542 
ON RABIES. 
We want further information on the following, among 
other matters. Greatest length of incubation in the lower 
animals. — A very imperfect search has enabled me to find 
six cases in the human subject in which the incubation 
period was at least a year ; the period in one case being 
7 years, in another 5 years ; possibly, on more careful exa- 
mination, one or two of these might turn out to be spurious. 
Dr. Bardsley’s case, in which 12 years are said to have 
elapsed, is very doubtful indeed. 
Hereditary Rabies. — It would be most interesting to know 
whether rabies can be propagated to the foetus in utero either 
by a rabid father or mother ; the length of incubation of the 
malady ought to furnish exceptionally good opportunities for 
determining this point. In the Veterinarian , 1839, p. 356, 
Mr. Hickman, in giving an account of rabies in some ewes, 
remarks that “ the lambs of all the ewes which had yeaned 
before the symptoms appeared did well ; but if the symptoms 
appeared before they had yeaned, the lambs came dead, or 
very soon died.” Dr. Auzias-Turenne, in the Recueil for 
January, 1869, p. 12, has the following passage, bearing on 
the same question ; he says he has prepared “ a statistical ac- 
count of rabid females and their young. Some women even 
have been included in this instructive list. I have there found 
facts which throw light on those of congenital syphilis, which 
on the other hand elucidate these he refers in a note to “ a 
remarkable unpublished memoir by M. Mathieu ” on the same 
subject. It would be most interesting to know whether Dr. 
Auzias-Turenne has followed out the subject further. (3) Are 
there any well-authenticated cases on record of recovery from 
rabies in the lower animals ? Many are recorded in the human 
subject, but most, if not all, break down on examination. The 
reputed recoveries in dogs which I have come across have all 
seemed doubtful : several are evidently cases of the temporary 
paraplegia, accompanied (or caused) by constipation, which 
is not uncommon in this species. (4) Is rabies more fatal 
to sheep than to other animals ? Several of the recorded in- 
stances speak of numerous sheep dying of the disease after 
being bitten by the same dog ; perhaps in some cases they 
may have died from the effects of the bites, and not from 
rabies. (5) Further experiments on the communication of 
rabies by herbivorous and omniverous animals to others of the 
same classes as well as to carnivora. Babies has been com- 
municated in isolated cases by the following non-carnivorous 
animals — man to rabbit (experiments by Mr. Earl about 1830; 
the nature of the disease in the rabbits was somewhat doubt- 
ful in Mr. Earle’s opinion) ; man to dog, by M. Majendie, and 
