MINUTES OF EVIDENCE ON CANINE MADNESS. 
161 
th & post mortem examination. Then we found all the symptoms 
so rationally accounted for, that nothing* but that disease could 
have produced such an extent of morbid appearances. 
Was there a strong sensation at the sight of liquid?—None 
whatever. He had only those dreadful convulsions, and spas¬ 
modic affections of the muscles of the throat, about four hours 
beforehe died. I have had other cases of hydrophobia come 
under my notice, but they were always attended with symptoms 
of the most horrid excitement. The smallest breath of air would 
throw them into the highest state of convulsions. 
Have you, from your practice, observed the disease to have 
increased of late years, or otherwise?—I should consider it has 
increased, not only from my own practice, but from what others 
say respecting it. 
Are the number of persons who have been bitten more con¬ 
siderable of late, to your knowledge ?—I should say, a great 
many more in proportion; or whether it be that persons who 
have been bitten have hitherto thought nothing of it, and now 
find it necessary to apply. 
Have you formed any opinion as to whether this disease is to 
be attributed to any other cause than the bite of a rabid 
animal ?—Hydrophobia is a specific disease, arising from the 
effects of a certain poison introduced into the system by the bite 
of a rabid or enraged animal. It can, in my opinion, be pro¬ 
duced in no other manner. 
Do you suppose the disease may be communicated to the dog 
by any other means than the bite from another ?—Decidedly. 
Any dog may engender the disease within him. That, in my 
opinion, forms the great objection to the number of dogs there 
are suffered to beat large. In our neighbourhood it is an intole¬ 
rable nuisance. A number of the vilest curs it is possible to see, 
are continually running about. Yesterday I was much alarmed, 
knowing the consequences which attach to such a thing: I was 
writing a prescription in a chemist’s shop. A dog came into the 
shop : the persons who keep the shop have a dog, which came 
into the room, w hen the stray dog instantly snapped at him : 
the other, though the stronger of the two, ran off, and cried as if 
beaten severely; for there is this singularity, that healthy dogs, 
though of a quarrelsome disposition, never return the bite of a 
rabid one. When I went out, I saw f the same dog go and bite 
another, and I looked for a policeman to follow' the dog. I 
watched him the full extent of the street, but was not able to 
see whether any other dogs w ere bitten. Several dogs have been 
bitten in our neighbourhood, and it is with some risk that 1 and 
others walk about. 
VOL. IV. 
