appears to retain also a trace of the instinct that prompted him 
during his long run to divert his course toward his home. 
If the unfortunate is confined, as the disease progresses he seems possessed 
as.it were by spectral illusions; for now he springs at the door as though he 
heard some one approaching; again, he examines every part of his kennel or 
room in the most careful and minute manner, and then retires to an obscure 
corner, but to remain only for a few moments, when he recommences his weari- 
some search. At times his eyes appear fixed on some imaginary insect, the 
course of which, along the walls, he seems to follow, and at which he at last 
springs and snaps; when the spell is broken, and he returns to his corner as 
though ashamed. 
After a time the violent paroxysms become much longer and more severe, 
lasting sometimes for several hours, during which the sufferer snaps and bites 
at whatever he encounters. Not infrequently he will bite and lacerate his own 
body, even to gnawing his feet to the bone. 
During the paroxysms convulsive twitchings of the face are frequently noted, 
and occasionally they terminate in violent convulsions. 
At no time have rabid dogs any special dread of water. All have excessive 
thirst, and drink freely during the early stage of the disease; but soon they are 
unable to swallow fluids, hence plunge their muzzles deeply, that the water 
may reach as far back as possible in their burning throats; but their thirst be- 
ing unallayed, they become greatly excited, and thus are thrown into a state of 
fury, and even spasms. 
Doubtless this delusion as to dread of water springs from the fact that 
generally rabid dogs shrink with apparent fear when a pan of water is pushed 
toward them, and threaten witha fierce growl the person behind it; but it is the 
act itself, not the water, that excites them, for they exhibit the same disposition 
when other things are offered them in like way. 
That rabid dogs foam at the mouth is an ancient and unfounded tradition. 
