405 
EDITORIAL. 
Nocard and Leclainche write : u Contagion of rabies occurring 
always by inoculation of the saliva, it was of the greatest im¬ 
portance to establish at what moment of the evolution of the 
disease the saliva taken from the mouth is virulent. The in¬ 
quiries of Nocard and Roux have shown that saliva is always 
virulent, 24 hours and sometimes 48 before the apparition of 
any change in the aspect of the dog. An animal may thus have 
all the external signs of health, eat, be lively, and yet carry in 
its mouth the virus of rabies.” 
Those facts are now well admitted. But a rather compli¬ 
cated question has just been asked in the Progres Veterinaire 
in relation to a peculiar case which is concisely related as fol¬ 
lows : A young man was bitten by a dog which thirty-six hours 
before had himself been bitten by another, undoubtedly mad. 
The wound was a simple ecchymosis without cutaneous wound; 
the bite had been made through his pants, and there was no in¬ 
oculation of saliva. 
Was it necessary for the man to place himself under Pas¬ 
teur antirabid treatment ? 
Not in his case—however, supposing that the tooth had 
penetrated the skin, what was the decision to take? 
Two specialists who were consulted answered in the negative, 
on the ground that at the time the dog which did the biting was 
not in a rabid state, as long as that does not occur before the 
12th day. But, yet, what had taken place during the 36 hours 
passed between the time he had been bitten and the moment he 
attacked the young man ? 
And then the question is put: Can it be said that 10 days 
after having been bitten, a dog cannot transmit the disease by 
biting? It would be risky. And, then, what after eight, after 
four, after two days, after j 6 hours , as it was in this case ? 
The question has been answered in the negative by Pas¬ 
teur Institute. “ And thus,” say the writers of the article in the 
Progres , “ we do not object to be of the same opinion, and still 
we cannot avoid thinking that 10 minutes after inoculation the 
virus has penetrated the economy, and that accordingly in 
