MINUTES OF EVIDENCE ON CANINE MADNESS. G86 
Do you conceive that the anger excited in a dog* fight renders 
them more liable to receive the contagion, and to convey it, 
than a dog not exposed to that irritation would be?—I really 
should think this not at all improbable; though looking all 
along to the existence of the particular poison, I am not of 
opinion that any degree of excitement would actually produce 
the disease. 
Do you conceive, in reference to your answer to the preceding 
question, as to the prevalence of the disease in other countries, 
that temperature, and if so, what range of temperature, may 
have any effect in pre-d;sposing the animal to the disease to 
which the question refers?—If I look to the extent of the disease 
in our own country, in which we have a variety of temperature, I 
am not disposed to lay any great stress upon that circumstance, 
inasmuch as I do not think that it is more prevalent with us, 
upon the whole, in summer than in winter. 
Has any cure, to your knowledge, been effectual of the 
disease, when confirmed?—It does not come within my know¬ 
ledge that any discovery has been made, or any mode of treat¬ 
ment been adopted, curative of that disease, in any instance 
whatever. 
Do you conceive the cures reported to have been effected 
have been cures of the bite of dogs, which were either not mad, 
or the virus from the teeth of which had been previously cleaned 
or removed by the bite of other persons or animals ?—When 
once the disease has shewn itself in the human subject, we have 
not, to my knowledge, any well-authenticated instance of 
recovery. 
Have you ever turned your attention to this fact, what number 
of persons bitten by a dog supposed to be mad really take the 
disease ?—I know, upon what I must consider as the most re¬ 
spectable authority, that there exists upon that point a very exten¬ 
sive latitude: that whilst, on one occasion, persons to the number 
of twenty were bitten by a dog clearly rabid, of whom but one 
fell under the disease, it happened in one other instance that, out 
of seventeen that w ere bitten, eleven fell a sacrifice to it. 
In those cases do you suppose any thing to be attributable to 
preventive measures, such as excision of the part, and that pro¬ 
cess having taken place in some of the subjects and not in 
others ?—I entertain no doubt that preventive measures, after 
the application of the virus, have been effectual in a great many 
instances. 
Can you suggest to the Committee any measures of precaution 
w hich your experience and general science may render it desirable 
vol. m. 4 z 
