311 
PATHOLOGY. 
Genus IV. Lyffa, [that is, madnefs; probably from 
to diffolve, becaufe the fenfes are impaired or melted 
away.] Madnefs from the bite of a rabid animal, com¬ 
monly called hydrophobia. Generic characters—- Great 
reftlelfnefs ; anxiety; hurry of mind; horror; and con- 
ffriclion of the mufcles of the cheft; fupervening to the 
bite of a rabid animal : preceded by a return of pain and 
inflammation in the bitten part. There are two fpecies. 
1. Lyffa felina, feline madnefs : the paroxyfm periodi¬ 
cal, and returning with the full moon ; produced by the 
bite of an enraged cat. Anxietas a morlu felis iratre. 
Morgagn. Ep. lxi. 14. 
In the cafe here referred to, the paroxyfm took place 
four days after the bite : there was great anxiety of the 
praecordia, but no water-dread. Local and general 
bleedings were ufelefs; frequent repetition of the warm- 
bath afforded relief; but it only yielded to an ephemera 
with copious fweat. It returned with the full moon for 
two years: the bitten part fil'd becoming highly irrita¬ 
ble ; and the general fymptoms fucCeeding, which were 
r.ow relieved by bleeding. After this period it returned 
with every' fourth full moon for two years more. See 
another cafe, which terminated fatally on the fird pa¬ 
roxyfm, in the Tranf. Med. Soc. of London, vol. i. p. 78. 
2. Lyffa canina, canine madnefs : (Pantophobia, Cal. 
Aur. Rabies canina, Boerhaave. Hydrophobia, Sauv. 
Linn. Sag. Cull. See.) The condridflion extending to the 
mufcles of deglutition, which are.violently convulfed at 
the appearance or idea of liquids; produced by the bite 
of a rabid dog, and fatal on the fird paroxyfm. 
The term hydrophobia, which has been fo generally ap¬ 
plied to the Lylfa canina, has been defervedly reprobated, 
becaufe the “ dread of water,” the literal meaning of the 
word, is not a pathognomonic mark of the difeafe. The 
older writers ufed the terms aerophobia, or a “dread of 
air,” and pantophobia, or a “ fear of all things,” as ap¬ 
propriate names for the difeafe, becaufe the imprefiion of 
cold air fometimes excites terror, and the diforder is 
marked by a Angular degree of general timidity and 
didrud. The term hydrophobia, being erroneoufly applied 
to the rabies of the dog, has induced a fuppofition that 
no dog is rabid while he continues to drink ; w'hereas he 
is conllantly endeavouring to quench his third in that 
difeafe. And again, the appellation of madnefs has led to 
a belief that violence and fury are charafteriliic of rabies 
in the dog ; but, though he is irritable and peevilh, there 
is nothing of wildnefs in his difpofition. In confequence 
of this midake, dogs have been allowed to go about, 
fondled, and even flept with (fee Mem. of Swedilh Acad. 
1777), in a rabid date. 
Ariltotle is the fird writer whoexprefsly mentions this 
difeafe. He fays that all animals, except man, are infefted 
by the bite of a mad dog, and dedroyed by it. This 
imperfedl date of knowledge refpedling the malady, is a 
proof that it was a matter of recent obfervation ; for, 
although feveral perfons might be bitten without fullering 
the dileafe, and, .from the length of time which com¬ 
monly elapfes between the inflidlion of the bite and the 
appearance of the fymptoms, feveral cafes might occur 
before it was referred to its true fource ; yet no very long 
time would be requifite to clear up thele doubtful points. 
Accordingly, we find fubfequent writers treating of the 
difeafe in a familiar manner. Plutarch affirms that the 
hydrophobia was fird feen at Rome in the days of Afcle- 
piades; after whofe time, we meet with frequent notices 
of this difeafe in the works of the ancients. 
