240 The Management and Diseases of the Dog. 
his system, and the necrological record is anything but 
encouraging. 
Fortunately, however, compared with other canine 
maladies, rabies is of rare occurrence, and it would almost 
appear to derive its importance from periodical scares. 
The year 1887 will be memorable for the intense public. 
excitement on the question, and especially for the extra- 
ordinary manner in which morbid minds magnified the 
complaint, and painted harmless affections in hideous 
. colours. These morbid minds being suffered to run riot, 
worked an almost irreparable injury to our ordained com- 
panions and most devoted friends. An absurd hysterical 
scare promoted an equally absurd, and in my opinion, un- 
grounded hydrophobic alarm. The outcome of this panic, 
and the arbitrary administration of the police regulations, 
were the formation of “ The Dog Owners’ Protection Asso- 
ciation,’ ‘the preliminary meeting for its promotion, over 
which I had the honour to preside, being held at the Hyde 
Park Hotel, on the 30th August, 1887. Subsequently 
Lord Mount .Temple became president. Following . this, 
but holding adverse views, “The Society for the Preven- 
tion of Hydrophobia” sprang into existence. Then Lord 
Mount Temple’s Registration Bill was introduced, and re- 
ferred to a select committee of the House of Lords, at 
which I was summoned to give evidence. 
It is a fact worthy of note that the sudden withdrawal 
of the Police Regulations and Muzzle in London, which 
took place the day before my address at the first public 
meeting of “ The Dog Owners’ Protection Association ” in 
the Kensington Town Hall, produced xo increase of rabies. 
Before going into the nature and symptoms of the 
malady, a few words regarding the terms applied to it 
are, I think, necessary. 
Hydrophobia, signifying fear of water, is in canine patho- 
logy a misnomer, and probably has had much to do with the 
erroneous idea that this symptom is present in dogs. To this 
