58 



Mr. G. F. Dowdesweil. 



always very vascular, generally distended with urine, frequently to an 

 enormous extent. In one case I observed it of nearly the size of an 

 ordinary soda-water bottle, filling and distending the abdominal 

 cavity ; the urine is strongly acid, and in other respects normal. 



The blood, as in the dog, is always dark coloured, sometimes fluid, 

 but as often clotted, and I have observed in several instances that the 

 clot in the cavities of the heart was colourless and hyaline. Its 

 morphological characters are unchanged, and as in the dog its 

 reaction is neutral. 



IV. Seat of the Virus and Results of Inoculation. 



In July last, having obtained a rabid " street dog," upon its death 

 another dog and a rabbit were inoculated by intracranial injection of 

 a portion of its medulla, prepared as above described. 



The dog was unaffected till the seventh day, when it was found 

 dull, lying crouched up in a corner of the cage ; the next day evident 

 symptoms of rabies were apparent, the animal being restless and 

 irritable, flying at and biting- anything presented to it, with com- 

 mencing paresis of the hind limbs ; it was never heard to bark, and 

 died on the following day, the 9th. As this was Sunday no further 

 changes had been noted. 



Examined the next day, the stomach and small intestine were found 

 devoid of solid contents, containing only a dark-brown fluid ; conges- 

 tion was apparent in the outer wall of the stomach ; the appearances 

 of the other organs were characteristic of rabies, as hereinbefore de- 

 scribed, but less marked than in many other cases, owing to the very 

 rapid course of the disease, of the nature of which there could be no 

 doubt. 



To prove this further, from its medulla a rabbit was inoculated 

 intracranially, this animal showed an incubation period of only four 

 days, when with a scarcely appreciable rise of temperature paresis 

 commenced, and was complete on the sixth day, the animal being 

 found dead on the morning of the seventh. 



The brain and spinal cord were found much softened, and with 

 their membranes distinctly congested ; the lungs presented typical 

 appearances ; the stomach was highly vascular but showed no haemor- 

 rhages, in accordance with the rapid course of the disease, which, with 

 the remarkably short incubation period, confirmed the view of the 

 very active character of the virus, which the previous cases had 

 suggested. 



From the medulla of the first above-mentioned case of street rabies, 

 the rabbit (narcotised by chloral hydrate) which was inoculated intra- 

 cranially, similarly to the dog, on the fifth day showed commencing 

 paraplegia ; this continued for the next two or three days ; the animal 



