246 The Management and Diseases of the Dog. 
Were it not so, what a fearful result must follow! Where 
we have one case of the disease, we should have hundreds ! 
Indeed, they would be daily occurring, and no individual 
who possessed a dog would be secure. 
No one distinct breed is more liable to it than another. 
Mongrels (particularly homeless ones) are perhaps more 
frequently affected than other classes, and this is more likely 
from the manner of their roving from place to place, coming 
into contact with strange dogs, and usually those of their 
own kind ; added to which, they are reared in filth, and live 
by scavenging. 
How often, after an outbreak of rabies, do we hear that a 
strange dog has been seen in the neighbourhood, belonging 
to nobody knows who, and generally described as a mon- 
grel? 
Dogs are especially inclined to fraternise, or, at all events, 
to inspect one another ; and this, as with human paupers, 
is particularly the case with mongrels andcurs. A stranger 
is immediately gathered round, sniffed over, followed some 
distance, and perhaps hustled; the stranger resents it, or even 
if not thus interfered with, snaps at the one obstructing him, 
and passes on his way. The same thing happens over and 
over again in his course : and I need hardly say (presuming 
him to be rabid) the horrible result is multiplied indifinitely 
in a like manner by his victims. 
INCUBATION.—lThe incubative period of rabies is ex- 
tremely uncertain. My experience, with a few exceptions, 
has been from two to five weeks. 
“In the dog, Lafosse states that the shortest authenticated 
period that occurred in his experience was seven days, and 
the longest one hundred and fifty-five days. Roll gives, 
for the same animal, from three to six, and rarely from 
seven to ten weeks. Blaine asserts that the majority of 
cases occur between the third and seventh week, though 
some are protracted to three, four, or even a greater number 
of months. A week was the shortest period he had noted. 
