156 
REPORT OF THE ROYAL 
Nevertheless, this coincidence of the appearance of rabies with 
the highest degree of heat at Lyons, is not constant; we have 
frequently observed this disease to be very prevalent in the spring 
and autumn. Thus, as in staggers, we find in the number of 
predisposing causes of madness, moisture, accompanied by heat 
and cold, and sudden variations of temperature, as occasional 
causes. Are the mucous membranes of the digestive and re¬ 
spiratory passages always the seat of that irritation which 
afterwards disturbs the cerebral functions, when these so 
often do not commence the series of disorders that constitute 
this disease? 
If the stomach of the horses attacked by abdominal staggers 
is frequently found distended with undigested food, so we as 
often find in the stomach of mad dogs indigestible substances 
which the animal had devoured in the agony that he endured. 
Thus we see, with regard to these two affections, certain causes, 
acting most particularly on the cutaneous and gastric surfaces, 
and, in the last, principally on the pulmonary surface; for the 
affection of the brain, in both cases, appears to us to be conse¬ 
cutive to those of the mucous tissue. 
Whatever truth may be in these remarks, it is unfortunately 
an established fact, that medicine has no power over this formid¬ 
able disorder. Every attempt which has been made to cure it 
has been without satisfactory result; and with regard to this, 
though we have made only two or three trials of the means pro¬ 
posed by Dr. Chardon (immersion in water until the animal is 
nearly suffocated), we are tempted to place that among the 
thousand other fallacious measures which have been extolled as 
cures for rabies. 
Nevertheless, what art has not yet achieved, nature sometimes 
produces, with regard to that form of the disease called dumb 
madness. We have twice seen this disease cured spontaneously. 
A dog was brought to our infirmary on the 17th of last July, 
He w r as an English bull-dog, of middle size. For three days 
he did not eat; the tone of his voice had sustained that altera¬ 
tion peculiar to this disease; the mouth was open, and a little 
foetid slaver ran from it; his looks were ferocious, and yet the 
animal did not appear inclined to bite. The hind parts were re- 
