We are now arrived at one of the most important subjects in veterinary pathology. In other cases the comfort and the existence of our quadruped patients are alone or chiefly involved, but here the lives of our employers, and our own too, are at stake, and may be easily, and too often are, compromised. Here also, however other portions of the chain may be overlooked or denied, we have the link which most of all connects the veterinary surgeon with the practitioner of human medicine; or, rather, here is the circumscribed but valued spot where the veterinary surgeon has the vantage-ground.
In describing the nature, and cause and treatment of rabies, it will be most natural to take the animal in which it oftenest appears, by which it is most frequently propagated; the time at which the danger commences, and the usual period before the death of the patient.
Some
years ago a dog, naturally ferocious, bit a child at Lisson Grove. The child, to all appearance previously well, died on the third day, and an inquest was to be held on the body in the evening. The Coroner ordered the dog to be sent to me for examination The animal was, contrary to his usual habit, perfectly tractable. This will appear to be of some importance hereafter. I examined him carefully. No suspicious circumstance could be found about him. There was no appearance of rabies. In the mean time the inquest took place, and the corpse of the child was carefully examined. One medical gentleman thought that there were some suspicious appearances about the stomach, and another believed that there was congestion of the brain.
The owner of the dog begged that the animal might not be taken from him, but might accompany him home. He took him home and destroyed him that no experiments might be made.
With great difficulty we procured the carcass, and from some inflammatory appearances about the tongue and the stomach, and the presence of a small portion of indigestible matter in the stomach, we were unanimously of opinion that the dog was rabid.
I do not mean to say that the child died hydrophobous, or that its death was accelerated by the nascent disease existing in the dog. There was probably some nervous affection that hastened the death of the infant, and the dog bit the child at the very period when the malady first began to develop itself. On the following day there were morbid lesions enough to prove beyond doubt that he was rabid.
This case is introduced because I used afterwards to accompany every examination of supposed or doubtful rabies with greater caution than I probably had previously used.
It is occasionally very difficult to detect the existence of rabies in its nascent state. In the year 1813, a child attempted to rob a dog of its morning food, and the animal resisting the theft, the child was slightly scratched by its teeth. No one dreamed of danger.
Eight days afterwards
symptoms of rabies appeared in the dog, the malady ran its course, and the animal died. A few days afterwards the child sickened — undoubted characteristics of rabies were observed — they ran their course and the infant was lost.
There are other cases — fortunately not numerous — in the records of human surgery, resembling this. A person has been bitten by a dog, he has paid little or no attention to it, and no application of the caustic has been made. Some weeks, or even months, have passed, he has nearly or quite forgotten the affair, when he becomes languid and feverish, and full of fearful apprehensions, and this appearing perhaps during several days, or more than a week. The empoisonment has then ceased to be a local affair, the virus has entered into the circulation, and its impression is made on the constitution generally. Fortunately the disposition to bite rarely develops itself until the full establishment of the disease, otherwise we might sometimes inquire whether it were not our duty to exterminate the whole race of dogs.
The following case deserves to be recorded. On the 21st of October, 1813, a dog was brought to me for examination. He had vomited a considerable quantity of coagulated blood. I happened to be particularly busy at the moment, and not observing anything peculiar in his countenance or manner, I ordered some astringent sedative medicine, and said that I would see him again in the afternoon.
In the course of the afternoon he was again brought. The vomiting had quite ceased. His mouth seemed to be swollen, and, on examining him, I found that some of his incisor teeth, both in the upper and lower jaw, had been torn out. This somewhat alarmed me; and, on inquiring of the servant, I was told that he suspected that they had had thieves about the house on the preceding night, for the dog had torn away the side of his kennel in attempting to get at them. I scolded him for not having told me of this in the morning; and then, talking of various things, in order to prolong the time and to be able closely to watch my patient, I saw, or thought I saw, but in a very slight degree, that the animal was tracing the fancied path of some imaginary object. I was then truly alarmed, and more especially since I had discovered that in the giving of the physic in the morning the man's hand had been scratched; a youth had suffered the dog to lick his sore finger, and the animal had also been observed to lick the sore ear of an infant. He was a remarkably affectionate dog, and was accustomed to this abominable and inexcusable nonsense.
