The Portland daily press., 1886-05-11
The Bite of Mad Dogs.

tfnlldQelplld NOrln
In his lecture on "Hydrophobia at the
Medico- Chirurgical College yesterday after
noon Prof w. T. Waugh exposed several fall
lacies in regard to that terrible disease. He
did not agree with those who believe the di-
sease arises spontaneously, as the centres OF
infection could always be traced. In one cpl
demic in Russia the disease prevailed on both
sides of the Elbe, over which there was a
bridge but no cases occurred on the islands up
the river This he accounted for by the fact
that dogs able to cross the bridge from side
to side. but could not reach the islands.
"a periodical recurring error, said he, is
that rabies ale caused among animals by the
change in the condition of life due to domes-
tication. This is negative because wild ami
mails are subject to it, 1t had been claimed
that infection took place from bites of insects.
Fleas, for instance, upon mad dog might
bite another dog and infect him. While this
was probable, he said, it had never been
proven. There were some who doubted the
existence of hydrophobia, but these were not
among those who had ever studied the sub
iect. Rabies occurred less frequently in the
the tropics and polar regions than in the
temperate zones. and little more frequently
in the warm months than during the rest OF
theyear. That however, was because. dogs
travelled more in warm weather than in cold
Climate had nothing to do with the disease
He then described the symptoms OF the dl-
sease in dog
"He takes but little food" said he and
| often drops it from his mouth. He IS iona
| of eating dirt When called he obeys Slowly.
| There is discharge from the nose, ana aIteI
| a few days he becomes violent and Dltes at
| anything that comes near him. Dogs nave
been known to bite off their tails or feet
| There is no special dread of water except IN
| a few cases. They finally die OF weakness,
| the hind legs becoming paralyzed flfteen
| or twenty per cent. have the sullen symp-
| toms. which are similar to the other, with the
| maniacal stage left QUIZ Referring to the
| number of persons bitten who contract n.y.
| drophobia he said that was certainly mad
| forty seven per cent. of the cases resulted in
| the diuease, but there were only eight per
/ cent. of the cases where the dogs were merely
| suspected of being mad. He believed that
| the best thing that could be done would be
| to reduce the number of dogs and that all
stray dogs should be killed at once, as mad
i dogs nearly always stray away from home.
Wounds should be cauterized at once, and
| the thing that could be procured quickest W as
the best, A red hot poker was efficient, al
| though carbolc acid was to be preferred,
The poison remained a long time at the seat
of the entrance Pasteur, he said, had prob
/ ably great boon upon mankind by his dis
| coyery, which seemed to be natural method
| Incubation of rabies required fifteen days,
| and as Pasteur had obtained virus the in
| cubation of which took only seven days, il
/ seemed reasonable that he could cure patient
| who had been bitten within eight days. II
| the patient was not treated within that time
| the chances were strongly against him.