THE 
JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
FEBRUARY, 1883. 
I. NEW RESEARCHES ON CANINE MADNESS. 
By Frank Fernseed. 
t MONG the sources of peril to which mankind expose 
themselves rabies, or, as it is popularly called, canine 
madness, holds a somewhat exceptional position : one 
of its worst features is its uncertainty. The cobra is always 
dangerous, and whenever we see one we may therefore avoid 
it, or kill it if we have the means, no man saying us nay. 
If bitten we are not left in uncertainty, but in a couple of 
hours at the most we know the worst. Further, though 
venomous serpents do occasionally intrude into human 
habitations, yet we never find them brought purposely into 
public conveyances. In England, too, we are practically 
free from the assaults of the death-snakes ; for although the 
common viper ( Berus letalis) still occurs in our heaths and 
woods, it is never met with in the streets of towns and vil- 
lages, or on public roads. Even in its favourite haunts it 
glides away at the sound or the vibration of an approaching 
footstep. Thus the chances of any person being bitten by 
this reptile are exceedingly small. Only one fatal case is 
known as having occurred in Britain during the last half- 
dozen years. But the dog, unlike the cobra or the viper, is 
always with us, and is able — under conditions far from fully 
explored — to inflict a bite fully as hopeless as that of any 
serpent. As hopeless, I say, but far more distressing, since 
the person bitten, provided only his skin has been broken, 
does not know for months — possibly for years — whether he 
may not be suddenly attacked with a disease which has 
hitherto mocked all medical skill. 
VOL. V. (THIRD SERIES.) 
F 
