Specific Contagious Diseases. 107 



the disease when the seeds are ah-eady implanted in the sys- 

 tem. A constantly Increasing mass of testimony points to 

 the conclusion that the restraint of an ungovernable sexual 

 desire is one cause of the development of the malady, and 

 it is even supposed that the maternal instinct has had a sim- 

 ilar effect after the puppies have been removed. Males 

 chiefly suffer, partly, no doubt, from their special liability 

 to common accessory causes, but mainly because the rabid 

 dog is far more likely to bite a male than a female. Dowdes- 

 well finds a micrococcus in the brain and spinal cord. 



The poison is resident in the saliva and blood, but not 

 always in the milk. The saliva of rabid herbivora, om- 

 nivora, and men is equally virulent with that of carnivora, 

 though in all animals it varies in intensity according to 

 the stage of the disease. Of animals bitten by a violently 

 rabid dog nearly all contract the disease, whereas among 

 men the proportion is five to fifty-five per cent. This ap- 

 parent immunity is largely due to the cleaning of the teeth 

 on the dress before they reach the skin. 



Inculation varies in dogs from five to eighty days, the 

 majority showing symptoms thirty to forty days after the 

 bite ; in the horse fifteen to ninety days (usually thirty) ; 

 in cattle twenty to thirty days ; sheep twenty to seventy- 

 four days; swine twenty to forty-nine days. In man it 

 ranges about the same, exceptional cases extending over 

 years being manifestly instances of disease resulting from 

 fear, a common occurrence in the human being. 



Symptoms. In the Dog. Any sudden change of habits, 

 or instincts — dullness, restlessness, watchfulpess, tendency 

 to pick up and swallow straws and other small objects, con- 

 stant desire to smell or lick the anus or generative organs 

 of themselves or others, to lick a stone or other smooth, 

 cold object, to rub the throat or chops with the fore paws, 

 silent endurance of pain, rubbing or licking of a scar the 

 seat of the bite, liability to sudden, passion and attempts 



