474 EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS, 
from being bitten by another, though it may prevent that 
other from biting anything else. So far so good. Would it 
not, however, be more reasonable to keep dogs out of the 
way of being bitten, or rather to insist that every dog that 
was bitten, or that show r ed any signs of madness, should be 
at once destroyed. Keeping dogs confined or tied up ap¬ 
pears hardly less objectionable than muzzling; and besides 
it may with some reason be asked, first, at what season 
or time of the year are we to do this; and secondly, for 
how long are we to keep them in confinement? 
But we are told that rabies may be produced from other 
causes—may be, in fact, spontaneous in its origin. Now, in 
this case, the muzzle may be regarded as tending to create 
an evil against which it is intended, when actually pro¬ 
duced, to guard against the consequences of. It is likely, 
particularly in hot weather, to make the dog “ ill-tempered 
and snappish ;” in a word, to render him irritable and ex¬ 
citable, and consequently more apt and rg&dy to take rabies, 
or disease of any kind in which his nervous system is im¬ 
plicated, than a dog in a placid, undisturbed condition would 
be : besides which, some dogs there are of that irritable or 
angry temperament, that such an annoyance as a muzzle in 
hot weather must be, would be likely, if not actually to pro¬ 
duce rabies, to occasion some paroxysm of excitement so like 
it as to be, by the common run of people, mistaken for it, 
and so not only entail death upon an animal not mad, but 
the leaving of an impression behind him of having {C run mad,” 
followed by all its fearful consequences, when, in point of 
fact, the madness consisted in the mistake made by his 
master. 
Altogether, take what view of the matter we will, we can¬ 
not, we must confess, see any advantages derivable from the 
muzzle; while, in more ways than one we can imagine 
mischief from it. If we are to legislate with any show of 
reason on such misinterpreted matters as “ mad dogs” come 
into the category of, we ought to take care to make ourselves 
well acquainted with the origin and nature of the evil we are 
taking measures about avoiding or remedying. Public 
