MUZZLING DOGS, AND RABIES. 307 
destiny is a sufficient cause for every thing which happens: never¬ 
theless that cases do occur now and then, and perhaps oftener 
than we imagine, there can be no doubt of. During the period 
when the 11th Hussars were in India, they lost two soldiers from 
hydrophobia, and other cases were well known to have oc¬ 
curred. I may also mention the common custom, during the hot 
months, of having men specially employed to kill all stray or 
wild dogs found about the cantonments, and that a reward is 
given for each animal destroyed, and all with the object of the 
prevention of hydrophobia. The heat of climate in tropical 
countries certainly has nothing to do with the more frequent 
production of the disease. Again, Mr. Litt makes a valuable 
remark, that the attacks of the disease are not found to be con¬ 
fined to the summer months, but that it may appear at any time 
of the year. This is also, I believe, strictly true; and I may 
here make an observation which may perhaps be found correct, 
and, if so, will bear much upon what Mr. Litt has stated. 
Rabies exists in cold countries as well as hot. Temperature 
seems to have nothing to do with the propagation of the disease. 
A gentleman, who has lately been a missionary in Canada, told 
me recently that, whilst he was there, he was informed that 
rabies was more common in winter than summer, which the 
natives attempted to account for by the dogs not being able to 
get at water. This assertion it would be very advisable to 
carefully inquire into, since, although it is most fully believed 
by the gentleman as correct, yet may he have been misin¬ 
formed. In fact, we are at a loss how to account for the ap¬ 
pearance of the disease, though we know enough of it to make 
us dread the bite of a dog under certain conditions of his system. 
If dogs which are supposed to be rabid, and which have bitten 
people, were strictly confined, and their symptoms most care¬ 
fully watched by a veterinary surgeon, instead of their being 
immediately shot down as mad, it would tend much to the elu¬ 
cidation of the nature of the complaint, and probably to the 
ultimate safety of the individual; and if we could only properly 
arrive at the causes, we might be able at least to suggest pre¬ 
ventive remedies, which, I imagine, mainly consist in allowing 
the animal a state of freedom, and, as far as possible, accom¬ 
modating his food, habits, and exercise, to his disposition and 
nature. 
In another part of my letter I mentioned that man, most 
fortunately, was not nearly so susceptible to hydrophobia by 
inoculation from a rabid dog as the lower animals were. I had 
a most illustrative case of this when I was in the 10th Hussars, 
while stationed at Cahir, in Ireland, in the year 1844. I will not 
enter into all the circumstances at length, for the associations 
