62 
ANIMAL PATHOLOGY. 
perfectly empty (and when that vessel is empty, in health or 
disease, we well know how small a space it occupies in the ab¬ 
dominal cavity, and what an appearance—but only the appear¬ 
ance—of spasm it assumes), but I have much oftener seen it con¬ 
taining, and even distended b}^ urine. I am perfectly assured 
that no conclusion can be drawn from the appearance of the 
bladder. 
While I look for, and generally find, injection of the mem¬ 
brane of the glottis, and consider it, in union with other lesions, 
characteristic of rabies, I might have observed that I never saw, 
in the quadruped, the spasmodic closure of the glottis, which 
is said by some to be the immediate cause of death in the human 
being. 
I have been speaking of the injection of the bloodvessels of 
many parts of the respiratory and digestive systems. I do not 
think that I should be wrong if I were to assume this as a gene¬ 
ral symptom of rabies in the dog. Not merely the heart and 
larger vessels, but also the smaller ones, are more than usually 
distended with blood. If you bleed a rabid dog, the blood pours 
out with great freedom. If I were addressing some of those 
medical gentlemen whom I had the honour to assist in certain 
experiments connected with rabies, I might remind them how 
much they were struck with this: the blood gushed out impetu¬ 
ously, and it was always with some difficulty that the stream 
could be arrested: yet I should not lay much stress on this cir¬ 
cumstance, for it might be produced by other diseases beside 
rabies. 
The Brain and Spinal Cord .—For many a year I have 
omitted to examine the state of these important organs, except 
there was some peculiar doubt about the case, or as a matter of 
mere curiosity. I used almost invariably to find injection of 
the membranes, and occasionally of the substance, to a greater 
or less extent ; but I could only regard this injection or inflam¬ 
mation as a corroborative, and not a truly diagnostic symptom. 
The brain will usually display some vascularity of the mem¬ 
branes, and particularly of the pia mater, and this naturally de¬ 
pending in a great measure on the degree of previous phrenitis : 
indeed, I could at once tell by this whether the-dog, while living, 
had exhibited much ferocity. I think that in almost every case 
there was injection of the membranes, and more of the arterial 
than the venous vessels. Occasionally there was increased vas¬ 
cularity of the cerebral substance, and this also, as might be ex¬ 
pected, dependent on the previous exacerbations ; but I never 
observed, or fancied that I could observe, this injection, as some 
have described it, more in the posterior than the anterior portions 
