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Mr. G. F. Dowdeswell. 



compared with a control animal I found no benefit resulting from its 

 use. I tried it again in another case in much increased quantities, 

 but with no better results. 



I had thus tried divers agents, and the most powerful germicides 

 with which I am acquainted, without the effects of infection being 

 counteracted or modified, and could see no prospect of protection by 

 their use. The other method proposed above to counteract or enable 

 the animal to resist the result of infection, was by the administration 

 of general tonics, or specific therapeutical agents. 



I found that quinine in comparatively large doses (0*3 grm.) 

 frequently repeated, had no appreciable tonic action, and in fact, was 

 inert upon rabbits. Strychnia does seem so to act to some extent, in 

 minute doses, which, however, must be continued for several days to 

 produce any beneficial effect ; its stimulating action upon the spinal 

 cord, and its specific effect in spinal paralysis, is well established, and 

 recommended it for the treatment of rabies in the rabbit, in which the 

 stage of excitement is very slight and transient. 



I found that cocaine acts very markedly and quickly as a general 

 tonic in the rabbit; an animal to which the hydrochlorate is given 

 frequently, in quantities of from ^ grain to 1 grain or more, within a 

 few days improves much in condition, with an increase of several per 

 cent, of body weight, and an apparently increased appetite; even 

 the smaller quantity, however, sometimes, but uncertainly, produced 

 temporary excitement and general hyperesthesia. 



After preliminary trials I gave a rabbit, on the 4th day after infec- 

 tion, 5 minims of a 10 per cent, aqueous solution of cocaine hydro- 

 chlorate, equal to about 0*04 grm. of the salt, and subsequently the 

 same quantity morning and evening ; between the 9th and the 10th 

 days symptoms of infection appeared, and the animal was found 

 dead on the 11th day, the length of the incubation period and the 

 time of death being precisely the same as in two control animals 

 inoculated at the same time. 



To another rabbit similarly inoculated, I also gave on the 4th day 

 about the same quantity (0*04 grm.) of this salt, repeating it sub- 

 sequently twice daily till the 10th day, when in the control animals 

 similarly infected the first symptoms had appeared ; the cocaine was 

 then alternated with 0*2 mgrm. of strychnia bisulphate, but without 

 effect, and the animal died at the same time as its companion. 

 Another case in which I gave strychnia for a longer period was as 

 follows : a rabbit inoculated intracranially from the medulla of a 

 rabid dog, 9th November, 1887, received daily from the 7th day, ^ to 

 3 grammes chloral hydrate; on the 9th day 0*1 mgrm. quinine bisul- 

 phate, and from the following day, twice daily, 0*05 to 0'075 mgrm. 

 strychnia bisulphate. The access of the first symptoms was not well 

 marked either in this animal or in two others similarly inoculated, 



