PREVENTION, SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENT 22I 



skin have been treated by incision and various local applications, 

 but little good is accomplished and harm may result from surgical 

 interference. 



The remedies recommended for overcoming extravasation will 

 be of most value in preventing the surface tumefactions. 



Rabies in Animals — Hydrophobia in Man. 



Rabies is more common in dogs, but all animals, except the 

 adult pigeon, are susceptible to the disease. It attacks the wolf, 

 skunk, jackal and fox. Rabies is probably due to a specific germ 

 (the " Negri bodies," or protozoan parasites) and is almost always 

 transmitted by inoculation of the saliva into a non-rabid animal 

 by the bite of a rabid one. Flies and midges are said rarely to also 

 convey the infection, probably by carrying the protozoa of rabies 

 from the saliva of rabid animals to abrasions on the skin or mucous 

 membranes of the non-rabid. The infective organism inhabits 

 various parts of the patient but exists in greatest numbers in the 

 nervous system and saliva of the rabid animal. Like tetanus, the 

 germ spreads from the wound (caused by the bite) through the 

 nerves and central nervous system, and not by means of the lymph- 

 atics and blood-vessels as in most infections. The organisms may 

 remain for some time in the wound without spreading, after the 

 infliction of the bite, and thus local destruction of the infection is 

 specially desirable and may lengthen the period of incubation, if 

 not preventing the disease, even if done at a late period. The 

 period of incubation in dogs varies from a few days to several 

 months — the average being twenty-five days. In man the disease 

 appears usually in the second month after being bitten. 



Symptoms in Dogs. — In the first stage the animal is altered in 

 disposition and habits. He is sullen or very friendly, nervous, 

 restless and often shuns the light and hides. He frequently licks 

 and swallows all kinds of objects and is subject to vomiting. There 

 is no fear of water, or difficulty in swallowing it in the early stage, 



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