The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-05-14
HYDROPHOBIA.
Don't Go in Dread of It All Your
 Life

Don't Go in Dread of It All Your Life.
 1. Rabid dogs do not fear but court water. 9. Rabies can never arise spon- taneously either in animals or man. The absence of recent wounds upon and the good health of the creature inflicting the bite are alike evidence of the non-specific character of the dis
 ease. 8. Wounds inflicted by the teeth of non- -carnivorous creatures are never rabic, though blood poisoning may be induced. Man cannot communicate the disease to other human beings or to animals. 4. The saliva of truly
 rabid carpivora alone is capable of in-
 ducing rabies. 5. Excessive saliva in any creature, more especially dogs, is always induced by any affection of the
 mouth and throat; is the universal
 sequal to toothache, of inability to swallow from any cause, of paralysis, of throat abscess. Paralysis independ- ent of rabic condition is a. sequal to l dies: twitching of eyes. of eyelids, of
 
 drawn nail, upward Hanks, dropping head, sinking gait-one and all should be included in the same category. G. | Safety lies in preserving the life of the suspected canine and sequestrating for observation; by premature death the only evidence wherby rabies can defin- | itely and with certainty be established l is destroyed. Muzzle the creature and .I..1 H.. exhibited, fear Is idle; if it evinces good appetite and it if partakes of | food freely on and after the fourth day, | it is not rabid; if it dies without paralysis, it is not rabid; if it succumbs l to paralysis, the chances are still l thousand to one it's death was due to some natural cause; if it falls into con- vulsions and froths at the mouth, it is an epileptic and an object of commits eration. Ninety-nine out of every hum dred dogs pronounced mad are l epileptics or choreics, and dogs with fits" are positively never rabid; if af- l ter ten days, confinement the suspected animal evinces a cheerful disposition, l there is no danger whatever and it | should be released. When death su- pervenes, critical examination of the body--the brain, viscera, etc.-should be made by competent pathologist to determine whether there is a cause for death aside from rabies. z. Members of the human race, suffering from rab- | ies do not howl, whine, bark or ex- hibit other canine characteristics or pe- cularities, any more than do cats, fowls, sheep, cattle, etc; such phenom- ena are conclusive evidence the maI- ady is hysterical. 8. Intolerance of light and air in motion, fear of water and bright substances, and spasm of muscles of the throat and neck, far from constituting specific evidence, are common in diphtheria, croup, goltre, sore throat, lockjaw, pregnancy, hys- terics, ear abscess, hay fever, poisoning by certain mineral and vegetable sub- stances; they may arise from the use of narcotics, sedatives and alcoholics from cancerous affections, certain mal- adies of the internal ear, or of the eye as in glaucoma, diseases peculiar to sex and a multitude of brain and nerve maladies. In no instance would these symptoms excite special comment or
 alarm were not the dog linked there with as a factor. g. Error in judg- ment is the almost inevitable result of accepting mere negations for their anthesis. Careful examination of the evidence laid down for the distinction of rabies reveals little aside from mere negations. Until death ensues the
 weight of evidence is always negative: when dissolution follows it is very far
 from being presumptive of the positive. 10. Since less than three per cent. of infected canines ever contract the mal- ady, the danger to man is several hun dred times less than from scarlatina,
 measles, quinsy, ague and host of simple maladies. As Professor Charles Bell Taylor remarks: Tt is less than | one in million-less than being kick ed to death by horse" to which may
 be added, it is less than the gallows. Atop of all, it may be said that, after examining as thoroughly as possible l. | -sr-4. (