The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-03-13

them. The wound may seem so slight that it
is not worth noticing, and is therefore neg
iected. Sometimes through contact with some
POISONOUS matter, or from some other cause,
oIood poisoning sets in, which is very difficult
10 cure, or results fatally. Then the idea gets
abroad that the seriousness cG the wound was
because IL was inflicted by an animal.
AS Tor the experiments of Nj. Pasteur, the
TACT mat nothing more is heard Of them is
proof that it was q mere fash i'll the pan.
Probably the only patients of his who died
We're poisoned by the stuff he iuoculatod into
t!elf blood. 1t seems to me clear enough that
inns so-called disease, so long the terror of ner-
voUS people, is nothing but a tilmy tigment of
the imagination"
u late years the causes and conditions of
madness i'll dogs have been subject of inves-
tiSaton among physicians. 1t is no longer be-
ileVed, as the foregoing statement from DR..
crawford would show, that an animal can get
INTO state i'll which it Could communicate
poison through its saliva 10 a human being or
other animal. Another physician is response
be for the following statements:
madness in animals is nothing more nor
less than an agection of their nerves, lust as
what is known as hydrophobia is in human
beings. An animal very rarely gets into that
state except i'll extremely warm weather The
cause of il Is about as follows: The heat gets
the animal 5, say it is u dog, nervous system
INTO strained state that the animal be-
comes very nervous and irritable A Child
leases it or some one aggravates it in some
way. The dog does not take this good ma
turedly as it would were it entirely
G fendiur p persons snaps bo at thS St
OF rage or terror which they make enrages it
still further 1t loses control of itself, as it
We're, and becomes affected by some form of
nervous disease. 1t is suspected of being mad,
pursued by mob, and finally gets into the
state called rabid. 1t foams at the mouth,
bites and snaps at everyone that comes in his
way. The muscle of its throat becomes re-
Taxed so it cannot swallow. But withal its
saliva Is no more poisonous than before.
The effect the bites of q rabd animal have
upon other animals has been used as great
argument for the existence of such disease.
1t is said that another animal bitten by an an
imal suffering from rabies will also go mad.
All this biting is done in hot weather, when all
animals are in a more or less strained, nervous
condition. The fact that the animal was at
tackled savagely would tend 10 drive it into the
same state as the attacking animal An ami
nal bitten by one suspected to be rapid is gem
orally killed too quick to show any signs one
way or the other.
Generally when bitten animals show no
signs at tue time, it is after an interval of days
or even weeks that the disease shows itself,
and they die. This is simply blood poisoning
from the neglected wound which went I'M
noticed or undressed in time of extreme
heat"
doctor, some one might ask why persons
dying of this imaginary disease snap and bark
like dog dying of rabies"
They might possibly snap at things in their
torture. That might occur in any case of death
from form of neurosis But the barking is
straining it a little. 1t would not be hard for
persons expecting to hear these barking
sounds, and believing firmly that the sufferer
would bark, to construe the sounds he would
make in his agony into a bark Also, it adds
greatly to the interest of an account of death
from hydrophobia to describe the barking of
the dying victim"