448 
G. ARCHIE STOCKWELL. 
elusion that the disease denominated “ hydrophobia,” in the great 
majority of instances, would never have been accepted as such 
only for the relations of an animal thereto, and that they are the 
result of functional disturbances of nerve-centres as a sequel to, 
(1) simple septicaemia , or blood poisoning, and (2) the fears and im¬ 
aginations of individuals and their friends. When we consider 
fully the influences of fear, shock, anxiety and joy upon the 
nerve-centres; that persons have died suddenly, within a few 
moments, or hours, from fright; that individuals in robust health, 
by the unexpected loss of friends or possessions are attacked by 
convulsions, reduced to insanity, permanently invalided and 
driven to felo de se, we understand readily how cases of rabies 
are unwittingly manufactured and ignorantly chronicled. No 
physician, however profound, as no neurologist, however able or 
experienced, has ever been permitted to fathom the mysterious 
workings of the nervous system under profound agitation of the 
mind, or to discover what influences this perturbed mind may 
have reflexedly upon the nerve-centres, and through them upon 
morbific agents that may already have been implanted within the 
body! 
If an animal suspected of rabies presents no markedly recent 
and unaccounted-for scar or wound, or if its previous history be 
in any way inimical to wounding, or contraction of disease, no\ 
fears should be had of the disease ! An animal in the full tide of 1 
health, playful, kittenish and bright, can inflict only a false rabies 
inculcated through fear and imagination! 
A strange dog, pursued by a cruel mob—and mobs are always 
cruel—is no way responsible for its acts! A dog passing quietly 
along a highway, and suddenly, seemingly without provocation, 
pouncing upon a household pet, does not afford even presumptive 
or circumstantial evidence of rabies , nor demand the death of the 
latter. A dog‘badgered, is always dangerous^; dogs are exceed- 1 
ingly sensitive and emotional, naturally of markedly jealous dis¬ 
positions, and prone to quarrel on the slightest provocation; and! 
the vagrant cur invariably resents any assumption of superiority) 
on the part of the more favored members of his race—he is ai 
canine Ishmaelite in every sense of the term. How often one 
