CAUSE OF RABIES. 
281 
the cold month of December, as in May, July, September, and 
October put together*; and at the present moment this disease, 
which has been dreadfully prevalent, throughout the winter, 
in almost every district of the kingdom, is comparatively dis¬ 
appearing, although the summer is advancing. 
Scarcely a week passes during the summer season, without 
some earnest exhortation from the sage editors of the public press 
to give our dogs plenty of water. On the principle of hu¬ 
manity I should cordially agree with them. A few small water¬ 
ing troughs, in convenient parts of our streets, would relieve 
this useful and faithful animal from the torture of excessive 
thirst, but it would be powerless in preventing the occurrence of 
rabies. 
Bourgelat once instituted a cruel experiment with regard to 
the power of deprivation of water in the production of rabies. It 
was in his time, as at the present day, considered to be one of 
of the principal causes of this disease. Three dogs were pre¬ 
vented from all possible access to water. One of them lived 
six days without drinking—another eight, and the third nine 
days. The stomach was found dreadfully inflamed in all of 
them—the bladder contracted to an almost incredible degree— 
the bile very acrid, and concretions in the bloodvessels, result¬ 
ing from the viscous state of the blood; but there was not the 
slightest symptom of rabiesf. Can any thing be more conclusive 
than this ? 
It was the opinion of the old physicians, that this disease was 
propagated by inoculation alone. Galen, at the middle of the 
third century, was the first who broached the occasional sponta¬ 
neous origin of the disease in the dog and carnivorous ani¬ 
mals generally^ : but he cites no instances in proof of it: and 
some of the old commentators say that ** he did not speak this 
from any experience which he had had of the matter, but that it 
was a mere theoretical opinion.’’ His name, however, was one of 
great authority ; and it has continued to the present day to be 
the opinion of many, or of the greater number of medical men, 
that this disease can be produced in the human being, and all 
omnivorous and herbivorous animals, by inoculation alone, while 
it may either arise from this cause, or may be of spontaneous 
origin in the carnivora. 
I will not argue on the improbability of this distinction, be¬ 
cause I have already said that I will admit of no theoretical 
reasoning on such a subject. It must be decided by experience 
* Veterinarian, viii, 92. 
t Bourvelat, Mat.M^d. raisondc, t. i, 
X Liln VI, dc locis affectis, cap.d. 
