DISEASES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM, 235 



no more act in the production of rabies than does cold. In 

 the hottest season of the hottest years, statistics show fewer 

 cases, while in tropical countries, Australia to wit, it has as 

 yet been unrecognized. Heat is more lil<ely to generate brain 

 affectionsother than rabies. 



With regard to sex, male and female are alike disposed to 

 it, and various conditions of system in the latter, as cata- 

 menia, pregnancy, or sucking have no influence on the dis- 

 ease. 



Anger and pain are alike uninfluential in the origin of 

 rabies.* 



" 2. Extreme climates yield the smallest contingent of cases, and are 

 therefore, it may be said, privileged. 



"3. The disease is spontaneous, in the dog, and communicable toother 

 animals and to mankind. 



" 4. Nothing has been discovered of the nature of the malady by autop- 

 sies. 



" 5. The disease may be prevented by having recourse to timely cau- 

 terization — the best means being the galvano-caustic. 



" 6. Finally, to explain the duration of incubation, Canettoli supposes 

 that the saliva of the rabid dog is not in itself a poison, but that it be- 

 comes so through prolonged retention in the living tissues into which it 

 has been inoculated." — " Veterinary Journal," Oct., 1876. 



* In reply to this theory, advanced by Dr. Verity in the Manchester 

 Courier, 1876, and his assertion of possessing a cure for the malady, I 

 wrote the following : 



" That the bite of a dog or cat is rendered poisonous from anger at the 

 time of its infliction, is as absurd as it is false. 



" That rabies is a specific disease usually produced by inoculation, but 

 that it may, as I stated in ' Land and Water,' some four years since, and 

 unquestionably does, arise spontaneously. Certain peculiar changes in 

 the system, possibly due to atmospherical influence, or some cause not 

 fully understood, act in producing it. I have always had a strong opin- 

 ion that breeding in-and-in tends to do so. 



" That if once the virus enters the system through inoculation, no 

 amount of treatment, however scientific, will in my opinion prevent the 

 awful result that must sooner or later take place. 



" That when such result is established there are as yet no positive 

 means of preventing death. 



" That the only means of preventing its introduction into the system 



