On Rabies. 



55 



parotid normal ; but this is not constantly the case, and as often as 

 not these glands are normal both to the eye and in microscopical 

 sections. 



The kidneys are frequently but not invariably congested; the 

 urinary bladder is generally so, and in the dog is frequently empty or 

 contains a small quantity of urine. 



The blood is always very dark coloured ; in about half the cases it 

 is fluid without any, or with very little clot ; its reaction very shortly 

 after death and within the vessels is neutral. No changes are apparent 

 in the tissues of the heart; it is generally moderately distended with 

 blood, whether fluid or clotted. In the morphological elements of the 

 blood no alteration can be detected by the microscope, excepting in 

 some cases an increase in the number of leucocytes. In the micro- 

 scopical appearances of the other organs or tissues the changes which 

 may occur, as has been described by some writers (e.g., the granular 

 appearance of the liver cells, by Bollinger), are to my observation by 

 no means constant, nor can they be regarded as pathognomonic. 



2. In the Babbit. — The occurrence of rabies in this animal has till 

 recently been a matter of some doubt. The first authentically recorded 

 case of the successful transmission of rabies to the rabbit is where 

 Mr. Simonds (22nd April, 1838) at the Royal Veterinary College* 

 inoculated two rabbits subcutaneously behind the ears with the saliva 

 of a rabid sheep. After an incubation period of four days, they 

 showed symptoms of infection, being found dull, hanging their heads 

 and inclining them to one side ; one shortly afterwards showed ex- 

 citement; they then became comatose and died. The. occurrence of 

 paraplegia is not recorded. The incubation period is unusually short, 

 but there appears no doubt that it was true rabies that was developed. 



In the rabbit, as in the dog, infection is very uncertainly produced 

 by inoculation even with active cerebro-spinal substance into the 

 subcutaneous tissues, and, when it does occur in the former animal, 

 the symptoms are materially different from those previously regarded 

 as typical in the dog, and nothing can be less appropriate than the 

 application of the term rabies or lyssa to them. 



* Eeported in the 1 Proceedings of the Veterinary Medical Association ' for 

 1838-39, p. 369, and in 'The Veterinary Record" for 1845; also in the 'Vete- 

 rinarian' for March, 1881, p. 189; and referred to by Fleming in the appendix to 

 his -work, before mentioned. Youatt also (op. eit., p. 149) refers to cases of 

 asserted rabies in the rabbit, mentioned in evidence before a Royal Commission on 

 that subject, but considers them doubtful. 



In 1879 B£. Galtier (' Paris, Acad. Med. Bull.,' vol. 8, p. 1114) inoculated a rabbit 

 with the saliva of a case of hydrophobia in man, producing rabies with great excite- 

 ment. From its submaxillary gland two other rabbits were inoculated, and became 

 paraplegic. In the same year (' Comptes Rendus,' vol. 89, p. 444) in twenty-five 

 oases he transmitted rabies from a dog to rabbits, the incubation period being from 

 four to forty-three days, the average in twenty-five cases being eighteen. 



