HYDROPHOBIA. 377 



in harness, the collar should always be carefully inspected, and if 

 at all tight it should be replaced by a deeper one. A diseased 

 state of the valves of the heart ought to be discoverable by 

 auscultation, but it requires a practised ear to do this, and the 

 directions for ascertaining its presence are beyond the scope of this 

 book. The only plan which can safely be adopted, is to take the 

 subject of megrims quietly home to his stable, and carefully ex- 

 amine into the condition of all his functions with a view to im- 

 prove the action of any organ which appears to be out of order, 

 whatever it may be. If all seems to be going on well — if the appe- 

 tite is good, and the heart acts with regularity and with due force, 

 while the brain seems clear, and the eye is not either dull or suf- 

 fused with blood — nothing should be attempted, but the horse 

 being subject to a second attack, as proved by manifold experience, 

 should be put to work in which no great danger can be appre- 

 hended from them. He is not safe in any kind of carriage, for it can 

 never be known where the fall will take place ; and as a saddle- 

 horse he is still more objectionable, and should therefore be put to 

 some commercial purpose, in executing which, if he falls, the only 

 injury he can effect is to property, and not to human life. 



RABIES, HYDROPHOBIA OR MADNESS. 



One reason only can be given for describing this disease, 

 which is wholly beyond the reach of art ; but as the horse attacked 

 by it is most dangerous, the sooner he is destroyed the better ; and 

 for this reason, every person who is likely to have any control over 

 him, should be aware of the symptoms. As far as is known at 

 present, Rabies is not idiopathieally developed in the horse, but 

 must follow the bite of a rabid individual belonging to one or other 

 of the genera canis and fells. The dog, being constantly about our 

 stables, is the usual cause of the development of the disease, and 

 it may supervene upon the absorption of the salivary virus without 

 any malicious bite, as has happened according to more than one 

 carefully recorded case. The lips of the horse are liable to be 

 ulcerated from the action of the bit, and there is reason to believe 

 that in the early stages of rabies these parts have been licked by a 

 dog, the saliva has been absorbed, and the inoculation has taken 

 place just as it would do from any other wound. It is difficult to 

 prove that this is the true explanation of those cases where no bite 

 has been known to have occurred, but as the mouth has in each 

 instance been shown to have been abraded, there is some reason 

 for accepting it as such. To proceed, however, to the symptoms, 

 Mr. Youatt, who has had great opportunities for examining rabies, 

 both in the dog and horse, describes the earliest as consisting in 

 "a spasmodic movement of the upper lip, particularly of the angles 

 of the lip. Close following on this, or contemporaneous with it, 

 32 * 



