CHAPTER XL. 
RABIES (HYDROPHOBIA). 
ALTHOUGH neither the nature of the micro-organism 
nor the nature of the poison of rabies has as yet been 
determined, it is here considered because of its special 
interest, and from the fact that it was the first infec- 
tious disease to which a curative, or, rather, preventive, 
method of inoculation was successfully applied. 
Rabies is an acute disease of animals, dependent upon 
a specific virus, and communicated by inoculation to 
man. It is usually associated with an injury, such as 
the bite of a dog, and the inoculation of the broken 
surface with the saliva of an animal affected with the 
disease. This is the so-called rabies of the streets. 
Wolves, cats, foxes, and dogs; horses, cows, and deer 
may contract the disease; monkeys, rabbits, and guinea- 
pigs are all inoculable with it, as, indeed, are all warm- 
blooded animals. Rabies occurs in almost all parts of 
the world; it is most common in Russia, France, and 
Belgium; it is not infrequent in Austria and those parts 
of Germany bordering on Russia, and in England. It 
is comparatively rare in this country, although it occurs 
occasionally in various parts of the United States, also 
in Mexico and South America. Rabies is extremely 
rare in North Germany, Switzerland, Holland, and 
Denmark, owing to the wise provision that all dogs 
shall be muzzled; and in Australia it is unkvown. 
