158 Specific and Contagious Diseases. 
be secured if we cannot immediately suppress its exist- 
ence. 
Rabid dogs, it has often been said, exhibit method in 
their madness. A state of fury is uncommon or at least 
associated only with certain forms of the disease; in 
many cases the creature is perfectly docile, the owner 
himself having not even the vestige of a suspicion against 
his pet. Rabid dogs have been known to fondle, caress, 
and lick the hands of their owners as on other occasions, 
which in some instances have proved fatal, the virus from 
the saliva gaining entrance to the system through a’ 
scratch or other slight form of wound. They show their 
intense dislike to other dogs in preference to human 
beings as a rule; even in sleep they rise and violently 
rush at the object of their fury, which exists only in their 
disordered imagination ; they will also snap as at flies, or 
other unseen objects, and from apparently sound sleep 
suddenly rising to the attack have been known to fall 
exhausted by the effort. The desire for freedom is 
peculiarly manifested, often with a degree of cunning for 
which even the dog would scarcely be credited. Once 
free he commences his wanderings, often covering 
immense distances, and when unmolested returns to his 
lair completely prostrate, or partially paralysed, and in a 
short time wholly so. It is rare that he attempts violence 
during this remarkable journey, but when provoked is apt 
to commit fearful havoc. The wisest course, therefore, 
when a dog is “on the march” and correctly recognised, 
is to give him possession of the road, as in all probability 
he will never molest any person. Ais evident desire ts to 
get away from the disease, and to this end he devotes 
himself with a concentration of will that is remarkable in 
the brute creation. 
In the furious stages the dog is inclined to make 
sudden attacks, the victim receiving one or more grips, 
and probably thrown down or rolled over, the march 
being resumed in search of others. Thus, in the space of 
a single night, not only dogs, but a large number of 
sheep are bitten, and being unobserved, the circumstance 
has favoured the surmise that the disease had a spon- 
