BABISS. 119 



secnia place, supplying him with water and food. In a veiy few 

 days the increase in the number and intensity of the symptoms will 

 have proved the dog rabid ; or his remaining in the state he first 

 was when suspected vnH have shown the symptoms to have indicated 

 some other disease. 



Duration of the Disease. — Dogs do not live more than seven or 

 eight days when rabies is once actively developed, so that a dog 

 isolated for that time, and remaining in a similar state to that 

 exhibited when he was first taken, may be considered free from it ; 

 but, to allay anxiety, and to secure to the dog proper treatment, a 

 veterinary surgeon should always be consulted in such cases. 



A dog suddenly seized with a fit, falling down unconscious, 

 ehampuig the jaws, frothing at the mouth, and with the limbs 

 and body convulsed, does not show signs of rabies : on the contrary, 

 such an attack may he taken as proof that the dog is not mad; yet, 

 on such evidence, hundreds of dogs have been done to death with 

 all the barbarous cruelty of an ignorant terror. Fits of fuiy are 

 expressions of excited passions, and are not early symptoms of 

 rabies, although ungovernable paroxysms of rage mark the later 

 stages of furious madness. 



When a "mad-dog scare "arises, scores of dogs are kiUed in 

 panic fear, and reported as having been rabid. I do not know who 

 is responsible for these official or semi-official reports ; but as the 

 matter is carried out they do mora harm than good, and increase 

 the panic they should allay. The dogs are killed before even a 

 competent man can study the symptoms, post-mortem examinations 

 are misleading, and no dog should be reported as having been rabid 

 until the fact ia proved by the Pasteurian method. I will give one 

 case in point. A neighbour asked me to see her pet dog as it was 

 ailing. I thought it rabid— kept it twenty-four hours and had my 

 opinion confirmed. I sent the body to the Brown Institute — report 

 in three days — "post-mortem gives no evidence of dog having been 

 rabid." Second report in twenty-four days, after Pasteurian 

 method of proof had been carried out — " unmistakable evidence 

 that the dog had been rabid." 



One of the most puzzling features of rabies In dogs and man is 

 the uncertain period of latency, in which the poison lies inactive 

 In the system. In this evil there is some good — it gives time for 

 those bitten to undergo the preventive treatment discovered by 

 M. Pasteur, and to which some thousands of human beings already 

 owe their lives. 



Diuub Madness. — In this form of rabies the lower jaw becomes 

 paralysed, so .that the dog cannot bite : but in these cases, equallj 

 with those of furious madness, the saUva is tainted with the virus, 



