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APPENDIX.-D. 
all who observe the disease with only common attention ; from 
the first to the last, no aversion to water is observed. We state 
this as a general fact; one or two instances in as many hun¬ 
dreds may occur of constitutional idiosyncrasy, where liquids 
have been refused; but of the many hundreds of rabid dogs we 
have seen, not one has shewn any marked aversion to water. 
In the early stages, liquids of all kinds are taken as usual, and 
some continue to take them throughout the complaint; others 
cannot, from a swelling and paralysis of the parts of deglutition, 
readily swallow them in the advanced stages; but, in such, no 
spasm is occasioned by the attempt, nor does it cause pain or 
dread; on the contrary, from the thirst brought on by the 
symptomatic fever present, water is sought for, and, in most 
cases, an extreme eagerness is expressed for it. The experience 
of more than twenty-five years, many of which were passed 
in the midst of its most frightful visitations, I again repeat, did 
not produce one instance where anything like a dread of water was 
manifested , or any where spasm followed the attempts to take it” 
In the whole of Mr. Blaine’s excellent observations, there is 
no point more worthy of remark than this, as on the neglect or 
observance of it much indeed depends ; and the commonest of 
all errors concerning canine madness, is on this point. 
It is an undoubted fact, contrary to all received opinion, that 
THE MAD DOG HAS NO FEAR OF WATER WHATSOEVER ; conse¬ 
quently, the refusal of water is no evidence of a dog’s madness, 
much less is the greedy drinking of water, or plunging into it, 
any proof of his being free from madness ! 
“ Acute Rabies , or Raging Madness,” he proceeds, “ as it is 
called, is that state of increased excitement and irritability, 
which begins to shew itself immediately after , and occasionally 
only with the early symptoms. Sometimes these precursors 
are passed over, unnoticed, and it is therefore supposed that the 
animal is at once attacked with the appearances that follow. It 
is, however, very seldom that such is really the case, by which 
the danger from madness is much lessened. The acute or 
raging kind is distinguished by a general quickness of manner, 
