ON RABIES IN THE DOG. 
31 
had the dog immediately killed, but the cats of the house also. 
By the way, Mr. Editor, did you ever hear what Sir Hussey 
Vivian did, when a child of his was bitten by a rabid dog”? 
The gallant General himself sucked the poison from the wound, 
and fortunately all was well. The experiment, however, was a 
hazardous one. 
I never was personally acquainted with more than one man who 
had been bitten by a rabid dog, an intimate friend of Mr. Tatter sail, 
but I cannot this moment remember his name. He had six “ dia- 
mond-shaped bits,” as he termed them, excised from the calf of his 
leg, at St. George’s Hospital ; “ but,” said he to me, “ the pain was 
so excessive, I could not have endured a seventh.” He also men- 
tioned other circumstances which are worthy of record, as caution- 
ary ones. The accident occurred in Piccadilly. He made the 
best of his way to Sir A. Cooper, but he was not at home. Ditto 
Mr. Earle. Putting himself into a coach, then, he was gallopped 
to the hospital, where, the instruments being on the table, he Avas 
operated upon instanter. I saw him two years afterwards, Avhen 
he assured me all apprehension Avas at an end. 
You state that foxes and pigs become rabid, which I can con- 
firm. Whilst hunting with the Earl of Derby’s stag hounds, 
some years back, my horses lay at the Derby-arms, in Croydon. 
The ostler, Chandler, an excellent servant, Avas bitten by a tame 
fox in the yard, apparently in good health, and he died hydropho- 
bous. I Avas in the daily habit of seeing the fox at this time, but 
observed nothing remarkable in him. When a boy, on my return 
from a morning’s ride with my father, I remember our being 
greeted by the swine-herd Avith these words : “ Sir, two of the fat 
pigs are mad." So it Avas : they roamed about the circular stye, 
grunting and foaming at the mouth, but did not bite. There were 
four others in the stye, but they were not affected. This reminds 
me of Taplin’s dumb madness. “ In the dumb madness,” says 
he, “ if the dog be confined, he barks incessantly for a day or 
two //” See vol. ii, Sporting Dictionary , article Dog. 
It is not for me to say how far the disease called hydrophobia, 
in the human subject, is capable of being subdued by any of the 
medicinal poAvers Avhich have hitherto been, or may hereafter be, 
tried. When the disease has been perfectly genuine, that is to say, 
arising from the bite of a rabid dog, it is my opinion that no cure 
has been effected; at least, no one has been satisfactorily recorded. 
You eloquently observe, that “the whole circle of veterinary 
pathology does not contain a more important subject:” to which 
may be added, the medical one as well, inasmuch as, for all other 
diseases to Avhich humanity is subject, the palliative, if not the 
remedy, has been found. But, Sir, do not despair; indeed, I 
