510 
EXPERIMENTA.L PHYSIOLOGY. 
7tli.—Each movement of the jaw corresponds with a varia¬ 
tion in the flow of saliva. 
The advantages obtained in this physiological experiment are 
evident, as with it the ynacegen of mastication and insalivation 
are strictly normal, during the entire meal .—Journal des Soc. 
Scientifique. 
RESISTANCE OF RABID VIRUS TO DESICCATION AND TO 
CADAVERIC DECOMPOSITION. 
By Me. Galtiee. 
To the questions whether, first, does the saliva of a rabid 
animal, deposited on rags or any other solid substance, and dried 
in the air, retain its virulency, and does it keep long; and, would 
the contact of such soiled objects with a fresh wound or any 
absorbing surface be dangerous to man ? Second, Does the viru¬ 
lency long resist the cadaveric decomposition in buried carcasses \ 
Mr. Galtier reports the six following experiments: 
1st.—The cadaver of a rabid dog, being buried for twenty- 
seven days, and the bulb inoculated to two other dogs and to two 
rabbits—one of each species of animal died with rabies after 
twenty-nine and thirty-three days; the other two animals resist¬ 
ing- 
2d.—Of four rabbits and four guinea pigs which were inocu¬ 
lated with the bulb of a lamb that had died from rabies and been 
buried twenty-nine days, only one pig became rabid. 
3d.—The bulb of a rabid lamb buried twenty-three days 
killed one dog and a guinea pig with rabies. 
4th.—After a burial of thirty-one days and notwithstanding 
an advanced state of cadaveric decomposition, the bulb of another 
rabid lamb gave the disease to a guinea pig. 
5th.—Two guinea pigs, inoculated with the bulb of a rabid 
rabbit buried for twenty-three days, contracted the disease. In 
this experiment also the nervous centres were much decomposed. 
6th.—The nervous centres in a state of putrefaction of a dog 
suspected of hydrophobia and buried for forty-three days were 
inoculated to two guinea pigs, which developed the disease in 
twenty-three and twenty-six days, and their rabies was also trans- 
