ON RABIES. 
201 
men generally, I believe, are of opinion that it is the saliva which is 
empoisoned ; but Mons. Troillet, author of a Treatise on Mad- 
ness, thinks that the mucus of the bronchi is the vehicle of it. 
He gives the following aphorisms — “ 1st, the saliva is not the ve- 
hicle of the virus of madness; 2d,‘ the salivary glands present 
neither grievance through the course of the malady, nor marks of 
alteration after death ; 3d, the slaver differs from the saliva — it 
comes from the air-passages ; 4th, the mucous membrane of the 
bronchi is the seat of a specific inflammation, which produces 
the virus of madness, in the same manner as the mucous mem- 
brane of the inflamed urethra produces the virus of syphilitic 
gonorrhoea.” 
So far as the character of the saliva is to be considered from 
its appearance to the eye there is no change. The frothy saliva, 
formed by the champing of the animal, is white and apparently 
healthy, while the mucus of the mouth is certainly deepened 
in colour, and inspissated ; and the slaver that drivels from the 
animal is evidently, from its colour, a morbid secretion of mucus. 
1 am not from experiment empowered to decide the question ; 
but, a priori, it would appear most likely that the virus is con- 
tained in that fluid which has evidently and conspicuously under- 
gone a morbid change in its character. 
Much has been said, and many excellent opinions offered, upon 
the mode of the poison entering the system, and the peculiar 
condition of the constitution at the time of inoculation, as favour- 
ing or repelling it. This, after all, is but conjectural reasoning. 
One thing we do know, — that the disease is transmitted from the 
carnivorous animal to the herbivorous and the omnivorous one, 
whatever be the modus operandi. We have heard the opinions 
of many practitioners in human medicine and surgery, and I 
hope to hear much from our own profession ; and if not soon, 
yet I. trust in the course of a few years. 
I now proceed to the symptoms. These are not developed in 
every case alike in the same species, and, unfortunately, at the 
commencement of the disease they are not readily discerned, 
I must here be understood, that previous to the dog being dis- 
posed to bite, and capable of propagating the malady, the 
symptoms are not sufficiently obvious, but on a first slight and 
unsuspecting examination they may be overlooked : one or two 
of the most obvious and certain indications in dogs are, lapping 
their own urine ; eating their own faeces ; fixing the eyes on va- 
cancy ; an industrious licking of the nose, anus, or genitals’of 
another dog, or something cold that comes in their way; an 
eager gathering of small bits of wood, straw, thread, &c. and 
running with them to some particular spot; a curious jumping 
