Is he affected with hallucination? Does he exhibit ardent thirst? Does he scratch his ear violently? Does he paw at the corners of the mouth, and not keep the mouth permanently open while doing so? Does he misconduct himself in the room, and pertinaciously lick at the corners where he has done so ? Does he refuse his natural food, and exhibit a depraved appetite? Is he insensible to pain? Is his

voice strangely altered? Any one of these symptoms should awaken suspicion, and a close observation will then quickly discover the true state of the case. We advise all our readers to commit these symp toms to memory-to learn them as a lesson is learnt which in after life may be of paramount importance; and to help them to fix these in the memory, we will add a few illustrative cases.

On the 21st October 1813, a dog was brought to Mr Youatt for examination. He had vomited a quantity of coagulated bloodwhich is no symptom of rabies; and as the surgeon was extremely busy just then, he simply ordered an astringent sedative medicine, and said he would see him again in the afternoon. On the second examination, it appeared that the vomiting had ceased; but the mouth was swollen, and some of the incisor teeth of both upper and lower jaw had been torn out. This somewhat alarmed Mr Youatt, who was told that it was thought thieves had been attempting to break into the house in the night, for the dog had torn away the side of his kennel in attempting to get at them. This looked suspicious, and the suspicion became alarming when Mr Youatt saw, or thought he 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 giving 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."

We interrupt the narrative here to explain what was in the cele

brated surgeon's mind when he wrote the strong expressions of the concluding sentence. To him, with his knowledge, the common practice of allowing a dog to lick a sore, might well seem "inexcusable nonsense"--and thinking of its terrible danger, he might call it even "abominable." But to the world in general, ignorant of the danger with which he is but too familiar, the practice seems very excusable, and even sensible. A dog licks its own sores, and thereby hastens their healing. What can be more natural than the supposition that this would also heal any other sore? But no sooner is it known that the poison of rabies is contained in the saliva of the animal, and nowhere else, as we shall presently see, and that this saliva only produces its effects when entering the blood either through an opening in the skin, or through the mucous membrane of the lips, than the extreme danger of suffering a dog to lick the face or hands becomes obvious at once. Let the reader, therefore, bear this fact in mind.

To return to the narrative. Mr Youatt insisted on detaining the dog. The servant, the youth, and the child submitted to proper surgical precautions against infection. "I watched this dog day after day. He would not eat, but he drank a great deal more water than I liked. The surgeon (who had operated on the servant and children) was evidently beginning to doubt whether

In these examples we see plainly enough that dogs are generally by no means hydrophobic, but that, on the contrary, ardent thirst is a most alarming symptom. Never theless it is true that in an extremely small proportion of casesless than one in fifty, according to Mr Youatt-dogs have a reluctance or difficulty in swallowing liquids similar to what is noticeable in men. In May 1820," says Mr Youatt, "I attended on a bitch at Pimlico. She had snapped at the owner, bitten the man-servant and several dogs, was eagerly watching imaginary objects, and had the peculiar rabid howl. I offered her water. She started back with a strange expression of horror, and fell into violent convulsions, which lasted about a minute. repeated a little while afterwards, and with the same result."

This was

Sullenness is always suspicious. No matter how ill a dog may be, and how he may slink away into his bed for quiet, he always seems to respond to the attentions of his master. One morning a docile affectionate dog was missing, and returned 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 next morning sent for Mr Youatt, who found him lying on the lap of his mistress, but frequently shifting his posture, and every now and then he started as if he heard some strange sound. There could be no doubt what was the matter, and he was placed in a room by himself. On learning that the dog had been licking the hands of both master and mistress, Mr Youatt was compelled to say what the real case was, and advise them to send at once for a 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. The surgeon did his duty, and they escaped."

M. Sanson relates that, when he

was a student at Alfort, a lady called one morning for a consultation, holding in her arms a little pet dog. She stated that she had remarked something extraordinary in his ways, without, however, attaching much importance to them -as was proved by the incautious manner in which she had brought him to Alfort. Among the unusual things she had noted was that, while playing with " a person" in her house that morning, he had bitten that person's foot. Professor Bouley, after a rapid examination of the animal's physiognomy, assured the lady that she held in her arms a rabid dog; and his sagacity was strikingly proved in this case, for three days afterwards the dog expired with all the signs of madness. On hearing the Professor's opinion, the lady begged to know what should be done to prevent the evil consequences of the bite she had mentioned. She was told that immediate cauterisation was the only remedy. "Witness of this scene," says M. Sanson, "I well remember the painful feeling with which we all saw this lady take off her boot and stocking with great sang froid, and declare that she was the person alluded to. submitted with great firmness to the cauterisation by red-hot iron of the little spot where the tooth of the dog had penetrated."

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It is worthy of remark that dogs undeniably rabid have perfectly "lucid intervals;" and these may mislead the unwary into a disregard of observed symptoms. spaniel, seemingly at play, snapped at the feet of several persons one morning. In the evening he bit his master, his master's friend, and another dog. The old habits of obedience and affection then returned. His master did not suspect the truth, but, fearing something was the matter, took him to Mr Youatt, who found the animal perfectly docile, and eager to be caressed. On the following morning the disease declared itself. Here is another and a better example. A

terrier, ten years old, had been ill, and refused all food for three days. On the fourth he bit a cat, of which he had been unusually fond; he likewise bit three other dogs. Mr Youatt was sent for, and found the dog loose in the kitchen, which made him hesitate about going in; but after observing for a minute or two, he thought he might venture. The animal had a peculiarly wild and eager look, and turned sharply round at the least noise; after watching the flight of some imaginary object, he pursued with the utmost fury every fly he saw. "He searchingly sniffed about the room, and examined my legs with an eager ness that made me absolutely tremble. His quarrel with the cat had been made up, and when he was not otherwise employed, he was eagerly licking her and her kittens. In the excess or derangement of his fondness he fairly rolled them from one end of the kitchen to the other. With difficulty I induced his master to destroy him."

