448 
ON SPONTANEOUS RABIES. 
(unless we except those parts of the community ycleped the fancy, 
who keep dogs for the abominable purposes of fighting), and 
that numbers of them suffer considerably from the effects of dis¬ 
ease, without the least attempt on the part of the owners to obtain 
or afford them relief: now, among many dogs, that I have 
opened for my lectures on comparative anatomy, I have found 
the intestinal canal in a condition similar to rabies : and 1 take 
the liberty of proposing two questions for the consideration of 
your readers. First , can violent inflammation of the bowels, 
or any other inflammatory affection, terminate in rabies ? 
Secondly , are the agonies arising from morbid affections ever 
attributed popularly to rabies? I am of opinion that the first does 
so; and if we may form any analogy from high visceral inflam¬ 
mation in the human subject, where the pain is on some occa¬ 
sions so intense as to create almost a state of madness. And 
with regard to the second, I believe that the least symptom of 
extreme pain has been mistaken by many timid persons for rabies, 
and the life of the unfortunate animal suffered accordingly. It 
is, therefore, highly important to society that a line of demarca¬ 
tion should be drawn between rabies and other diseases of an 
inflammatory nature, (and I consider rabies or hydrophobia to 
be one affecting the vascular, vital, and nervous systems # ) and 
that they should be correctly understood, so that, in order that 
the truly rabid animal may, in the present state of our ignorance, 
be destroyed, while one whose disease is capable of alleviation 
may be relieved: and I doubt not this will be done in the popu¬ 
lar treatises on these subjects, (viz. the Farmer’s Series) of which 
Mr. Youatt is the author. 
I have to apologize for the length of these remarks; but as 
Mr. Youatt solicited discussion on this important topic, I trust 
these remarks may not be considered unworthy of your attention, 
and of that gentleman, but likewise meet insertion in an early 
number. 
I remain, Gentlemen, 
Your’s obediently, 
H. W. Dewhurst. 
71, Grosvenor Terrace, 
Vincent Square, Westminster. 
July 8, 1830. 
* At least, dissections suggest this idea. 