I insisted on detaining the dog, and gave the man a letter to the surgeon, telling him all my fears. He promptly acted on the hint, and before evening, the proper means were taken with regard to all three.
I watched this dog day after day. He would not eat, but he drank a great deal more water than I liked. The surgeon was evidently beginning to doubt whether I was not wrong, but he could not dispute the occasional wandering of the eye, and the frequent spume upon the water. On the 26th of October, however, the sixth day after his arrival, we both of us heard the rabid howl burst from him: he did not, however, die until the 30th. I mention this as another instance of the great difficulty there is to determine the real nature of the case in an early stage of the disease.
M. Perquin relates an interesting case. A lady had a greyhound, nine years old, that was accustomed to lie upon her bed at night, and cover himself with the bed-clothes. She remarked, one morning, that he had torn the covering of his bed, and, although he ate but little, drank oftener, and in larger quantity, than he was accustomed to do. She led him to a veterinary surgeon, who assured her that there was nothing serious the matter. On the following day, he bit her fore-finger near the nail, as she was giving him something to eat. She led him again to the veterinary surgeon, who assured her that she needed not to be under the least alarm, and as for the little wound on her finger, it was of no consequence. On the following day, the 27th of December, the dog died. He had not ceased to drink most abundantly to the very last.
On the 4th of February, as the lady was dining with her husband, she found some difficulty in deglutition. She wished to take some wine, but was unable to swallow it.
On the 5th, she consulted a surgeon. He wished her to swallow a little soup in his presence. She attempted to do it, but could not accomplish her object after many an effort. She then fell into a state of violent agitation, with constriction of the pharynx, and the discharge of a viscid fluid from the mouth.
On the 7th, she died, four days after the first attack of the disease, and in a state of excessive loss of flesh.
There
can be no doubt that both the dog and his mistress died rabid, the former having communicated the disease to the latter; but there is no satisfactory account of the manner in which the dog became diseased
1
.
Joseph Delmaire, of Looberghe, twenty-nine years old, was, on the 6th of October, 1836, bitten in the hand by a dog that he met with in the forest, and that was evidently rabid. On the following morning, he went to a medical man of some repute in the country, who washed the wound, and scarified it, and terminated the operation by tracing a bloody cross on the forehead of the patient.
He returned home, but he was far from being satisfied. The image of the dog that had attacked him was always before him, and his sleep was troubled with the most frightful dreams. So passed four-and-twenty days, when Delmaire, rising from his bed, felt the most dreadful trepidation; he panted violently; it seemed as if an enormous weight oppressed his chest, and from time to time there was profound sighing and sobbing. He complained every moment that he was smothered. He attempted to drink, but it was with great difficulty that a few drops of barley-water were swallowed. His mouth was dry, his throat burning, his thirst excessive, and all that he attempted to swallow was rejected with horror.
At nine o'clock at night he was largely bled. His respiration was more free, but the dread of every fluid remained. After an hour's repose, he started and felt the most fearful pain in every limb — his whole body was agitated with violent convulsions. The former place of bleeding was reopened, and a great quantity of blood escaped. The pulse became small and accelerated. The countenance was dreadful — the eyes were starting from their sockets — he continually sprung from his seat and uttered the most fearful howling. A quantity of foam filled his mouth, and compelled a continued expectoration. In his violent fits, the strength of six men was not sufficient to keep him on his bed. In the midst of a sudden recess of fury he would disengage himself from all that were attempting to hold him, and dash himself on the floor; there, freed from all control, he rolled about, beat himself, and tore everything that he could reach. In the short intervals that separated these crises, he regained possession of his reasoning powers: he begged his old father to pardon him, he talked to him and to those around with the most intense affection, and it was only when he felt that a new attack was at hand, that he prayed them to leave him. At length his mental excitation began to subside; his strength was worn out, and he suffered himself to be placed on his bed. The horrible convulsions from time to time returned, but the dread of liquors had ceased. He demanded something to drink. They gave him a little white wine, but he was unable to swallow it; it was returned through his nostrils. The poor fellow then endeavoured to sleep; but it was soon perceived that he had ceased to live.
