1807, | 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
FTER I had finifhed the few obfer- 
rations on dogs, lately feut you, 
happening to take up a newfpaper of 
the preceding day, 1 caft my eyes on 
a paragraph on the fame fubjett, by 
another anonymous writer. 
He afferts, “ that a dog bitten, but 
feparated and confined, remained tree 
fur five months, and then took the dit- 
eale ef which he died; while feveral 
others, bitten at the faine time, had at 
ditiereut intervals, previouily become 
rabid and died,” 
This tact is given on the credit of an 
huntiman,. May we not alk, Was he 
qualified to Judge, whether this was 1n 
confequence of the bite, or, whether it 
inigut not be a different malady ? £ Dogs, 
like other animals, are fubject to various 
complaints, and frie ont nearly re- 
femble hydrophobia, There is a dif 
eale a which Dr. James cap others call 
dumb madnefs, under which the animals 
do not attempt to bite, but remain 
flugeith and ftupid till they dic. This 
imay be called {purious, and of doubt- 
ful infection ; yet admitting the Tact, as 
this writer inter ids, it makes only an ex- 
ception to a-veneral law; which, inftead 
of detiroying, is a ftronger confirmation, 
Seme have taken tke fimall- “pox twice, 
yet this will never deitroy the belief 
that the general character of the diteafe 
is, to attack once only the fame indivi- 
dual. he fame has been obferved 
the fearlet fever, though I am confident 
that it is fpecitic, and its general cha- 
racter fimilar, in this refpect, to the finall- 
pox. The yeneral character, alfo, of the 
vaccine virus, is to run through its {tages 
in about nine days, yet I have met, In 
my prattice, with two cafes, where the 
inoculated punétares healed in two or 
three days without the leaf appearance 
of infeétion, and I confidered it a failure. 
At the end of fifteen days, however, in 
one inftance, and feventeen in the other, 
the punetures inflamed, went through 
their tlages, and a complete veficle was 
produced at the ufual period. Both 
thefechildren, expofed fince to the final!- 
pox, to prove the elficacy of the vaccine 
prefervative, continue fecure from the 
variolous inteétion ; while they prove, 
at the fame time, ‘the dormant fiate of 
the infet¢tion in thefe inftances to have 
been nearly double that of the general 
law, anomala which may not again hap- 
pen in a thoufand cafes. 
J am, therefore, little inclined to change 
Dy. Hamilton, on Hydropiobia: 209 
my fentiments refpectiog the interval 
between the bite and the fubtequent 
difeafe in the dog, till mere faéts, and 
thefe better difcruninated, fhall be pre- 
dueed. I do vot, therefore, hefitate oe 
repeat, that from five to fix weeks is 
nea! tor the confinement of a deg 
fufpected to be bitten, and that the 
auimal may from thence be allowed the 
enjoyment of his liberty, without danger 
of difeale ; yet f fhall not inveigh ag ada 
any one w ‘hof e timidity may impel hive 
to extend to hus fulpected dog the time 
of confinement, ibs in his owa Opilien, 
it fhould render ‘nae fecurer apd more 
happy. I infiit only on the truth of the 
general law, and have never found # 
to deviate in any inftance, wherein my 
direétions were concerned, 
The hydrophobic poifon takes a great= 
er range from inoculation, till the fyftem 
becomes infeéted, than any other con- 
tagious virus, fome in{tances of typhus, 
according to the obtervation of a re- 
{pectable author, excepted, where many 
months ints ;rvened from expofure to the. 
effluvia in one intlance, before it be- 
caine active, though the general law ia 
it, as in others, be well defined. it 
would, however, be unfair to take ex- 
treme cafes, as well as unphilefophical 
and contrary t@ facts to conclude that 
the hydropholjic 1s uncertain and inde- 
finite as to zts time of acting; yet this 
opinion hits unfortunately long prevail- 
ed, and has been copied by one auther 
from another without examining late 
the fact. 
This ill-founded notion has bees 
fraught with much mitery to individuals. 
“All Hie farrago Gi preventives have beew 
eagerly fought after, and human health 
deftroyed, for more than half a life-time, 
to obviate a difeafe, which it was believ= 
ed might occur at any interval, from aa 
hour after the bite, to the molt advanced 
ave. 
A refpeétable perfon, in this county? 
having been bitten by a fufpeéted hound, 
and rendered miferable from this belief 
fwallowed many noftrums. He melted 
down hjs conflitution with mercury, and 
neither rofe nor lay down free from ap- 
prehentions ‘for a feries of years, till m 
animadvertions on the fubject happily 
reftored him to quiet of mind. Twenty 
years have’ fince elapled, and he ftilt 
lives free from alarm, enjoying his ufval 
health. The dociad I believe, is no 
longer held by the faculty, though it exifts 
in full furce among the geuerality or 
the other orders in fociety, 
From 
