ON RABIES. 539 
dose of aperient medicine no further treatment was 
adopted. 
The strychnia was supposed to have been taken from 
some poisoned food that was laid in the garden for the 
purpose of destroying cats. 
We have been induced to forward this history for inser- 
tion in your pages, as it tends to show how possible it is that 
we may deceive ourselves as to the satisfactory action of an 
antidote, when in reality the recovery is due to the quantity 
of the poison being insufficient to kill. Our opinion was in 
the first instance favorable in consequence of the length of 
time the dog had been suffering, indicating that he had not 
taken sufficient of the agent to cause death. 
It is difficult to account for the action of tannic acid 
as an antidote for strychnine. May it not in great measure 
be due to the powerful astringent action upon the mucous 
membrane and absorbents, preventing further absorption of 
the poison ? It is considered that the tannic acid combines 
with the strychnia to form an insoluble “tannate of strychnia,” 
but it seems not improbable that the astringent property of 
the agent may also exert a beneficial influence 
ON BABIES ; ITS PREVALENCE, AND SOME 
SUGGESTIONS EOB FUTURE INVESTIGA- 
TION. 
By Edw t ard Nettleship, M.B.C.S., M.B.C.V.S. 
In the Veterinarian for June is an editorial note on the 
prevalence of rabies in the north and north-west. I have 
drawn out the following table (as complete as I have been 
able to make it) of the cases referred to, partly from pub- 
lished accounts, partly from private information which has 
been most obligingly afforded me by various medical men, 
and in particular by Dr. Ransom of Nottingham, and Mr. 
Worthington, of Wigan. The list of cases (placed as far 
as possible in chronological order) does not show any new 
points in connexion with rabies ; its only use, if it has any, is 
to show somewhat in detail that a serious epidemic of rabies 
is in existence, and possibly to stimulate some of the obser- 
vers resident in the infected districts to add new facts to our 
present knowledge of the disease. 