The
early symptoms of rabies in the dog are occasionally very obscure. In the greater number of cases, these are sullenness, fidgetiness, and continual shifting of posture. Where I have had opportunity, I have generally found these circumstances in regular succession. For several consecutive hours perhaps he retreats to his basket or his bed. He shows no disposition to bite, and he answers the call upon him laggardly. He is curled up and his face is buried between his paws and his breast. At length he begins to be fidgety. He searches out new resting-places; but he very soon changes them for others. He takes again to his own bed; but he is continually shifting his posture. He begins to gaze strangely about him as he lies on his bed. His countenance is clouded and suspicious. He comes to one and another of the family and he fixes on them a steadfast gaze as if he would read their very thoughts. "I feel strangely ill," he seems to say: "have you anything to do with it? or you? or you?" Has not a dog mind enough for this? If we have observed a rabid dog at the commencement of the disease, we have seen this to the very life.
There is a species of dog — the small French poodle — the essence of whose character and constitution is fidgetiness or perpetual motion.
If this dog has been bitten, and rabies is about to establish itself, he is the most irritative restless being that can be conceived of; starting convulsively at the slightest sound; disposing of his bed in every direction, seeking out one retreat after another in order to rest his wearied frame, but quiet only for a moment in any one, and the motion of his limbs frequently stimulating chorea and even epilepsy.
A peculiar delirium is an early symptom, and one that will never deceive. A young man had been bitten by one of his dogs; I was requested to meet a medical gentleman on the subject: I was a little behind my time; as I entered the room I found the dog eagerly devouring a pan of sopped bread. "There is no madness here," said the gentleman. He had scarcely spoken, when in a moment the dog quitted the sop, and, with a furious bark sprung against the wall as if he would seize some imaginary object that he fancied was there. "Did you see that?" was my reply. "What do you think of it?" "I see nothing in it," was his retort: "the dog heard some noise on the other side of the wall." At my serious urging, however, he consented to excise the part. I procured a poor worthless cur, and got him bitten by this dog, and carried the disease from this dog to the third victim: they all became rabid one after the other, and there my experiment ended. The serious matter under consideration, perhaps, justified me in going so far as I did.
This kind of delirium is of frequent occurrence in the human patient.
The
account given by Dr. Bardsley of one of his patients is very appropriate to on profit purpose:
"I observed that he frequently fixed his eyes with horror and affright on some ideal object, and then, with a sudden and violent emotion, buried his head beneath the bed-clothes. The next time I saw him repeat this action, I was induced to inquire into the cause of his terror. He asked whether I had not heard howlings and scratchings. On being answered in the negative, he suddenly threw himself on his knees, extending his arms in a defensive posture, and forcibly threw back his head and body. The muscles of the face were agitated by various spasmodic contractions; his eye-balls glazed, and seemed ready to start from their sockets; and, at the moment, when crying out in an agonizing tone, 'Do you not see that black dog?' his countenance and attitude exhibited the most dreadful picture of complicated horror, distress, and rage that words can describe or imagination paint."
I have again and again seen the rabid dog start up after a momentary quietude, with unmingled ferocity depicted on his countenance, and plunge with a savage howl to the end of his chain. At other times he would stop and watch the nails in the partition of the stable in which he was confined, and fancying them to move he would dart at them, and occasionally sadly bruise and injure himself from being no longer able to measure the distance of the object. In one of his sudden fits of violence a rabid dog strangled the Cardinal Crescence, the Legate of the Pope, at the Council of Trent in 1532.
M. Magendie has often injected into the veins of an hydrophobous dog as much as five grains of opium without producing any effect; while a single grain given to the healthy dog would suffice to send him almost to sleep.
One
of Mr. Babington's patients thought that there was a cloud of flies about him. "Why do you not kill those flies!" he would cry; and then he would strike at them with his hand, and shrink under the bed-clothes, in the most dreadful fear.
