ON RABIES IN THE HORSE. 
Gff4 
wo saw tlie imminent danger we were in, we all endeavoured to 
get behind, so as to be shaded from his sight by the bridle ; and, 
strange to say, as soon as this was done, the man had him in 
complete command : by keeping near his shoulder himself out 
of his sight, he was enabled to do this. The horse obeyed the 
order to go to one side or forward with a sort of spasmodic 
quickness that was truly astonishing. This obedience seemed 
quite involuntary, I should say purely the effect of long previous 
habit, and put in force every time decidedly against the will ; 
for the instant the head was carried to the off-side to the order of 
the waggoner, that moment was it brought back again, and 
turned to seek us ; and it required a very rapid repetition of the 
same word of command to save us till he was again tied up to 
the manger-post. The idea of giving any thing in the shape of 
medicine was entirely out of the question. I got a cord put 
round his neck, and bled him, and I suppose that I must have 
taken away 14 lbs. of blood before 1 loosed the cord. This, 
however, appeared to make no abatement whatever in his fero- 
city. He worried the rack and manger, biting pieces off every 
instant. I had a lock of hay thrown into the manger; this he 
seized and worried for some time, without attempting to swallow 
a morsel. We watched an opportunity, and, when his head was 
turned to one side, we placed a bucket with water in it near to 
him. He turned again instantly ; and the moment he perceived 
it, he seized it with his teeth, and bit the iron ear in two by 
which the bail is fastened to the bucket, dashing the whole to 
the ground with the greatest violence. 
The danger seemed now to increase every minute, and we no 
longer dared to have the door open at all, as (although he was 
still fastened) he instantly flew at every thing that he saw, and 
his head was turning perpetually to look for fresh objects on 
which to vent his fury. It is perhaps singular, but in this case 
there were no paroxysms that would give you the least idea ot 
self-abandonment, no plunging about without an object, to the 
infliction of self-injury ; on the contrary, he appeared carefully 
to avoid this. 
His countenance was distorted with a deep concentrated ex- 
pression of vengeful malignity that was truly horrific; and this 
was mingled too with one of extreme terror, displaying, with a 
determined design to inflict, an anxious fear of suffering injury 
himself; and altogether there was something so very unnatural 
in his appearance, that though we were constantly withdrawing 
our eyes from him with a shuddering feeling of horror, yet there 
was a sort of fascination about it, that the next moment found 
them involuntarily seeking the same object. 
