306 MUZZLING DOGS, AND RABIES. 
states that hydrophobia is a disease exceedingly rare; and, thank 
goodness and the dog tax! so it is. The susceptibility to it 
does not appear to exist to nearly so great an extent in man as 
in the lower animals. I quite agree with him, that the applica¬ 
tion of the muzzle to dogs tends to make them “ snappish and 
ill-temperedand, moreover, it is a direct cruelty, inasmuch 
as the dog being an animal who perspires very little under ex¬ 
ertion, this seems to be compensated for through great slavering, 
accompanied by an open mouth, pendant tongue, and quickened 
respiration. If a dog could be made “ill-tempered,” I certainly 
think it would most readily be effected by chaining him up and 
muzzling him ; but whether these means will produce a rabid 
state or “ a disease of the nervous system,” rendering him ca¬ 
pable of producing hydrophobia in man by inoculation, is a 
question I am incapable of solving. It may be that a malignant 
virus may be engendered by such means, capable of producing 
these effects in certain constitutions peculiarly disposed to it, 
but yet not of sufficient activity in the dog to produce symptoms 
of decided rabies. It is earnestly to be hoped that it is not so. 
Opinions are so greatly divided on this dreadful disease that we 
are still in the dark as to its real nature. It is asserted by some 
that cases have been known where people have been bitten and 
become mad, and the dog has remained perfectly well. If these 
cases will bear thorough investigation, it is a dreadful contem¬ 
plation, and enough to make us at once discard our most faithful 
companion. The human mind, by dwelling on this dreadful 
disease, is often said to produce it, or at least to be mainly 
instrumental in its production; and numberless cases would 
lead us to believe that it is so. Again, on the contrary, how 
often have people been bitten, as it was supposed, accidentally, 
by a dog in play, and the very circumstance forgotten until the 
symptoms of hydrophobia appeared; when the disease has 
been traced back to the first apparently trifling circumstance, 
and then, on inquiry, the dog has been found either to have died 
rabid in the interim, or to have been lost sight of. 
Again; children cannot be said to think seriously of the dan¬ 
ger attending an apparently trifling scratch or bite, and, al¬ 
though instances are rare, yet are they numerous enough to 
shew they are not exempt from the disease. Mr. Litt states 
that rabies is unknown in tropical climates. I cannot quite 
agree with him in this remark. I believe it to be a rarer 
disease in hot countries, but not unknown. In England we 
hear but little or nothing of this disease as it exists in tropical 
countries, which possibly may arise from many causes, such as 
the carelessness and apathy regarding human life, the paucity 
or total absence of newspaper reports, and the general opinion that 
