Contagious and Upizootic Diseases. 29 



of testimony points to the conclusion that the restraint oi 

 an ungovernable sexual desire is one cause of the genera- 

 tion of the malady, and it is even supposed that the ma- 

 ternal instinct has had a similar effect after the puppies 

 have been removed. Males chiefly suffer, partly, no doubt, 

 from their special liability to natural exciting causes, but 

 mainly because the rabid dog is far more likely to bite a 

 male than a female. 



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

 in the milk. The saliva of rabid herbivora, omnivora, 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 apparent 

 immunity is largely due to the cleaning of the teeth on the 

 dress before they reach the skin. 



Incubation 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-nuie 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, watchfulness, tenden- 

 cy to pick up and swallow straws and other small objects 

 constant desire to smell or lick the anus or generative or 

 gans of themselves or others, to Uck a stone or other smooth, 

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

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

 seat of the bite, liability to sudden passion and attempts 

 to bite at sight of another dog or cat, may be looked on as 

 very suspicious, if rabif s exists in the country. -Soon the 

 characteristic howl is omitted. The voice is hoarse, low 

 and muffled, and there is one loud howl followed by three 



