MINUTES OF EVIDENCE ON CANINE MADNESS. 643 
of the disease, nothing* can be done better than giving* the pro¬ 
per authorities a power of ordering the dogs to be chained up 
or muzzled. I have been told this morning, that in Italy, where 
the disease prevails, there is an order of the police that all dogs 
should be muzzled, and that dogs-meat is put about the streets 
with poison upon it; that the dogs not muzzled eat the meat, 
and are poisoned. 
Do you think, from your own knowledge, that as the disease 
generally arises from the bite of rabid dogs, the number of dogs 
has become greater since 1810?—The probability is, I conclude, 
that dogs are not so common as they were before the tax was 
imposed on them: the tax was, if I recollect right, put on at a 
period when the disease was supposed to prevail, and with a view 
to lessen the number of dogs. 
You are not aware, perhaps, that persons not taxed for win¬ 
dows are not taxed for dogs ?—I was not aware of that. 
You are aware, probably, of a proposal to form a society to 
consist of medical men, with the offer of rewards for the means 
of prevention or cure of the disease ; w hat is your opinion ?— 
I cannot see that any good is likely to come from it. You can 
offer no greater reward than is offered already; for whoever dis¬ 
covered a cure for hydrophobia, w ould obtain fame and fortune 
by his discovery. The absolute number of persons who die of 
hydrophobia, as compared with the mass of society, is small; 
but the chief thing from which society requires to be delivered 
is the alarm which they are under on the subject. I recollect 
looking over all the cases I could meet with published in our 
language, and I found some w here I w as satisfied that the 
patients had died of the mere terror. The state of anxiety in 
which I have seen people over and over again, after having 
been bitten by strange dogs, is a very serious evil indeed. I have 
known such persons completely miserable for months together. 
John Morgan , Esq. called in, and examined. 
The Committee understand that you have paid considerable 
attention to the subject of canine madness?—I have paid parti¬ 
cular attention to the subject of poisons generally, but not to the 
subject of canine madness. 
Is it within your knowledge that there has been an increase 
of the disease of hydrophobia within a recent period ?—In dogs, 
certainly ; but not that J am aw are of in the human subject. 
To what cause do you attribute that increase of the disease in 
dogs ?—That is a question that I have some difficulty in an¬ 
swering, because 1 am not quite certain whether the disease is 
produced by inoculation, or arises spontaneously: it is a dis- 
