ON RABIES. 
623 
dents occur to horses from their being’ frightened by dogs running under 
their legs, or under the vehicle, and biting them, than from any other cause. 
Coming down here this very morning, I met with an instance of it in my own 
chaise ; a dog, in crossing Portland Street, ran under the horse’s legs. 
You speak of it now as a nuisance in the streets?—Yes. 
And in that point of view, you think the police, if possible, should pre¬ 
vent such accidents?—Yes ; and they could do so if the drivers of the carts 
were to be kept with them. Very often a driver is many yards distant, 
and is whistling and calling the dog, instead of leading him. Last week I 
saw a poor child, leading a puppy, seized and bitten by a dog in a cart, a con¬ 
siderable distance from the owner; and he might have been worried to death 
had not some person been passing near. 
Mr. P. Scrope. —Taking into consideration the danger to the health of 
individuals from hydrophobia, and also the nuisance and obstructions to 
carriages from dogs driven upon the highway in carts, is it your opinion that 
the practice of driving such carts should be put an end to altogether?—Yes; 
but I should think it would be difficult to do it among the lower classes. 
Do you think the dog is so unfit to be a beast of burden that his being so 
exployed is a cruel act ?—Most decidedly ; and that all reflecting and consi¬ 
derate people, who had begun, would discontinue it, upon being made aware 
of the fact, or if they have ever seen a case of rabies in or out of their own 
family. 
And therefore, without any proof of gross ill-usage, the very fact of em¬ 
ploying a dog in a cart, you think is a cruelty within the limits of Mr. Mar¬ 
tin’s Act ?—Yes ; it is a cruelty, because the animal is unfit for the employ¬ 
ment.- His frame, and suppleness or flexibility, shew that by nature and 
habit he is unfit for it. 
Mr. W. Youatt, Veterinary Suryeon, called in; and examined. 
Mr. Hume. —How long have you been a veterinary surgeon ?—Twenty- 
six years. 
Have you heard the evidence Mr. Sewell gave respecting the frequency of 
hydrophobia from the bites of dogs, as regards horses and other animals ; 
and will you state how far you agree with or dissent from what he has 
stated?—in the course of twenty years’practice, I have seen more than a 
thousand rabid dogs, and too often witnessed the mischief which they have 
done. One case may, perhaps, be in the recollection of the honourable 
member. In 1825 a mad dog ran down Park Lane, on a Sunday afternoon, 
when the Park was fullest, and in his short course down that road he bit five 
horses and a great number of dogs. Four of the horses died, and one was 
saved by the severe application of the caustic. I have known more than 
forty sheep bitten by a single dog, all of them dying rabid. One farmer 
lost no fewer than tvventy-five cows in the same way. These are certainly 
rare cases, but they serve to illustrate the mischief which is occasionally done 
by dogs labouring under rabies. 
Is the loss from cattle being bit more frequent during late years than 
formerly ?—I should say decidedly so. 
To what cause do you attribute that?—To the increased number of rabid 
dogs. 
Can you state any cause for the increase of that disease ?—From the 
more fre(pient instances of dog-fighting, and the practice, which has much 
increased, of training fighting dogs—dofis which arc naturally ferocious, 
and more likely to do miscliief—more of them than usual, by neglect or 
accident, became bitten. 
