The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1897-07-16

THE DOG DAYS

Friends:"
The present number of OUR AMI
NAL FRIENDS is published at the
beginning of the "dog days" Hardly
any phrase in the English language
is more misleading or has done
more cruel injury to man and beast
than this. BY the "dog days" peo.
pie understand the period Of great
heat, occurring chiefly in July and
August, in which they suppose
that dogs are in peculiar danger OF
rabies, and that human beings are
therefore in peculiar danger from
the disease Of hydophobia, which
is supposed to be communicated by
the bite of a rabil dog. The con-
sequence is that any dog which
may happen to be suffering from
any disease whatever during the
"dog days" is at once set down as
"mad." A frightened dog, cruelty
pursued by thoughtless children
with the cry Mad dogw is regard
cd with terror and is often brutally
killed. Any report of a case of
rabies, however ill-founded it may
be, is at once communicated to the
newspapers, and through them
spreads CONSERVATION among hun
dreds of thousands of nervous peo-
pie, sometimes, as we shall present
ly see, causing them to experience
the very symptoms which are sup
posed to accompany hydrophobia.
When it actually happens that a
human being is bitten by dog, he
is at once assumed to bo in danger
of hydrophobia, and he very often
resorts to expedients Of prevention
or cure which are much more like
ly to induce simulated hydrop-
hobia than to prevent or cure the
reality.
Now, the very first observation
we have to make on this subject is
that there are no such days in the
years calendar as "dog days."
There are no days on which, and
there is no kind of weather during
which, dog is peculiarly liable to
rabies. Rabies is rare disease at
all seasons of the year, and there
are no more cases of rabies in July
or August than In December or
January. 1t follows, therefore, that
there is no more reason to dread
our family friend, the dog, in hot
weather than in cold, and no more
reason to dread hydrophobia from
his bite at one time of the year
tnan at another, The phrase "dog
days" is false aud misleading
phrase, which all humane persons
ought to avoid in the interest of the
dog.
They ought equally to avoid the
phrase in the interest of human be-
ings; for we shall presently show
that, greatly and cruelty as dogs
have been made to suffer from the
general dread of rabies, it is more
than probable that human beings
have been even more extensively
and more cruelty afflicted by the
terror Of hydrophobia. The object
Of the present article is chiefly to
remove, as far as possible, the per-
nicious and utterly unfounded
terror which has produced such in
furious and often cruelty fatal re-
suits.
First of all, then, we undertake
to show that genuine hydrophobia
is enc of the rarest of ali tho dis
eases by which humanity is afllict-
ed, and we might begin by saying
that rabies, the canine disease from
which hydrophobia is supposed to
be contracted, Is also one of the
RAJ est diseases of the dog. Medic
al men of eminence have not hesi-
tated to say that there is no such
disease; that no microbe ofhydrop-
hobia has been found; and that
what we call the microbe of hy-
is found even in the
healthy dog, and therefore can give
no assurance in diagnosis. In q
paper read before the American
Neurological Association, at PhiIa-
DIR. Irving Q. Rosse, F. II.
&. s., did not hesitate to speak of
as a purely imaginary
disease, with no more reality to
rest upon than the imaginary
which was punished
with death in New England not so
very long ago. DR.. Rosse said that
during many years of travel he had
made diligent inquiry of the oldest
practitioners Of cases of hydropho-
bia which had fallen under their
observation. Many of them told
him that they had never seen
case, and the result of his own eX.
perience and inquiry had been