200 
ON RABIES. 
hydrophobic parent* ; the second, in a man from untying a knot 
in a rope with his teeth, by which a rabid dog had been fas- 
tened : these cases, however, are far from being satisfactory. 
The mucous surfaces of the lips in both subjects might very pos- 
sibly have been broken. 
Another very important question is, Whether the virus is infec- 
tious after death, or loses its power of inoculation as soon as the 
animal dies. There are opinions and cases in favour of both. 
The secretion of saliva and mucus must cease on the death of 
the animal; and if the fluid collected for experiment has the 
power of producing the disease by inoculation, that which remains 
in the mouth after death must be precisely of the same quality. 
Many instances of escape from the disease by those who have 
been engaged in post-mortem examinations of rabid subjects, 
and whose hands have not been sound, may be produced in 
favour of the opinion of its non-contagious quality; and also 
the inability to generate the disease by inoculation with the 
saliva taken from the animal after death : still the innocuous and 
harmless condition of the saliva is not proved. It is at all times 
uncertain and difficult to produce the disease by experimental 
inoculation, even in circumstances most favourable for its accom- 
plishment. I have no doubt in my own mind, that hundreds of 
individuals have escaped hydrophobia who have received wounds 
and scars from rabid dogs, and in which preventive measures 
had never been resorted to. I am attached to this opinion, from 
the circumstance of so many rabid dogs, after having become frac- 
tious and snappish, and producing slight lesions of the skin on 
servants and others, leaving their homes, the real disease remain- 
ing unsuspected, and probably doing fatal mischief, too distant 
to be heard of by their owners. 
A question yet unsettled is. Whether any other than carnivo- 
rous animals are capable of propagating the disease? I have 
witnessed rabies in the dog, the horse, the cow, the sheep, and 
the pig ; and in each of these animals the disease was so fully de- 
veloped, that I am firmly convinced the saliv a or mucus of the 
mouth was sufficiently saturated with the virus to convey the 
malady to others. The seeming incapability of propagating the 
disease in herbivorous animals is owing to the circumstance of 
their mouths being inappropriate for the purpose of inoculation : 
their weapons of offence being not situated in the mouth, they 
consequently are not so dangerous as the carnivorous ones. 
There is some doubt with respect to the poison of rabies — whether 
it is contained in the saliva or the mucus of the mouth. Medical 
* If this be true, it proves the capability of the human subject to propa- 
gate the disease. 
