CHAPTER V. 
Rabies—Summary of the Present Condition of Knowledge with 
Respect to its Genesis, Symptoms, and Results—Immunity 
from the Disease of the Australasian Colonies and Réunion 
— Singular Cases—Reputed ‘Hydrophobia” in Human 
Subjects—Spontaneous Recovery of Man and Animals— 
Pasteur’s Investigations—Nostrums and Empirical Treatment 
—The Dogs’ Home. 
NotwitTHSsTANDING all we owe to the dog, both as our friend 
and our servant, he is, unfortunately, liable to become our 
deadly enemy, by reason of the communication to us, by his 
bite, of a malady resulting from the virus contained in his 
saliva when suffering from rabies, or canine madness. This 
is attributable, in great measure, to our own ignorance, in- 
difference, and neglect; for a purely contagious disease ought 
to be almost entirely under control. During the past ten 
years—from 1874 to 1884—it has become more prevalent, with 
the largely increased number of dogs bred for fancy pur- 
poses, and kept for competition at shows and by the public 
generally. 
A brief summary of the present state of knowledge with 
respect to the genesis, symptoms, and effects of this disease, 
may be acceptable to the reader, and will not be considered 
out of place in a book on the carnivora, since all the families 
