THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
523 
A TALK ABOUT RABIES. 
Commissioner Pearson on Mad Dogs. 
On receiving the question printed on page 
518, we went to Commissioner of Agricul¬ 
ture Pearson for the facts. When asked 
if the disease is spreading he said : 
“There is more rabies in this State than 
ever before, and the trouble seems to be 
on the increase. I am told that similar 
conditions exist in some sections of New 
England and Pennsylvania. The numbers 
of persons and animals bitten and the num¬ 
bers of deaths on account of rabies during 
the past 16 mouths (as shown by our offi¬ 
cial records), are as follows: 
Bitten. Deaths. 
People . 85 5 
Horses . 8 3 
Cattle . 40 26 
Sheep . 52 36 
Swine . 8 7 
I understand that you have power to 
quarantine sections where the disease 
abounds—what places are now quaran¬ 
tined ? 
“Since January 1, 1908, quarantines have 
been placed on twelve cities, four villages 
and 129 towns. At the present time there 
are under quarantine 67 towns, including 
the cities of Albany, Troy, Binghamton. 
Elmira, Hudson, Geneva, Auburn and ltens- 
selaer.” 
Why is the work of stamping out the 
disease so slow? 
“The chief difficulty in dealing with this 
disease is that some persons believe there 
is no such disease, and others seem to think 
that their particular dogs, which are so 
gentle and affectionate, could not possibly 
develop the characteristic symptoms of 
rabies in its furious form. These people 
simply do not know. I wish they could see 
some of the things that the agents of this 
department see from time to time.” 
I presume you have some startling ex¬ 
periences. 
“The other day our men were called to 
a residence in Albany to take care of a 
dog which had suddenly developed rabies 
of the violent type. It was a shepherd dog, 
the special pel of (he daughter, as well as 
the other members of the family and many 
people in the neighborhood. Its disposition 
was the gentlest, and it seemed impossible 
that ibis dog could ever do anything which 
a v.ell-mannered dog would not do. It sud¬ 
denly became indisposed and its mistress 
provided a place for it to lie down in the 
dining room. A little later she came near 
to the dog tind it sprang at her, biting her 
fearfully. The young woman was sent to 
New York for the Pasteur treatment; the 
room containing the dog was closed and no 
one dared to enter it. One of our men, 
who is an expert in handling such animals, 
had the greatest difficulty in capturing this 
one. It was finally put into an enclosed 
wagon, and become so furious that the 
men were obliged to shoot it, fearing that 
it would break away. The head was sent 
to the State veterinary college and the 
diagnosis was exactly what we expected— 
rabies.” 
Are children in real danger? 
“Only a few weeks ago a little boy. seven 
tears old. the son of Eugene A. Beach or 
Weedsport, started to pat a dog which 
came to him on the street. The dog sprang 
tit the boy’s face, and one fang went 
through the boy’s lip and into his gum. No 
one had suspected this dog was rabid, but 
it was killed and on examination of the 
brain it was promptly shown that it was. 
The little boy received the best treatment 
that medical men could give. The wounds 
were cauterized and he was taken to New 
Y’ork by his father, but the doctors told 
them it was too late, the bite was so near 
the brain that the preventive effect of the 
Pasteur treatment could not work fast 
enough to get ahead of the disease which 
was so well started. This little chap—the 
only son of Mr. Bench—died, as the physi¬ 
cians expected, and his closing hours were 
filled with the greatest agony that we can 
think of. Mr. Beach wrote to me one of 
the saddest letters I ever received. He did 
not blame this department for his misfor¬ 
tune, but be begged us to lay quarantine at 
once and keep it until all possibility of the 
danger of rabies had passed. Quarantine 
was laid and some unreasonable people ob¬ 
jected to muzzling the dogs, because the 
dogs did not like the muzzles.” 
Our correspondent on page 518 lives in 
Broome Co. Is there any special reason 
for muzzling dogs there? 
“A few weeks ago rabies was clearly diag¬ 
nosed in a dog in Binghamton. Other 
cases were found near by. We decided to 
lay a quarantine and require all dogs to he 
muzzled until this disease should die out. 
The mayor of Binghamton the city veteri¬ 
narian and the secretary of the humane so¬ 
ciety came to Albany to protest. They as¬ 
sured nie that they would give this matter 
very careful attention, picking up stray 
•logs, and in case of a rabid dog they would 
carefully look up other dogs which the 
rabid one might have bitten, etc. Consid¬ 
ering all the circumstances, we decided to 
defer the quarantine and await develop¬ 
ments.’’ 
That being so, why was the county fin¬ 
ally quarantined? 
“Reports came to us from time to time. 
A few days ago we received a long-distance 
telephone message from the mayor’s office 
at Binghamton, asking us to lay the quar¬ 
antine as soon as possible, as the trouble 
was getting beyond their control. Quite a 
lumber of new cases had occurred and 
some people were thoroughly alarmed. The 
quarantine was laid and, as provided In 
the law, we called upon the sheriff to en¬ 
force its provisions. Of course, we cannot 
select the sheriff; he is selected by the 
people. Nor can we select his deputies, 
i he law now in force gives authority to 
any person to kill any dog in a quaran¬ 
tined area if such dog is running free and 
without muzzle. A bill was introduced In 
C'c Legislature a few weeks ago changing, 
t'us provision somewhat, and requiring 
t at a person should first attempt to catch 
an unmuzzled dog before killing it, which 
would be an improvement, but the new bill 
has not yet passed and been signed by the 
Governor; hence the old law continues in 
force. Our difficulty in enforcing quaran¬ 
tines has been attributed above in part to 
one cause. Another cause is that only a 
small "part of the rabid dogs develop the 
disease in furious form. Most of them be¬ 
come paralyzed and very soon are harm¬ 
less. Many people see only the mild form. 
