RABIES AND HYDROPHOBIA. 
575 
ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
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RABIES AND HYDROPHOBIA. 
By D. E. Salmon, D. V. M., Washington, D. C. 
A Paper read before the American Veterinary Medical Association, at Detroit, Mich., 
Sept. 6, 1900. 
There has perhaps never been a time when it was more im¬ 
portant than it is to-day for the veterinary profession to have a 
clear appreciation of what it knows in regard to the subject of 
rabies in animals and in man. In the pre-experimental period 
of the profession’s existence there was ample excuse foi dif¬ 
ference of opinion, even concerning the most apparent and most 
essential phenomena of this disease. It was the time when 
dependence was placed upon clinical observation of accidental 
cases, where the conditions were not controlled, and where the 
conclusions founded upon imperfect evidence were often un¬ 
sound and liable to vary with the idiosyncrasies of the observer. 
But that period is past. To-day we have a science resting upon 
an experimental basis. Facts and conclusions ha\e been estab¬ 
lished just as rigorously, just as solidly, as in other departments 
of science. And while we still have much to learn, as they 
have in every other branch of science, the fact that there are 
other fields to conquer does not detract in the least from the 
value or certainty of the results which have already been 
achieved. 
As members of a learned profession it is our duty to know 
what has been accomplished by the scientific investigation of 
rabies 5 and particularly is this duty incumbent upon those 
who attempt to teach other members of the profession or the 
laity as to the facts in the case or the attitude of the profession. 
We have reached a point where the intelligence, the scientific 
knowledge, the standing of the veterinary profession in this 
country, I might say of the medical profession as well, are 
liable to be unjustly questioned because of a few mistaken and 
misguided individuals who persist in reiterating beliefs which 
