468 
Facts and Observations. 
HYDROPHOBIA IN FRANCE AND PRUSSIA. 
In the hope of checking the prevalence of hydrophobia in 
France, an impost on dogs was imposed in 1855. The 
number of these animals did not, however, diminish much, 
their average number in Paris being about 60,000; and so 
far from that of the cases of hydrophobia having decreased, 
they have not been so numerous during twenty years as for 
the last three years. The most effectual means of preventing 
dogs biting, and thereby communicating the disease, seems 
to be muzzling them; and M. Renault, the distinguished vete¬ 
rinarian, in a communication to the Academy of Sciences, 
states that the assertion that muzzling dogs, by the constraint 
it produces, is itself a cause of rabies, is utterly unsupported 
by any well-established facts. On the other hand, he points 
out the results which have been obtained in Berlin from a 
general and permanent muzzling of all dogs not tied up at 
home. A tax had already been imposed with no diminution 
of the number of cases of hydrophobia, when in 1854 the 
muzzling was ordered and strictly executed upon all dogs 
not tied up. From the year 1845 to 1853 inclusive, 278 
cases of rabies (nearly 28 per annum) were verified at the 
Berlin Veterinary School; while from 1854 to 1861 inclusive 
only nine cases have occurred, and none of these since 1856. 
The conclusions which M. Renault draws from these facts 
are, that spontaneous rabies is of very rare occurrence, and 
that permanent and general muzzling of dogs is a highly 
efficacious means of preventing the propagation of the 
disease .—Medical Times. 
MUZZLING OF DOGS IN PARIS. 
A case of hydrophobia having occurred in one of the 
barracks, strict orders have been issued for a general muz¬ 
zling of dogs, which has been found a complete preventive 
of this occurrence in Berlin. A terrible accident recently 
also befel the wife of the venerable M. Bully, formerly Presi¬ 
dent of the Academy of Medicine. A furious dog fell upon 
her and bit her, inflicting very severe wounds. She w’as, 
however, almost convalescent, when one day she expired 
