344 
APPENDIX.—D. 
sought for by one person as well as another, by the most unin 
formed, and by the amateur as well as the professional man. 
It is also more important, because it may be found long after 
death, when the other marks have become blended in the uni¬ 
versal decomposition and decay of the body. I cannot exem 
plify this better, than by relating a circumstance of my being 
sent for, to a considerable distance in the country, to examine a 
suspected dog, that had been already buried three weeks, but 
was now dug up for my inspection. All other marks to be 
gained from the morbid anatomy had, of course, disappeared ; 
and I must have been left in doubt, (for the dog had come from 
some distant part, had bitten a child who was caressing him 
and had been in consequence killed on the spot—nothing, there¬ 
fore, of his history was known,) had it not been for this unfailing 
criterion, which I found to exist, in this instance, in its full 
force, and from which I was led, without fear of error, to decide 
that the dog had been rabid, and, consequently, without exci¬ 
sion of the bitten parts the child’s life was in danger. 
“ When the stomach is emptied, it usually presents marks of 
very intense inflammation. If the dog has been destroyed very 
early in the complaint, the inflammatory markings may not be 
very considerable, but, in every such instance even, which has 
fallen under my notice, in some degree or other, they have still 
been present; while, in those cases where the animal had been 
suffered to die of the disease, I never remember one in which 
the morbid appearances were not considerable. The inner 
surface, or rugous coat, is often livid, and not unfrequently 
sprinkled over with pustular prominences; it is not unusual, 
likewise, for it to exhibit sphacelated ulcerous patches. I have 
seen it actually perforated by the mortification present. The 
outer surface is seldom wholly free from inflammatory marks 
either, particularly along the great curvature; and such is the 
intensity of the inflammation, that I have seen blood extrava- 
sated between the membranous and muscular coats. Thera are 
seldom many fluid contents present,—the mass of infesta 
usually absorbs what may be there; but when any sue? <*re 
