714 REVIEW — MANUAL OF VETERINARY HOMOEOPATHY. 
belladonna, before we receive it as a certain preventive. Let 
us, however, attend to the second case. 
On the 20th of March 1836, I was shewn 24 hounds that had 
‘been more or less bitten by a young dog that had gone mad with- 
out any known cause. 
As soon as the whipper-in was aware of the mischief that had 
been done, he separated the others from him, and kept him securely 
in a place in which he died three days afterwards, having refused 
all kinds of food and drink, and having devoured the end of his 
tail and his hind paws. 
As soon as this was known, the twenty-eight dogs were sepa- 
rated and fastened so that they could not bite each other, or those 
charged with their care. To each was given, for fifteen days, a 
drop of belladonna, thirtieth dilution, every morning, and the 
w'ounds were washed in the tincture, ten drops in a pint of water, 
until perfect cicatrization. After sixteen days all the dogs were 
set at liberty, and none became mad. Of the twenty-eight dogs, 
six only lost their sight. Of these six, five died without symptoms 
of hydrophobia, and the other was killed. The real meaning of 
this is, that in these five dogs the disease assumed that peculiar 
sub-acute form which has been characterised by the term dumb 
madness. The dog has little or no inclination to bite, — perhaps he 
is unable to bite ; he cannot close his mouth, or retract his tongue : 
he pines away, and he loses his sight a day or two before death. 
Five out of the twenty-four died in this state. There was none of 
the rabid fury which sometimes appears, but the saliva was as 
poisonous as in the fiercest of them. The sixth dog, probably, ex- 
hibited The disease in its more frightful form, and was destroyed. 
The loss of six out of the twenty-four would somewhat impeach 
the credit of the medicine. Who can tell that more than these 
six were bitten 1 It is a tolerable proportion : it is more than the 
average number, when a rabid dog is occasionally found in our 
stables. Besides, there is a great carelessness in the narration. 
The number of dogs is at first said to be twenty-four, — presently 
they increase to twenty-eight. Which was the true number? 
We must have more care taken in the detail of the facts, before we 
can put any confidence in these supposed homoeopathic remedies. 
At some future period, we may, possibly, resume the subject ; 
but, at present, we conclude with an extract from the “ New York 
Journal of Medicine ,” as quoted by “ The Lancet ” of April 1840. 
“ The minuteness of the homoeopathic doses, recommended in 
certain works, precludes all belief in the results attributed to them, 
and is sufficient, opposed as it is to all known facts, to warrant a 
rejection of the whole system. Cases of the minute division of 
matter, as proved by chemical tests, are irrelevant and inconclu- 
