410 
MAMMALIA. 
caused great mischief, by inducing the patient and those around 
him to belief in its efficacy, and thus rest in fatal security, 
preventing them from having recourse to proper means of treat- 
ment. 
It is a very extraordinary phenomenon that the inoculated 
virus should be sometimes so slow in producing its effects. A ; 
Man is bitten by a Dog which is apparently quite healthy. The 
wound is treated like an ordinary bite, or nothing is done to it. 
Fig. 160. — Poodle. 
At the end of a long period, even several months, when it is 
imagined that there is nothing more to be feared, the victim j 
is attacked with hydrophobia, and expires in. horrible agony. 
What is the cause of rabies ? On this point opinions are 
divided. It ought not to be attributed either to the great heat 
of summer, the rigorous colds of winter, nor yet to hunger, 
thirst, or the bad quality of food. For some time it was thought 
to be due to prolonged continence in the male ; but it has been 
proved that Bitches are quite as liable as Dogs to this dreaded 