There is also in the human being a peculiarity in this delirium which seems to distinguish it from every other kind of mental aberration.
"The patient," in Mr. Lawrence's language, "is pursued by a thousand phantoms that intrude themselves upon his mind; he holds conversation with imaginary persons; he fancies himself surrounded with difficulties, and in the greatest distress. These thoughts seem to pass through his mind with wonderful rapidity, and to keep him in a state of the greatest distress, unless he is quickly spoken to or addressed by his name, and, then, in a moment the charm is broken; every phantom of imagination disappears, and at once he begins to talk as calmly and as connectedly as in perfect health."
So it is with the dog, whether he is watching the motes that are floating in the air, or the insects that are annoying him on the walls, or the foes that he fancies are threatening him on every side — one word recalls him in a moment. Dispersed by the magic influence of his master's voice, every object of terror disappears, and he crawls towards him with the same peculiar expression of attachment that used to characterize him.
Then comes a moment's pause — a moment of actual vacuity — the eye slowly closes, the head droops, and he seems as if his fore feet were giving way, and he would fall: but he springs up again, every object of terror once more surrounds him — he gazes wildly around — he snaps — he barks, and he rushes to the extent of his chain, prepared to meet his imaginary foe.
The expression of the countenance of the dog undergoes a considerable change, principally dependent on the previous disposition of the animal. If he was naturally of an affectionate disposition, there will be an anxious, inquiring countenance, eloquent, beyond the power of resisting its influence. It is made up of strange suppositions as to the nature of the depression of mind under which he labours, mingled with some passing doubts, and they are but passing, as to the concern which the master has in the affair; but, most of all, there is an affectionate and confiding appeal for relief. At the same time we observe some strange fancy, evidently passing through his mind, unalloyed, however, by the slightest portion of ferocity.
In
the countenance of the naturally savage brute, or him that has been trained to be savage, there is indeed a fearful change; sometimes the conjunctiva is highly injected; at other times it is scarcely affected, but the eyes have an unusually bright and dazzling appearance. They are like two balls of fire, and there is a peculiar transparency of the hyaloid membrane, or injection of that of the retina.
A very early symptom of rabies in the dog, is an extreme degree of restlessness. Frequently, he is almost invariably wandering about, shifting from corner to corner, or continually rising up and lying down, changing his posture in every possible way, disposing of his bed with his paws, shaking it with his mouth, bringing it to a heap, on which he carefully lays his chest, or rather the pit of his stomach, and then rising up and bundling every portion of it out of the kennel. If he is put into a closed basket, he will not be still for an instant, but turn round and round without ceasing. If he is at liberty, he will seem to imagine that something is lost, and he will eagerly search round the room, and particularly every corner of it, with strange violence and indecision.
In a very great portion of cases of hydrophobia in the human being, there is, as a precursory symptom, uneasiness, pain, or itching of the bitten part. A red line may also be traced up the limb, in the direction of the lymphatics. In a few cases the wound opens afresh.
The poison is now beginning fatally to act on the tissue, on which it had previously lain harmless. When the conversation has turned on this subject, long after the bitten part has been excised, pain has darted along the limb. I have been bitten much oftener than I liked, by dogs decidedly rabid, but, proper means being taken, I have escaped; and yet often, when I have been over-fatigued, or a little out of temper, some of the old sores have itched and throbbed, and actually become red and swollen.
The
dog appears to suffer a great deal of pain in the ear in common canker. He will be almost incessantly scratching it, crying piteously while thus employed. The ear is, oftener than any other part, bitten by the rabid dog, and, when a wound in the ear, inflicted by a rabid dog, begins to become painful, the agony appears to be of the intensest kind. The dog rubs his ear against every projecting body, he scratches it might and main, and tumbles over and over while he is thus employed.
The young practitioner should be on his guard there. Is this dreadful itching a thing of yesterday, or, has the dog been subject to canker, increasing for a considerable period? Canker both internal and external is a disease of slow growth, and must have been long neglected before it will torment the patient in the manner that I have described. The question as to the length of time that an animal has thus suffered will usually be a sufficient guide.