The fymptoms of Lylfa, as they appear in the dog, have 
been inferted under the article Hydrophobia, in our 
10th volume. We proceed, therefore, to difeufs the na¬ 
ture and origin of the difeafe. It is known, that animals 
of the dog-kind, including the wolf and the fox, are mod 
frequently the fubje&s of Lylfa ; and mod writers have 
maintained that, although it may be received and propa¬ 
gated by other animals, yet it always originates with 
lome of the canine race. It is likewife faid, that the ge- 
Vol. XIX. No. 1305. 
neration of Lyffa is confined to male dogs. Like the 
origin of many difeales emphatically called fpecific, as 
fmall-pox, fipliilis, and itch, the origin of this in the 
fimple inflammatory or irritative procelfes is unknown ; 
yet we cannot but believe, that to fitch procelfes all 
fpecifics owe their fird produftion. However this may 
be, it is a faff, that, at certain periods of the year, dogs 
are more prone to Lylfa than at others. The difeafe, 
however, has by no means the chara&er of an endemic. 
It feents to require a very rare and peculiar combination 
of circumdar.cesfor its fpontaneous development, though, 
when once formed, it fpreads with the mod alarming ra¬ 
pidity, in confequence of its infectious nature. Various 
meafures have been dated for the prevention of hydro¬ 
phobia in dogs; as vaccination, worming, See. but, we 
believe, with no fuccels. Of the exciting caufes of this 
difeafe we know nothing. Great heat has been alferted 
as one caufe; though it mud be recollected, that the 
difeafe is lefs frequent in the tropical climates than with 
us. Boerhaave alfo enumerates “a very hot climate, or 
one expofed to the extremes of heat and cold ; feeding 
upon putrid flinking maggotty flefli ; want of water; 
worms bred in the kidneys, intedines, brain, or cavities 
of the nofe.” But the influence of thefe circumdances 
in producing the difeafe is not edabliffied by a fufficient 
number of obfervations. 
All domedic animals, birds as well as beads, are fufeep- 
tible of the poifon of the rabid dog. We do not find that 
there is any race of animals exempted from its effefts. 
But whether every animal labouring under the difeafe is 
capable of infefting others, or whether this power is con¬ 
fined to a few only, we are yet to learn. Boerhaave affirms 
that the difeafe has been communicated by infeCiion to 
others by dogs, cats, wolves, foxes, horfes, affes, mules, 
fwine, apes, cocks of the poultry breed, and men, when 
afteCted with rabies, (Aph. 1132.) and the cow has alfo 
been faid to propagate it. Van Swieten has dated fome 
indances, from old authors, of hydrophobia occafioned 
by the beak of an enraged cock wounding the hand and 
arm. But there is little doubt that, in fuch cafes, the 
fpafmodic and fatal difeafe, which enfued, was tetanus. 
It is certain, however, that not only animals of the canine 
fpecies, but cats, have produced hydrophobia in the hu¬ 
man fpecies by their bite; and a fuppofed difference of 
fymptoms has led Dr. Good, as we have feen, to feparate 
Lyffa into two fpecies. 
It feems very natural to fuppofe, that every animal fuf- 
ceptible of the difeafe had the power of communicating 
it, provided their natural habits led them to bite and tear 
with their teeth fuch animals as came in their way, while 
in an enraged ftate. With refpeCt to men under the in¬ 
fluence of hydrophobia, although the popular notion of 
their general difpofition to bite thofe around them is 
erroneous, yet there are inftances on record in which 
hydrophobic patients did bite fome of their attendants, 
but no ill confequences have been known to follow'. 
From this, however, as Dr. John Hunter juftly remarks, 
we can draw no pofitive inference; for it is but a fmall 
proportion (about one in fixteen), of fuch perfons as are 
bit by dogs undoubtedly mad, who are infe&ed with the 
poifon. The experiments, however, of Mr. Cline, throw- 
great doubt on the infe&ious qualities of the faliva of the 
human fubjeCh He took particular pains in inferting 
this fecretion, while frelli, into a dog, three rabbits, and 
feveral fowls: “ but in none of thefe inltances was there 
the leaft appearance of the diforder at the expiration of 
three months.” Mr. Aftley Cooper, on the other hand, 
inoculated a dog, a pig, a fowl, and a rabbit, with the 
faliva of a dog, which had recently died of rabies, by in¬ 
ferting, from the point of a lancet, between two and three 
drops under the Ikin of the inner part of the thigh of each. 
The dog and fowl were kept confined for nine weeks, and 
the pig feven, but without any appearances of hydro 
phobia. The dog afterwards became the property of a 
gentleman, who kept him nearly twelve months, and he 
4 L had 
