142 
ON RABIES CANINA. 
sionally vomits bilious matter. He is oppressed by viscid saliva 
which adheres to the fauces, and which, with the most violent 
efforts, he strives to throw from him. 
Subsequently all the symptoms relax. He is able to swallow, 
but the powers of the constitution have been destroyed, and 
death ensues. 
Of the appearances on dissection I am unable to speak. Some 
surgeons maintain that not the slightest trace of disease can be 
found in the thoracic or abdominal viscera, and only the usual 
characteristics of phrenitis in the cerebrum. Others give an 
account of injection of the membrane covering the glottis, 
and redness of the mucous-ccat of the stomach, with spots of 
ecchymosis ; and inflammation of the membranes of the medulla 
oblongata, or portions or the whole of the spinal cord. I 
must not presume to decide who is right, or whether all are 
so ; but I acknowledge, that when the same medical men who 
find no morbid appearance- in the human being, find none like¬ 
wise in the brute, I do wonder with great amazement. 
The symptoms of rabies are very similar in man, and in all 
our domesticated quadrupeds. In all there is the same affection 
of the respiratory nerves; the same howling, or at least 
choaking noise; the same excessive excitability, and inces¬ 
sant and uncertain action; the same singular delirium, af¬ 
fection of the stomach, and discharge of saliva; the same 
inevitably fatal termination of the disease; and, I am dis¬ 
posed to believe, nearly th'e same morbid appearances after 
death. 
The human being however has a dread of water, which the 
quadruped has not. It is true that the dog is unable to swal¬ 
low, but he flies eagerly to the water; and all other quadru¬ 
peds, with perhaps an occasional exception in the horse, drink 
with ease and with increased avidity. 
How is this ? Are they diftbrent diseases ? - Is hydrophobia 
in the human being the creature of imagination ? 
A dog labouring under a disease attended with certain symp¬ 
toms bites a man, or a child in whom the power of imagination 
has not yet been awakened. In process of time he is attacked by 
a malady, accompanied by characters very similar, but to which 
another peculiar symptom is superadded. The dog died. The 
man or the child likewise died in despite of all medical care 
and skill. 
Are we to expect that the same symptoms shall accompany 
the same disorder in every animal ? Are the characters always 
the same in the same animal ? 
Difference in structure produces variations of disease, quite 