The mode in which he expresses his torture will serve as another direction. He will often scratch violently enough when he has canker, but he will not roll over and over like a football except he is rabid. If there is very considerable inflammation of the lining membrane of the ear, and engorgement and ulceration of it, this is the effect of canker; but if there is only a slight redness of the membrane, or no redness at all, and yet the dog is incessantly and violently scratching himself, it is too likely that rabies is at hand.
In the early stage of rabies, the attachment of the dog towards his owner seems to be rapidly increased, and the expression of that feeling. He is employed, almost without ceasing, licking the hands, or face, or any part he can get at. Females, and men too, are occasionally apt to permit the dog, when in health, to indulge this filthy and very dangerous habit with regard to them. The virus, generated under the influence of rabies, is occasionally deposited on a wounded or abraded surface, and in process of time produces a similar disease in the person that has been so inoculated by it. Therefore it is that the surgeon so anxiously inquires of the person that has been bitten, and of all those to whom the dog has had access, "Has he been accustomed to lick you? have you any sore places about you that can by possibility have been licked by him?" If there are, the person is in fully as much danger as if he had been bitten, and it is quite as necessary to destroy the part with which the virus may have come in contact. A lady once lost her life by suffering her dog to lick a pimple on her chin.
There
is a beautiful species of dog, often the inhabitant of the gentleman's stable — the Dalmatian or coach dog. He has, perhaps, less affection for the human species than any other dog, except the greyhound and the bull-dog; he has less sagacity than most others, and certainly less courage. He is attached to the stable; he is the friend of the horse; they live under the same roof; they share the same bed; and, when the horse is summoned to his work, the dog accompanies every step. They are certainly beautiful dogs, and it is pleasing to see the thousand expressions of friendship between them and the horse; but, in their continual excursions through the streets, they are exposed to some danger, and particularly to that of being bitten by rabid dogs. It is a fearful business when this takes place. The coachman probably did not see the affray; no suspicion has been excited. The horse rubs his muzzle to the dog, and the dog licks the face of the horse, and in a great number of cases the disease is communicated from the one to the other. The dog in process of time dies, the horse does not long survive, and, frequently too, the coachman shares their fate. I have known at least twenty horses destroyed in this way.
A depraved appetite is a frequent attendant on rabies in the dog. He refuses his usual food; he frequently turns from it with an evident expression of disgust; at other times, he seizes it with greater or less avidity, and then drops it, sometimes from disgust, at other times because he is unable to complete the mastication of it. This palsy of the organs of mastication, and dropping of the food, after it has been partly chewed, is a symptom on which implicit confidence may be placed.
Some dogs vomit once or twice in the early period of the disease: when this happens, they never return to the natural food of the dog, but are eager for everything that is filthy and horrible. The natural appetite generally fails entirely, and to it succeeds a strangely depraved one. The dog usually occupies himself with gathering every little bit of thread, and it is curious to observe with what eagerness and method he sets to work, and how completely he effects his object. He then attacks every kind of dirt and filth, horse-dung, his own dung, and human excrement. Some breeds of spaniels are very filthy feeders without its being connected with disease, but the rabid dog eagerly selects the excrement of the horse, and his own. Some considerable care, however, must be exercised here. At the period of dentition, and likewise at the commencement of the sexual affection, the stomach of the dog, and particularly that of the bitch, sympathises with, or shares in, the irritability of the gums, and of the constitution generally, and there is a considerably perverted appetite. The dog also feels the same propensity that influences the child, that of taking hard substances into the mouth, and seemingly trying to masticate them. Their pressure on the gums facilitates the passage of the new teeth. A young dog will, therefore, be observed gathering up hard substances, and, if he should chance to die, a not inconsiderable collection of them is sometimes found in the stomach. They are, however, of a peculiar character; they consist of small pieces of bone, slick, and coal.
