52 



Mr. Gr. F. Dowdeswell. 



depressed between the legs, as is described by some of the earlier 

 writers as a character of this disease, if it occurs in a street dog it is 

 the result of exhaustion. 



It has been usual to describe rabies in the dog as of two forms, the 

 furious and the dumb, or paralytic. Fleming, however, and others 

 of the best authorities recognise that there is no real distinction 

 between the two, every case of rabies probably, if permitted to run its 

 course and terminate naturally in death, develops symptoms, more or 

 less marked, of paresis ; there is no constant distinction between the 

 two forms, the difference consists merely in one or the other class of 

 symptoms, rage or paresis, being the more preponderant, according to 

 the part of the cerebro-spinal system which is principally affected. 



Whatever the disposition of the animal may be, it almost invariably 

 recognises its master or attendant, and is in some degree amenable to 

 his control until completely paralysed and unconscious. There is a 

 danger in this feature that not being well known it may occasion the 

 presence of a virulent disease to be overlooked or mistaken, as 

 indeed frequently does happen. 



Tbe post-mortem appearances of rabies in the dog have frequently 

 been described as mainly negative, characterised by the absence of any 

 distinct lesions ; this, however, is only very exceptionally correct. In 

 animals which die naturally at the termination of the disease, the 

 appearances are in the majority of cases sufficiently diagnostic ; in 

 those killed at an earlier stage, as necessarily occurs in the large 

 majority of cases of *' street rabies," the condition of the stomach as 

 to its contents may be the only diagnostic character. 



The general condition is frequently wasted, to an extent dependent 

 upon the duration of the symptoms and the inability to feed. 



The brain and spinal cord being now recognised as the essential 

 seat of the virus, it is to the appearances they present that attention 

 is first directed. In most cases the dura mater of both is distinctly 

 congested, occasionally intensely so ; I have seen one case at least of a 

 street dog killed in an advanced stage of the disease, where this 

 membrane in a portion of the spinal cord received, was most intensely 

 congested and livid in colour. This, however, is exceptional. The pia 

 mater of the hemispheres is likewise most frequently injected, and in the 

 greater number of cases, capillary congestion is apparent in the cortex 

 in microscopical sections, with extravasation of lymph cells through 

 the walls of the vessels and perivascular lymph spaces into the sur- 

 rounding tissues. In the cerebellum this occurs to a more limited 

 ex cent. It is by no means confined to the floor of the 4th ventricle as 

 has been sometimes stated. Throughout the medulla oblongata it is 

 constant, and often occurs in the spinal cord. In the latter, extravasa- 

 tion of red corpuscles or minute haemorrhages are frequent ; in some 

 cases these are of large size and quite apparent to the unaided eye. In 