But no one can tell when the furious form 
of the disease will develop.” 
In the case mentioned the dog might be 
killed? 
“Under the present law, which has been 
in force a long time, a constable or any 
other person might kill any dog in a quar¬ 
antined district which is not confined or 
muzzled as required under the provisions 
of the law.” 
Mammitis. 
The two hind quarters of my cow's udder 
began to swell up about four weeks before 
she was due to freshen, and they got so 
bad she could hardly walk. After she gave 
birth to her calf she would get a little 
1 letter for a day or two, and then would 
get worse again. At present the swelling 
is slowly going down. Two months before 
calving these two quarters seemed to be 
caked some, and I mistrusted something 
was wrong. What is your opinion as re¬ 
gards the trouble? G. it. E. 
New Y’ork. 
Approaching calving time the udder is 
apt to swell, owing to congestion with 
blood, or there is a dropsical condition due 
to lack of circulation of blood, so that its 
watery part collects (oedema) in the parts 
and leads to the enlargement. Abundant 
outdoor exercise tends to prevent this con¬ 
dition and care has to be taken that it is 
nob caused by bruising from a cement or 
other hard floor, exposure to cold, imper¬ 
fect milking, changes of food, bruising be¬ 
tween t lie legs, etc. When actual mam- 
mitis is present the milk curdles and clots 
come away in the stream. In that case in¬ 
flammation may become active and lead to 
loss of the function of the glands. Foment 
the udder with hot water twice daily and 
then rub with melted lard or a mixture of 
two parts camphorated oil and one part 
each of fluid extracts of poke root and 
belladonna leaves. The latter is most suit¬ 
able when inrlammation is seen to be pres¬ 
ent. Massage the udder thoroughly when 
using the hot wafer and lotion. In bad 
cases it is well to give a full dose of physic 
and follow with a tablespoonful of salt¬ 
peter in the drinking water once daily. 
a. s. A. 
Supposed Hemorrhagic Septicaemia. 
Gan you give me any information as to 
cause and cure of what our local veterinary 
calls forage poison or hemorrhagic septi¬ 
cemia? lie says it is caused by eating 
some poisonous leaves or plants; that it 
usually occurs among cattle running in the 
woods, and that treatment is not satisfac¬ 
tory. That last statement I can vouch for, 
as both of my cows died that had it last 
Summer. If caused by eating poisonous 
plants, can you give me any idea as to 
what they are and a description of them? 
Symptoms are loss of appetite, frothing at 
mouth and diarrhoea, and breaking off in 
milk; they dried up in about three or four 
days, so that they did not give any milk 
at all. One animal lived about a week 
and the other aliout 10 days, but did not 
eat anything during that time. They 
would usually lie with the head around 
against the side, except a few hours before 
they died they would get their head against 
something and push as though that re¬ 
lieved them. READER. 
Pennsylvania. 
While we are unable to say if hemoF- 
rhagic septicaemia was the disease present, 
that disease is not due to poisons in forage 
or plants but to germs (probably to Bacil¬ 
lus bovisepticus). In this disease blood 
discharges are found under the skin; 
sometimes large, sometimes very small or 
in points. The red spots are seen on in¬ 
ternal organs. The disease appears stid- 
denly, develops rapidly and proves fatal. 
No remedy has been found. Other symp¬ 
toms are akin to those of cerebrospinal 
meningitis, which disease often appears 
where spoiled forage is fed. The source 
of the germ is still in doubt. Probably it 
may be found in places where anthrax is 
most apt to appear. We refer to low, 
wet. rich, overflowed and dried-out pastures, 
or possibly in wild or timber pastures. 
a. s. A. 
Conditioning a Horse. 
I have a young horse eight years old this 
Summer: she has always been owned and 
driven by the man who raised her. She 
has had one colt, and that about two years 
ago; she weighs about 950 pounds. She is 
kind and gentle, afraid of nothing and a 
big reader on her own free will. I have 
owned her about three months. I would 
like to get her a little fleshier; she is not 
so very poor, but still I would like to have 
her plumper. 1 have fed whole corn, oats, 
and bran. W7mt would he the best feed to 
feed right along? She is having the easiest 
time of her life at present, as I only use 
her to drive for pleasure in the evening and 
some on Sunday, but shall use her a little 
more during the Summer. f. ii. a. 
Massachusetts. 
Have the teeth attended to by a veteri¬ 
nary dentist to insure perfect mastication 
of the food. Feed whole oats. 10 parts; 
corn, five parts; bran, three parts. Mix 
and allow daily a little better than 
a pound of the mixture for each one hun¬ 
dred pounds of live weight. Ten pounds of 
hay should lie sufficient, and should be 
given in three feeds, one-quarter part in 
the morning, one-quarter at noon and one- 
half at night. If using the horse hard in 
hot weather feed one-third of the hay in 
the morning and two-thirds at night: none 
at noon. Water before feeding. If she 
fails to pick up on this feeding and the 
skin is harsh and tight give half an ounce 
of Fowler’s solution of arsenic once daily, 
and in two weeks if necessary increase to 
two doses a day, but stop gradually when 
the mare has gained as desired. It is best, 
however, to get along without drugs wher¬ 
ever possible, and were the Summer season 
not coming on we would instead advise the 
feeding of a quart of black strap molasses 
twice daily mixed with cut hay, cornmeal 
and bran. This soon plumps a horse and 
it does not cause colic. The objection is 
that it attracts flies in Summer, a. s.’’ a. 
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CHICAGO 
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