THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL.XI, No. 125.] MAY 1838. [New Series, No. 65. 
ANIMAL PATHOLOGY. 
By Mr. Youatt. 
LECTURE XVIII. 
Caution as to the presence of St raiu in the Stomach of the rabid Dog. 
— Rabies in the Human Subject .— Occasional arrest of the 
Symptoms.—The Identity of Rabies in Man and the Brute — 
Hydrophobia in Man.—The Difference in the Disease a very 
natural one.—The Post-mortem Appearances in Man and the 
Brute .— The true Character of Rabies—a nervous Affection. 
— The particular Portions of the System most affected. 
I RETURN to that interesting, fearful subject, rabies. I am 
thankful to an old pupil, who reminds me that I forgot a caution 
as to the ingesta of the stomach of the dog that is rarely or never 
released from his kennel, and which I used to impress on my 
class. One of the most decisive post-mortem proofs of rabies 
in the dog is the presence of a mingled mass of hair and straw 
and dung and filth. But it is necessary that all these things 
should be present. Nature has given to the dog an effectual 
mode of unloading his stomach and bowels by swallowing a 
portion of rough-leaved grass. A part of it is soon vomited from 
the irritation of the stomach, occasioned by the sharp points and 
edges of the grass ; and the remaining portion, passing through 
the intestinal canal, produces in the same way an evacuation of 
its contents. The yard-dog is unable to get at this mechanical 
evacuant; and, instead of it, he swallows a portion, and some¬ 
times a very considerable one, of the straw of his bed, mixed 
occasionally with his own hair. The egesta from the stomach and 
bowels will therefore be sometimes composed almost entirely of 
these matters. I used to state two instances in which a great 
deal of temporary unhappiness was occasioned by medical 
gentlemen interfering more in our practice than they ought to do, 
and mistaking this natural and useful physic for the depraved 
appetite of rabies. The dog; that is not chained up cannot always 
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