168 The Carnivora. 
which the bite was evidently foremost in her mind. These 
symptoms lasted ten days, and suggested to the medical 
men in attendance the probability, and to the friends 
of the deceased the certainty, of hydrophobia. Its distinc- 
tive symptoms, however, were absent; and on the eleventh 
day, an attack of epileptiform convulsion occurred, followed 
by hemiplegia, coma, and death. A certificate of apoplexy 
and hemiplegia was properly given, but the popular supposi- 
tion of -hydrophobia led to an inquest. This was adjourned, 
in order that a post-mortem examination might be made, 
which showed meningeal hemorrhage and granular con- 
tracted kidneys—conditions amply sufficient to account for 
the whole of the symptoms. The case itself is instructive. 
Bites from dogs and cats are very common; cerebral diseases 
leading to general symptoms are not very rare. The con- 
currence of the two incidents generally leads to the inference 
that the bite is the cause of the symptoms; and when, in 
addition, a state of nervousness and rabiophobia is present, 
the symptoms are rendered complex, and the diagnosis’ a 
matter of some difficulty.” 
There is, however, something more than a possibility—since 
spontaneous recovery from rabies is known to take place in 
both man and animals—that animals suffering from a mild 
attack may inflict wounds which communicate the disease 
in a fatal form, while they themselves recover, not having 
exhibited such marked symptoms as would lead to the con- 
clusion that the disease was present in them. 
With respect to the treatment of the bite from a suspected 
dog or cat, or even one that is not suspected, it must, in the 
present condition of knowledge, or rather ignorance, be simply 
local. Dr. George Fleming, F.R.C.V.S., in his excellent work 
on “Rabies and Hydrophobia,” recommends: A. Suction* 
by the mouth, carried on, persistently and energetically for 
some time, spitting out very frequently, and, if possible, 
rinsing the mouth with water, &c. B. Expression, or squeez- 
* See next page. 
