COMMUNICATION OF RABIES. 
287 
ther of Mr. Henry Earle fruitlessly attempted the same thing. 
I have (but that was an unusual thing) inoculated five dogs from 
the same rabid one, and not one of them was infected. In fact, 
I was generally compelled to throw the wretch into the same 
cage with the mad one, in order to effect my object. So great 
is the difficulty of succeeding in this attempt, that some pro¬ 
fessors of the French school have denied that it was possible to 
produce rabies by artificial inoculation from any animal. Here 
they were wrong ; but there is sufficient difficulty in the affair 
to prove that no conclusion should be drawn from the failure, 
or from repeated failures of artificial inoculation. 
With regard to the horse—the rabid animal in this case—I 
have but few, that will not be regarded as inconclusive experi¬ 
ments to adduce. 1 have twice produced rabies in the dog by 
inoculation with the saliva of a rabid horse; but I could not 
carry the experiment farther. In both cases inoculation from 
the dogs so infected failed. There was an account in most of 
the journals in 1828 or 1829, of a groom dying hydrophobous 
from the bite of a horse. I neglected to record the circumstance 
at the time, and should be exceedingly obliged if any friend 
would favour me with a history of it, or of similar cases. 
Inoculation from the Sheep. —Here I confess that I have 
been quite as unsuccessful as the French professors. I have 
inoculated both the sheep and the dog from the rabid sheep, but 
altogether without effect. 
There is, however, a very important fact stated in Gasparin’s 
excellent work on the contagious maladies of sheep. He says 
It has hitherto been thought that, while rabies can be commu¬ 
nicated from the carnivora to the herbivora, it cannot be propa¬ 
gated by the latter. A fact, however, has lately occurred, 
which will throw some doubt on the subject. We read in a 
recent journal (Le Constitutional, 10 Juin 1819), “they write 
from Rome that a shepherd, of Valletri, was bitten by one of 
his goats which appeared to be labouring under rabies. Some 
say that the animal had been bitten by a viper, and others by a 
mad dog. He died in the hospital in frightful convulsions, and 
with every symptom of rabies except dread of water*.” 
I wish the account were more circumstantial, but 1 give it as I 
find it. 
Inoculation from the Ox. —Here I stand on different ground; and 
the proof of rabies having been produced by inoculation from the 
herbivorous animal are so conclusive, that the theory of this 
power being confined to those who use their teeth as weapons of 
offence, falls to the ground. 1 would rather speak of other per- 
^ (iasparin des Maladies conta^ieuses des B6tcs a Laine, p. 220. 
