Responsibilities of Owners of Dogs. 175 
of the hyzna’s skin, and the venom at once frightened away 
by this kind of amulet.” 
While the attitude of mind of the best physicians of the 
day towards the disease was such, nothing like calm inquiry 
or scientific investigation was to be expected. Much, how- 
ever, may be anticipated from such researches as those under- 
taken by M. Pasteur, and the careful observations now being 
made by the large body of scientifically educated veterinary 
surgeons, who have replaced the incapable “cow doctors” and 
“dog doctors” of the past generations. The increased value 
of dogs within the past twenty years, has been a strong in- 
centive to the study of their diseases. Where the safety of 
a valuable property is in question, there has been greater 
anxiety than where human life alone may be in jeopardy. 
Absolutely nothing has been done by the Legislature of this 
country to impose on the owners of dogs any restrictions 
or penalties calculated to ensure the public safety, or to 
diffuse even the most elementary knowledge of the symp- 
toms and treatment of the disease, and to fix the respon- 
sibility of losses in human and animal life on those whose 
culpable carelessness has occasioned the mischief. 
: At a meeting of the Central Veterinary Medical Society, in 
July, 1882, Dr. George Fleming expressed his regret that 
medical men were so ill acquainted with the subject then 
fully discussed—rabies and “hydrophobia.” How, then, can 
the public be expected to recognise premonitory symptoms, 
and realise their responsibilities P From information sup- 
plied me by the Secretary of the Inland Revenue Department, 
it appears that the number of licences for dogs issued in 
Great Britain, in the year ending 31st December, 1883, was 
894,903. The number evading the tax—and it is very large 
—would probably bring the total up to a million as the 
canine population. The deaths annually recorded as due to 
“hydrophobia” in the United Kingdom probably do not 
exceed an average of fifty. Those for England and Wales 
in 1882—the last year up to which the abstracts are com- 