The contents of the stomach of the rabid dog, are often, or generally, of a most filthy description. Some hair or straw is usually found, but the greater part is composed of horse-dung, or of his own dung, and it may be received as a certainly, that if he is found deliberately devouring it, he is rabid.
Some very important conclusions may be drawn from the appearance and character of the urine. The dog, and at particular times when he is more than usually salacious, may, and does diligently search the urining places; he may even, at those periods, be seen to lick the spot which another has just wetted; but, if a peculiar eagerness accompanies this strange employment, if, in the parlour, which is rarely disgraced by this evacuation, every corner is perseveringly examined, and licked with unwearied and unceasing industry, that dog cannot be too carefully watched, there is great danger about him; he may, without any other symptom, be pronounced to be decidedly rabid. I never knew a single mistake about this.
Much
has been said of the profuse discharge of saliva from the mouth of the rabid dog. It is an undoubted fact that, in this disease, all the glands concerned in the secretion of saliva, become increased in bulk and vascularity. The sublingual glands wear an evident character of inflammation; but it never equals the increased discharge that accompanies epilepsy, or nausea. The frothy spume at the corners of the mouth, is not for a moment to be compared with that which is evident enough in both of these affections. It is a symptom of short duration, and seldom lasts longer than twelve hours. The stories that are told of the mad dog covered with froth, are altogether fabulous. The dog recovering from, or attacked by a fit, may be seen in this state; but not the rabid dog. Fits are often mistaken for rabies, and hence the delusion.
The increased secretion of saliva soon passes away. It lessens in quantity; it becomes thicker, viscid, adhesive, and glutinous. It clings to the corners of the mouth, and probably more annoyingly so to the membrane of the fauces. The human being is sadly distressed by it, he forces it out with the greatest violence, or utters the falsely supposed bark of a dog, in his attempts to force it from his mouth. This symptom occurs in the human being, when the disease is fully established, or at a late period of it. The dog furiously attempts to detach it with his paws.
It is an early symptom in the dog, and it can scarcely be mistaken in him. When he is fighting with his paws at the corners of his mouth, let no one suppose that a bone is sticking between the poor fellow's teeth; nor should any useless and dangerous effort be made to relieve him. If all this uneasiness arose from a bone in the mouth, the mouth would continue permanently open instead of closing when the animal for a moment discontinues his efforts. If after a while he loses his balance and tumbles over, there can be no longer any mistake. It is the saliva becoming more and more glutinous, irritating the fauces and threatening suffocation.
To this naturally and rapidly succeeds an insatiable thirst. The dog that still has full power over the muscles of his jaws continues lo lap. He knows not when to cease, while the poor fellow labouring under the dumb madness, presently to be described, and whose jaw and tongue are paralysed, plunges his muzzle into the water-dish to his very eyes, in order that he may get one drop of water into the back part of his mouth to moisten and to cool his dry and parched fauces. Hence, instead of this disease being always characterised by the dread of water in the dog, it is marked by a thirst often perfectly unquenchable. Twenty years ago, this assertion would have been peremptorily denied. Even at the present day we occasionally meet with those who ought to know better, and who will not believe that the dog which fairly, or perhaps eagerly, drinks, can be rabid.
January22d
, 1815. — A Newfoundland dog belonging to a gentleman in Piccadilly was supposed to have swallowed a penny-piece on the 20th. On the evening of that day he was dull, refused his food, and would not follow his master.
21st
. He became restless and pouting, and continually shifting his position. He would not eat nor would he drink water, but followed his mistress into her bed-room, which he had never done before, and eagerly lapped the urine from her chamber-pot. He was afterwards seen lapping his own urine. His restlessness and panting increased, He would neither eat nor drink, and made two or three attempts to vomit.
22d
. He was brought to me this evening. His eyes were wild, the conjunctiva considerably inflamed, and he panted quickly and violently. There was a considerable flow of saliva from the corners of his mouth. He was extremely restless and did not remain in one position half a minute. There was an occasional convulsive nodding motion of the head. The eyes were wandering, and evidently following some imaginary object; but he was quickly recalled from his delirium by my voice or that of his master. In a few moments, however, he was wandering again. He had previously been under my care, and immediately recognised me and offered me his paw. His bark was changed and had a slight mixture of the howl, and there was a husky choking noise in the throat.
