Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-10-05
Miscellany.
DEALINGS WITH MAD DOGs.

EVERY one Will admit there are few sub
jects which possess more terrible fasci-
nation than that of hydrophobia. From
the awful nature of the disease, and the
capricious and uncertain manner In which
IL assails its victims, 1t Is invested with
horror and mystery beyond any and every
other i'll which man can suffer. i do not
mean to touch upon the medical and scien
tific theories or treatment of canine mad
ness. Such themes are above me. Nor
would the reader, probably, be greatly en-
very recently large section Of the scien.
tiac world entirely disputed the existence
Of hydrophobia ut all, or, at any rate, the
possibility Of its being communicated TO
human beings Nor shall l dwell upon
symptoms which declare the dog to be az
fected, or attempt-unlcss mention them
accidentally-in any way 70 describe them.
All propose to do Is 10 tell two or three
anecdotes of men who have been called
to confront mad animals Of the dog kind.
First let me tell the reader that the most
infinitely detailed and interesting narrative
OF the whole kind is the death of the Duke
of Richmond, in Canada, from the bite of
rabid fox. He may read the story In
most anecdote- books and shocking enough
he will find IL; bat, terrible as it may be,
il is also noble record of heroic endur-
ance Of dreadful calamity. tl
A great deal Of good was done, despite
the uapopularity of the measures, by the
dog tax Of few years back, aud by the
late Sir Richard Mayne's order to the
police to seize all stray dogs whatever. In
the summer when that order was given
nearly fifteen thousand dogs were so
seized, and London escaped, for the first
time In my memory, without a single death
from hydrophobia. A plain man like my
self looks at results, which are generally
more convincing than theories.
1t is very difficult In the earlier stages to
know whether dog be mad or not; but
in all cases of doubt kill the poor thing at
once; II may save him much suffering, and
YOU from the narrowing reflection that
some human being has be n bitten through
your neglect. Madness Is not always
traceable to a dog having been bitten; it
sometimes comes on spontaneously. A
friend Of mine once owned tavorite
ferries which had recently Uttered
five puppies and, as she was kept
constantly In his garden. she could
not possibly have been bitten for some
considerable time. But she suddenly dis.
played unmistakable symptoms OF mad
with saliva flying from her jaws, and her
head twitching from side TO side, as the
heads of all mad dogs do. This arises from
the convulsive action. Of the muscles of
the throat and neck, which invariably
characterizes hydrOphobia--in human be-
ings, unhappily, as well as In quadrupeds
and the Imitation OF which makes poi
soning by strychnine 30 painful to endure,
and so horriic TO see. Luckily my friend
himself was the first to notice her. and his
first care was to close the doors and order
no one TO go into the garden. He had no
fire arms, and was afraid to leave the no. Use
to procure poison while she was at large,
lest she should scramble over the low wall
or some one should inadvertently enter the
Enclosure. At last be thought Of plan
which Is worthy Of being known, In the
event Of any of my readers being unfor-
tunate enough to need such an expedient.
He procured an old box without lidr-a
tea chest would do, or any such thinS-
and, holding this before him, went straight
into the garden. The poor brute ran d.
rectly toward him, and had she come quite
close he would have turned the box over
her, and SO covered her with 1t; this he
could have done easily enough, for mad
dogs never dodge or twist about. But even
In her frenzy her maternal instinct was
too strong, and she ran back to her kennel
and began sucking her puppies. AZ the
end Of the chain-which was still round
her neck-hung out of the kennel, her
master seized 1t and fastened it to its sta
ole, then sent for some poison, and SO
killed her; for she would try to eat, al
though she could not drink. But here Is
the strangest part of the story, and to me
it SCENE very pathetic. All her little pup
pies were raving mad, too, and the foam
hung in fakes about their mouths, and
their poor little heads twitched just as the
mothers had done. They had sucked in
madness with their milk, for she had not