HYDROPHOBIA. 
347 
usual habits they spared the herds and flocks and attacked human 
beings. Upwards of thirty men fell victims to these attacks. In 1590 
canine madness prevailed in Spain and amongst the wolves in the prov¬ 
ince of Monthelliard.”* The doctor, Heberden, who in 1810 was 
ninety years of age, had not seen a single case of hydrophobia previous 
to the epidemic which occurred in England at the beginning of this 
century both among dogs and foxes.f Since that time to 1869 there 
has been a decrease in frequency of the disease. In 1869 Mr. Williams 
witnessed the disease in a pack of hounds in the north of Eng¬ 
land. . . . x 
In 1872 or 1873 an epizootic broke out in the United States, and 
you all remember the terror caused, especially in New York, by this 
dreadful disease, and the exciting paragraphs of the newspapers, so 
much so that hundreds of dogs were destroyed for fear of their becom¬ 
ing rabid. In this country there has been no outbreak of the malady, 
some isolated cases, here and there, which are destroyed generally 
before they do any mischief. 
In England the disease seems to be permanently established. In 
the Veterinarian for October last, Mr. Mears, the house physician of the 
London Hospital, is made to say that two persons per day now come to 
have bites cauterized at this institution ; that a dozen cases of marked 
hydrophobia have come to his notice this year. The London corre¬ 
spondent of the Montreal Gazette , dated November 8, says “ that seven 
deaths have occurred lately from hydrophobia, and quite a panic has 
been created in several districts, leading to a wholesale slaughter of 
dogs and a great abundance of letters and leading articles in news¬ 
papers. It is unfortunately true that rabies is just now somewhat preva¬ 
lent among our canine friends. . . . The cases of hydrophobia 
hitherto reported have generally been caused by the bite of a stray dog, 
and it is not pleasant to think that there is a multitude of these beasts 
wandering about the country, half starved and diseased, and suffering, 
many of them, from the infection in various stages. This is not a mere 
assertion. I can give you a case in point. Near Watford a well known 
and highly respected young fellow was walking along alone, when he 
was suddenly attacked by a wandering retriever, and although he suc¬ 
ceeded in beating off his assailant, he was, of course, severely bitten. 
The dog got away and has not been since, but the man died within a 
month. Stray dogs were at once proscribed, and in three days the 
* Fleming. 
t Mosely on Hydrophobia. 
X Williams. 