I immediately declared that he was rabid, and with some reluctance on the part of his master, he was left with me.
23d
, 8 A. M. The breathing was less quick and laborious. The spasm of the head was no longer visible. The flow of saliva had stopped and there was less delirium. The jaw began to be dependent: the rattling, choking noise in his throat louder. He carried straw about in his mouth. He picked up some pieces of old leather that lay within his reach and carefully concealed them under his bed. Two minutes afterwards he would take them out again, and look at them, and once more hide them. He frequently voided his urine in small quantities, but no longer lapped it. A little dog was lowered into the den, but he took no notice of it.
10 P. M. Every symptom of fever returned with increased violence. He panted very much, and did not remain in the same posture two seconds. He was continually running to the end of his chain and attempting to bite. He was eagerly and wildly watching some imaginary object. His voice was hoarser — more of the howl mixing with it. The lips were distorted, and the tongue very black. He was evidently getting weaker. After two or three attempts to escape, he would sit down for a second, and then rise and plunge to the end of his chain. He drank frequently, yet but little at a time, and that without difficulty or spasm.
12 P. M. The thirst strangely increased. He had drunk or spilled full three quarts of water. There was a peculiar eagerness in his manner. He plunged his nose to the very bottom of his pan, and then snapped at the bubbles which he raised. No spasm followed the drinking. He took two or three pieces from my hand, but immediately dropped them from want of power to hold them. Yet he was able for a moment suddenly to close his jaws. When not drinking he was barking with a harsh sound, and frequently started suddenly, watching, and catching at some imaginary object.
24th
, A. M. He was more furious, yet weaker. The thirst was insatiable. He was otherwise diligently employed in shattering and tearing everything within his reach. He died about three o'clock.
It is impossible to say what was the origin of this disease in him. It is not connected with any degree or variation of temperature, or any particular state of the atmosphere. It is certainly more frequent in the summer or the beginning of autumn than in the winter or spring, because it is a highly nervous and febrile disease, and the degree of fever, and irritability, and ferocity, and consequent mischief are augmented by increase of temperature. In the great majority of cases, the inoculation can be distinctly proved. In very few can the possibility be denied. The injury is inflicted in an instant. There is no contest, and before the injured party can prepare to retaliate, the rabid dog is far away.
It can easily be believed that when a favourite dog has, but for a moment, lagged behind, he may be bitten without the owner's knowledge or suspicion. A spaniel belonging to a lady became rabid. The dog was her companion in her grounds at her country residence, and it was rarely out of her sight except for a few minutes in the morning, when the servant took it out. She was not conscious of its having been bitten, and the servant stoutly denied it. The animal died. A few weeks afterwards the footman was taken ill. He was hydrophobous. In one of his intervals of comparative quietude he confessed that, one morning, his charge had been attacked and rolled over by another dog; that there was no appearance of its having been bitten, but that it had been made sadly dirty, and he had washed it before he suffered it again to go into the drawing-room. The dog that attacked it must have been rabid, and some of his saliva must have remained about the coat of the spaniel, by which the servant was fatally inoculated.
Another
case of this fearful disease must not be passed over. A dog that had been docile and attached to his master and mistress, was missing one morning, and came home in the evening almost covered with dirt. He slunk to his basket, and would pay no attention to any one. His owners thought it rather strange, and I was sent for in the morning. He was lying on the lap of his mistress, but was frequently shifting his posture, and every now and then he started, as if he heard some strange sound. I immediately told them what was the matter, and besought them to place him in another and secure room. He had been licking both their hands. I was compelled to tell them at once what was the nature of the case, and besought them to send at once for their surgeon. They were perfectly angry at my nonsense, as they called it, and I took my leave, but went immediately to their medical man, and told him what was the real state of the case. He called, as it were accidentally, a little while afterwards, and I was not far behind him. The surgeon did his duty, and they escaped.