i 74 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Aug. x, 1908. 
Sun God, asking that he take pity on the patient,' 
his children and his relations; that if cured he 
would go to war and would return with a rich 
offering to give to the Sun. 
The medicine man set fire to the dry grass 
below the hide, the hair burning fiercely, and the 
patient was swung over the fire, being turned 
over and over as the medicine man directed, 
until the hair was burned off the hide. The 
patient was then freed from his confinement 
and was cared for by his family. The disease 
had been sweated out of him. 
Wolves afflicted with rabies were most often 
seen in the months of March and April, although 
I have seen them quite late in the season of dog 
days with all the signs of the dread disease. 
They went alone, roaming aimlessly about, lack¬ 
ing the motions of a hunting wolf, trotting along, 
at intervals making a circling movement, snap¬ 
ping at the tail or hind parts as they made the 
circle, keeping up a trot and repeating until 
lost sight of. When killed they showed marks 
of self inflicted wounds. 
The Indian dogs by their actions showed they 
knew mad wolves when they came into the camp 
by keeping from close contact with them, bark¬ 
ing and yelping at them, closing in on them, and 
again retreating—herding them out of camp. 
An Indian once told me of a well-to-do 
chief of his people, who owned a band of horses 
all of a mouse color, with a black stripe down 
the back. For years he had been breeding them 
and he felt much pride in and affection for them. 
His camp was attacked by a band of mad wolves 
and his band of horses all died from being 
bitten. I have not seen a case of rabies on the 
range of late j^ears, for with the disappearance 
of the buffalo went also the great bands of 
wolves. Charles Aubrey. 
[to be concluded.] 
Adirondack Fires Out. 
The copious rains, which began falling July 
17, extinguished the forest fires in the Adiron- 
dacks before any serious damage- occurred, and 
unless we have another prolonged drouth the 
woods will be safe for the rest of the season. 
Prior to July 17 the fires became numerous 
and alarming, but there was little loss in green 
timber because the fires were confined to areas 
that had been burned over before, old slashes, 
brush fields and berry patches. In places where 
the flames swept up to a wall of live trees on 
the edge of a piece of woods the outer fringe of 
standing timber was scorched and killed, but with 
few exceptions the fire did not enter the forest. 
Most of the fires started from the railroads, 
and spreading over the waste lands of previous 
burns, assumed at times threatening proportions. 
The fire wardens, and the men warned out by 
them, did some good faithful work. In most 
instances they had the fires extinguished or 
under control before the rains came. 
The railroad patrols, employed by the Forest- 
Commission, rendered good service in following 
each train and extinguishing the numerous in¬ 
cipient fires that started up, caused by coals and 
sparks from the ash pans or smoke stacks of 
the locomotives. If the lomotives were all 
equipped with petroleum burners in spring and 
summer, as on the Raquette Lake Railway, the 
Adirondack forests would be comparatively safe 
from fire, and the burned areas along the rail¬ 
road lines would in time reforest themselves. 
Rabies. 
Rabies, commonly known as madness of the 
dog, and hydrophobia, madness of the man, is 
always the result of the inoculation of the rabies 
virus by the dog, and is one of the most fright¬ 
ful diseases with which the animal organism is 
afflicted. The culminating symptoms indicate the 
most intense suffering, and the prognosis almost 
invariably indicates death. 
Strange to relate, the popular opinions con¬ 
cerning this destructive disease are in opposition 
at two widely opposite extremes. One opinion 
holds that the disease does not exist at all; the 
other, that every dog which exhibits a disordered 
state of mind, whether from epilepsy, apoplexy, 
overheating, excessive thirst, etc., is unmistak¬ 
ably mad, and should accordingly be destroyed 
forthwith. 
Those who hold that the disease does not exist 
at all advance as proof that they never saw a 
mad dog. nor do they know of anyone who ever 
saw such dog, and of this class are a few phy¬ 
sicians. 
There are many people who never have seen 
the antipodes, nor the further side of the moon, 
nor even the backs of their own necks, yet there 
is quite sufficient evidence to prove that these 
things really exist, as well as many thousands 
of similar things unseen. Indeed, there are 
many diseases, whose existence is well substan¬ 
tiated by proof in the medical books, which few 
physicians have seen, but which all physicians 
accept as existing without question. 