There is a caution it would be well to impress on thoughtless and brutal men, who seem incapable of passing a sleeping dog without throwing a stone at it, or in some way disturbing its slumbers. This wanton exercise of the love of power is not unfrequently punished by the dog's violently attacking the offender; and should the sleeping dog be rabid, the consequences may be fatal. Often after a course of some hours the exhausted mad dog retires into a corner or a ditch, and will sleep for many hours. How can the passer-by tell that the sleeping animal is not rabid ?

Little is known respecting the behaviour of the rabid cat. 66 For tunately for us," says Mr Youatt, "the disease does not often occur; for a mad cat is a truly ferocious animal. I have seen two cases, one

We cannot,

of them to my cost.' therefore, give the many minute indications of the disease, which have been given of the dog. The first stage seems to be one of sullenness, and this would probably last till death, unless the animal were provoked. "It would not, except in the paroxysm of rage, attack any one; but during that paroxysm it knows no fear, nor has its ferocity any bounds." When a cat is sullen and retires into a corner, from which it cannot be coaxed by words or food, it should be destroyed. Mr Youatt once went to see a cat in this condition.

"It was nearly dark when I went. I saw the horrible glare of her eyes, but I could not see as much of her as I wished, and I said I would call again in the morning. I found the patient on the following day precisely in the same situation, and the same attitude, crouched up in a corner, and ready to spring. I was very much interested in the case; and as I wanted to study the countenance of this demon-for she looked like one-Iwas foolishly and inexcusably imprudent. I went on my hands and knees, and brought my face nearly on a level with hers, and gazed on those glaring eyes, and that horrible countenance, until I seemed to feel the deathly influence of a spell stealing over me. I was not afraid, but every mental and bodily power was in a manner suspended. My countenance, perhaps, alarmed her, for she sprang on me, fastened herself on my face, and bit through both my lips. She then darted down stairs, and was never seen again. I have always nitrate of silver (caustic) in my pocket. I washed myself and applied the caustic with some severity to the wound. My object was attained, although at somewhat too much cost, for the expression of that brute's countenance will never be forgotten."

It is quite unnecessary to detail here the mass of evidence which

supports the conclusion, that the saliva of the rabid animal occasions

the poison of rabies, and this only. Unlike the poison of smallpox, rabies is not communicable by contagion, but only by inoculation. Unless it enter the system it is powerless; once there, it works its deadly way. Remember, therefore that it is the saliva, not the bite, which is dangerous, and you will understand that it is as bad to be licked by a rabid animal as to be bitten, if the part licked be a wound, or an open surface, or even a mucous membrane. A woman once died from hydrophobia after having suffered a dog to lick a pimple on her chin. Horses are said to have died mad after eating hay upon which rabid pigs had died.

Mr Gilman, in his pamphlet on Hydrophobia, quotes the case of a man whose face was licked, while asleep, by a rabid dog; and he died, although the strictest search failed to discover the smallest scratch upon the skin. On the other hand, Mr Youatt declares, and the experience of every veterinary surgeon will confirm it, that no amount of saliva on the unbroken skin has the slightest effect. His own hands have been repeatedly covered with the foam of rabid dogs. It is true that in the first of the cases we have quoted from Dr Watson, the skin of the hand is said not to have been broken, yet unequivocal hydrophobia ensued. There is, however, great doubt permissible here. It is also possible that, when the teeth of the terrier had struck the coachman's hand, the pain may have caused him, by a common and almost automatic action, to raise his hand to his mouth. This much is certain, that while nothing is easier than to inoculate an animal by introducing the saliva of a rabid dog into a wound, no one has been able to effect this by merely placing the saliva on the bare skin.

It is not, therefore, the mere bite we have to regard. Many a man, and many an animal, has been bitten by a rabid dog without harm. The woollen clothes, or the thick coat of the animal, had wiped the tooth clean before it penetrated the flesh.

The same is true of the serpent's bite: fatal on the naked flesh, it is generally harmless through the boot or clothes. We must remember, however, that not only may the bite be rendered innocuous because the tooth may be wiped clean, but also because the organism of the bitten man or animal may be such as to resist the poison. We know that there are human beings quite insusceptible of certain diseases, who pass unscathed through the severest trials. They take no contagion. They resist inoculation. And this seems to be true of the poison of rabies. John Hunter says that he knew an instance in which, of twentyone bitten persons, only one had hydrophobia. Nay, even the dog, which seems so peculiarly liable to this disease, is not always susceptible; many escape after having been bitten. At Charenton there was a dog which seemed to have this immunity; it was contrived that he should be bitten by thirty different rabid dogs, yet he showed no symptom of having been affected. It is this frequent immunity which tends to keep up the reputation of charlatans who pretend to have a remedy for the disease. They can always cite examples where the remedy has been taken, and the patient escaped. If the patient dies, it is because the remedy was not taken in time, or not properly managed. Now we cannot too loudly protest against this notion of specific remedies, because, unhappily, the only possible preventive being one which is very painful, and still more alarming to the ignorant-namely, cutting or burning out the bitten part-there is a natural tendency to shrink from this, and to take refuge in the pleasanter specific. But now that chloroform beneficently shields us from the pain of operations, it would be madness to trust to anything short of the surgeon's aid.

The poison, then, being thus clearly ascertained, we must now follow its course. It is deposited on or near the surface, and there it remains for an indeterminate period.