CANINE MADNESS. 
763 
No. I. 
To the Editor of the Hampshire Advertiser and Portsmouth Herald. 
Sir, — I am induced to trouble you with a few observations on the subject 
of Canine Madness, not so much in consequence of the very erroneous ideas 
prevailing on the subject, as from the lamentable effects that are likely to 
attend a belief in these errors. There have lately been several cases of rabies 
in Southampton, and the neighbourhood, and many dogs have been de- 
stroyed in consequence of having been bitten, or supposed to have been bitten, 
by others either mad or imagined to be so. Other persons less timid, or less 
careful, have been contented with having their dogs dipped in the sea, a 
practice the most stupid and absurd that can be imagined. If a dog 
is destroyed that has bitten a person, and the fact of his being mad, or other- 
wise, is not clearly ascertained, how much anxiety and dread are produced 
in the mind of the sufferer, as well as of his friends ! The dog should be 
properly secured, when, if he is mad, the symptoms will soon decidedly mani- 
fest themselves, and, if otherwise, the mind will be relieved from a state of 
uneasiness, the extent of which is more easily imagined than described. A 
dog, only last week, supposed to be rabid, was hunted down and destroyed. 
In nineteen cases out of twenty, an examination of the body of a dog 
will enable us to decide on the fact of his having been rabid or not. Rabies 
is a specific disease, produced by inoculation — generally a bite — with the 
saliva of a rabid animal. It prevails at all seasons of the year, and is not 
occasioned either by heat, thirst, or fatigue, although these agents, as well 
as any others that produce excitement in the system, will cause the symp- 
toms to be earlier exhibited. The time that elapses between the bite and 
the manifestation of the symptoms is very uncertain, varying in the dog from 
a fortnight to five or six months ; the usual time, however, is from six weeks 
to three months, but in the human being a longer period elapses, viz. from 
from six weeks to twelve months, and even more. When the symptoms of 
the disease have once been decidedly exhibited, death, whether in the human 
being or the brute, is the inevitable result, all remedies (and hundreds have 
been tried) have invariably failed. The precautionary treatment, however, 
when judicious, is almost uniformly successful. It consists in the total eradi- 
cation of the poison by the removal of the bitten part, either by the knife or 
cautery, or both combined. No other treatment can be depended on, al- 
though many are recommended. This plan should be adopted as soon after 
the bite as possible, but should not be neglected at any time prior to the 
manifestation of the disease ; for it is a great mistake to suppose that the ope- 
ration is useless unless immediately performed. 
I am, Sir, your obedient Servant, 
June 27, 1839. W. C. Spooner. 
No. II. 
To the Editor , Sf'c. 
Sir, — I feel less reluctance in again addressing you on the subject of rabies, 
inasmuch as, during the past week, several persons, as well as animals, have 
been bitten by a mad dog : and the same day on which this mischief was done 
the animal was pronounced to be not in a rabid state by individuals who cither 
