44 THE DISEASES OP THE DOG. 



through the nervous system from the periphery is not 

 entirely correct ; some virus enters the circulation — 

 although intravenous or intracellular inoculation ordi- 

 narily produces " dumb madness," furious rabies will 

 follow when the amount of virus injected is very small, 

 and the smaller the amount the more easily is the furious 

 rabies brought on. In a subsequent communication we 

 find it stated that " by a few transmissions of the virus 

 from monkey to monkey there can be easily obtained a 

 virus so attenuated as shall never communicate, by hypo*- 

 dermic inoculations, the disease to a dog. Inoculations 

 by trepanning of such virus will likewise produce no result ; 

 but an animal will, notwithstanding, be rendered thereby 

 proof against the disease. The virulence of the virus 

 becomes, on the contrary, augmented in its passage from 

 rabbit to rabbit." 



Such is the basis of the important Pasteurean system 

 for rabies vaccination of dogs, as applied to mankind his 

 methods have attained much notoriety. It is evident 

 that we must for the present rely on the other methods 

 of repressing the disease which have been suggested by 

 experience. Extermination of the whole race of dogs 

 would not suffice for the eradication of , rabies, even if 

 such an extensive measure were practicable, for it has 

 been amply proved that cats, also jackals, foxes, skunks,* 

 wolves, and other wild animals, convey the disease. 

 Something may, however, be done, especially in large 

 towns, by causing the number of homeless dogs, such as 

 are little under supervision and so may pass unnoticed 



* Col. Dodge in his 'Hunting Grounds of the Great West,' says that 

 skunk bites (generally on a sleeping man) are invariably followed by hydro- 

 phobia, although the skunk is not necessarily himself affected. This singu- 

 larly fatal result of skunk-bite is supposed to be confined to the Arkansas 

 Valley (' Veterinary Journal,' vol. v). These opinions must be taken with 

 much reserve. Hovey considers hydrophobia from skunk-bites a different 

 form from that caused by dog-bite, and terms it rabies mephitica. He con- 

 siders the generation of the poison possibly associated with inactivity of the 

 anal glands and with development of poisonous matter in the mouth follicles. 

 He suggests that the mephitic secretion may be a natural antidote to the 

 salivary virus ('Forest and Stream'). 



