ON RABIES. 
515 
A. Declaration. —Every proprietor of an animal, of whatever 
species, that has become rabid, shall give immediate informa¬ 
tion thereof to the mayor or the commissioner of police, under 
certain penalties. 
B. Visit, Destructionj or Confinement. —The mayor or com¬ 
missary, assisted by a veterinary surgeon, shall immediately 
visit the animal or animals supposed to be rabid, and shall adopt 
such measures as may be deemed expedient. On the declara¬ 
tion of the veterinary surgeon that the animal is rabid, whether 
it be a dog or any other quadruped, it shall be immediately de¬ 
stroyed. If there is doubt on the subject, the animal shall be 
chained up, and confined in a place from which he cannot pos¬ 
sibly make his escape. The proprietor shall be strictly forbidden 
to remove him, or let him be removed, from that place. The 
civil authority shall likewise order that the proper medical or 
other treatment shall be adopted with regard to that animal. 
If the dog or other animal is wandering on the public road, he 
shall be killed immediately, if the urgency of the case seems to 
require it; otherwise he shall be caught, and, by means of a 
strong collar and chain, secured in some convenient place. 
The civil authority shall commission a veterinary surgeon to 
visit the animal from time to time, and to assure himself with 
regard to the real nature of the disease. This confinement will 
be always preferable to the destruction of the animal in every 
doubtful case, because it will be most satisfactory to any persons 
who may have been bitten, if it should happen that the dog 
gets well, or that some other disease had been mistaken for 
rabies. 
C. The Autopsy ofi Rabid Animals. —Is it possible after the 
death of an animal to affirm, on the examination of his carcass, 
whether he was rabid at the time that he was destroyed, or died 
of rabies? The veterinary surgeon who is charged with the con¬ 
ducting of the post-mortem examination should proceed with the 
most scrupulous caution. Up to the present day, the numerous 
researches that have been made with regard to the lesions that 
positively characterize rabies have been most unsatisfactory : and, 
for ourselves, we confess that from the examination of any ani¬ 
mal we could not, unconnected with the circumstances which 
occurred, or the symptoms which he exhibited during life, take 
upon us to determine that he was rabid. We acknowledge this, 
and without hesitation. We could only say, “ it is probable 
that he was rabidfi when, on examination, we find, 1st, the rabid 
vesicles or ulcerations on each side of the frenulum of the 
tongue ; 2d, foreign bodies in the stomach, and brown spots or 
ulcerations scattered here and there on the mucous membrane 