Divested of the extraneous dictum of those 
who believe nothing and those who believe every¬ 
thing, let us consider the disease as it really 
exists. That it depends entirely for its exist¬ 
ence on the medium of inoculation is an ac¬ 
cepted and undisputed theory by all enlightened 
veterinarians and physicians. Therefore, there 
must be cases of rabies constantly in existence, 
which by adventitious circumstances here and 
there in certain localities at times apparently be¬ 
come epidemic, but which in fact are consequent 
on the bite of a dog which is physically power¬ 
ful, aggressive, speedy and pertinacious in his 
wanderings, communicating it by bites to other 
active dogs, which in turn bite other dogs, and 
so on. It is obvious that if a small weaklitfg or 
old dog started, suffering from madness on his 
travels, his chances and ability to inflict wide¬ 
spread harm would be relatively limited, becausc- 
he would soon be killed by a more powerful 
dog, or would not possess the physical speed and 
endurance for a long journey, or his powers to 
resist the disease would be so small that he 
would quickly succumb to its destructiveness. 
A widespread fallacy, in respect to rabies, is 
that it flourishes best and is most abundant in 
hot weather, particularly in the late summer 
time, the season known as the dog days. The 
vulgar belief is that those days have a direct 
and sinister reference to dogs. As a matter of 
fact the term dog days had its origin in a be¬ 
lief of the ancients that the conjunction of the 
rising of Sirius (the Dog Star) with the rising 
of the sun, caused the sultry, enervating heat 
of late summer with the consequent many 
maladies which are so prevalent at that season. 
In later times, the ancient idea, as herein men¬ 
tioned, is almost entirely dissociated from the 
modern beliefs concerning the significance of the 
term dog days. This would be a harmless mat¬ 
ter, one of' trifling importance, did it not result 
in so much of misfortune and death to the dog. 
In summer, as compared with winter, dogs 
suffer much more distress from thirst, and from 
diseases consequent to overheating. Therefore, 
in summer more frequently than in winter, they 
appear to public view in a disorganized state. 
In cities in particular, the pangs of intense thirst 
are difficult to assuage, and when in frantic 
search of water, lolling and going wildly, the 
dog is in imminent danger of being denounced 
as mad. That means death. 
No season of the year is more favorable than 
another for the spread of rabies. It exists all 
the year round. It is not a disease which has 
a spontaneous origin. If the dog is inoculated 
with the virus of rabies, such dog will certainly 
have the disease regardless of season. If 1 
vigorous mad dog runs amuck in winter or sum¬ 
mer, biting dogs and other animals on oppor¬ 
tunity, there then may be what is popularly 
known as an epidemic of rabies over a wide 
area. Such area may be larger in summer than 
in winter for the reason that in frigid latitudes 
the dog might soon die of exposure to severe 
cold. 
If the mad dog should wander through a 
densely settled district, he probably would bite 
and thereby inoculate many more animals than 
he would if his wanderings were through a 
sparsely settled district, or through fields and 
forests. The degree of epidemic thus would be 
largely the result of the dog’s accidental course 
in wandering, his viciousness and activity in bit¬ 
ing, the number of other dogs bitten, etc. 
A fallacious belief exists that a dog which 
has bitten a person should be killed forthwith, 
so that the latter may be saved from madness. 
A moment’s reflection will show the absurdity 
of such idea. If the poison has once been forced 
into the tissues, it is then just the same whether 
the dog is alive or dead. But if the dog is per¬ 
mitted to live and is quarantined, it is an easy 
matter after a few days to determine whether 
the animal has rabies, and thus whether the per¬ 
son bitten is in danger. As the virus sometimes 
lies dormant for months, it is obvious that the 
condition of the dog at the time of the bite is 
an essential in making a reasonable diagnosis, 
and this cannot be done if the dog is killed, un¬ 
less the body is sent to a specialist for purposes 
of post-mortem. 
One of the most voluminous early writers on 
this subject was William Youatt, an English 
veterinary surgeon. Save in the matter of the 
germ origin of rabies, his descriptions are in 
the main the same as those accepted as authori¬ 
tative at the present day. He in one instance 
relates the case of a child, bitten by a naturallv 
ferocious dbg, from which injury the child died 
on the third day. 1 he dog was killed forthwith 
after the bite, and the post-mortem showed that 
the dog was rabid. Latter day investigation con¬ 
firms the theory that the saliva of the rabid dog 
contains the virus of rabies several days before 
any abnormal symptoms occur. 
\ ouatt also relates the case of a child who was 
slightly scratched by the tooth of a dog which 
apparently was in perfect health. Eight days 
afterward the dog exhibited symptoms of rabies 
and in due course died. A few days afterward 
the child was attacked by rabies and also died. 
He further cites cases in which the virus has 
lain dormant in the human system during months 
