Diseases of the Nervous System. 241 
I give, as I did many years ago in “Land and Water,” a 
most emphatic denial. The rabid dog never in any stage of 
the disease exhibits a dread of water, neither will the sight or 
sound of it produce spasms. On the contrary, ¢hirst is 
present throughout. 
The inability so swallow fluids, when it does happeni, is 
dependent entirely on either the inflammatory condition of 
the throat, or from paralysis of the muscles of the lower 
jaw and deglutition. 
Rabies, signifying madness, is a far more appropriate 
term, but even this is not sufficiently distinctive as to the 
particular class of madness it is intended to designate. 
The true nature of rabies is still involved in mystery. 
We know that a specific virus is the active agent in its 
production, but in what this virus consists, or how it is 
developed, we know not. That the saliva is the vehicle of 
the poison is clear, the why or wherefore is equally mys- 
terious. Post-mortem and microscopic examinations afford 
little clue. The nerve centres in which, from the character 
of the disease, we should expect to find the greatest lesions, 
are in many instances but slightly affected, while the throat 
and digestive organs often exhibit the greatest altera- 
tions. 
Causes.—In almost every instance rabiesis due to inocula- 
tion ; the disease, however, may, and is at times unquestion- 
ably spontaneously generated, and if this is so, wherein 
lies the value of the vexatious and absurd police regula- 
tions? I am very much inclined to think that the pernicious 
system of breeding in-and-in encourages its development, for 
it undoubtedly predisposes the next generation to weakened 
intellect, if not absolute lunacy. We know that inter- 
marriage materially helps to fill our lunatic asylums; and 
although it may be observed that the madness produced 
by consanguinity is not hydrophobic, yet any agency act- 
ing deleteriously on the nerve centres, weakening their 
stamina, and diminishing the intellectual faculties, will 
