76 
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE ON CANINE MADNESS. 
you think that the disease was communicated by the father to 
the child ?—I should greatly doubt it. 1 do not mean to say 
that it is an absolutely incredible statement; but I should re¬ 
quire, in order to satisfy my mind, the most full and particular 
evidence of the fact. I should find great difficulty in admitting, 
that the natural secretion of one person was capable of commu¬ 
nicating the disease of another. The saliva is a natural secre¬ 
tion from the blood. I do not believe that the poison is trans¬ 
missible from one human subject to another. Suppose a man 
affected with symptoms of hydrophobia were to bite another 
man, I should not expect he would communicate any disease. 
Is not the whole subject of hydrophobia one exceedingly little 
understood by medical men % —Undoubtedly. 
Does not that arise chiefly from the circumstance of its being 
so rare ?—Certainly: it occurs so seldom, that it excites an over- 
eager curiosity, which interferes with the treatment: it is a case 
in which very little time is allowed for the trying of any remedy; 
and whenever any remedies have been fairly tried, they have 
been found inefficacious. The opportunities of becoming per¬ 
fectly acquainted with the disease are extremely limited. 
Do you think if rew ards were offered by the Legislature, as in 
the case of other diseases, for the discovery of a remedy; do 
you think this is a case in which any good would be done by a 
measure of that kind ?—I think not; the benevolent feelings of 
the profession require no incentive. 
Can you, from experiments, state whether the virus of the 
rabid dog can be taken into the stomach of another dog, or a 
human individual, without affecting that individual ?— Not from 
actual experiments; but I have heard the fact stated, and think 
it extremely probable, as it is iconformablo to what we know’ of 
other poisons, the viper’s poison, for example. 1 
Is there any thing that you would suggest to the Committee 
by way of legislative remedy for the prevention of this ?—The 
especial result of all my observation of the disease is, that the 
excision should be performed thoroughly, and the earlier the 
better; but, at all events, it should be done at any period before 
the accession of the symptoms. If it is a case in which the knife 
cannot be so employed as entirely to include the bitten part, a 
strong caustic should be used, and, if possible, this should be 
rendered obligatory upon medical men in every case in which 
they conceive the slightest suspicion exists as to the state of 
the dog. 
You have said, although cases of actual hydrophobia are very 
rare, yet you have known cases, and you have mentioned one 
particularly, of great alarm and depression of spirits, which had 
