Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1907-04-04
DIR. MILLER ON DOC FIGHTS
Genial President Of Humane Society is
Determined TO Win.
nuzzLtS sARBARoUs, MAYOR MISTAKEN
Rabies Gamma n Rare Disease and
Popular Error Alone Response
BILE for the UprOar made
Against the Dos.

How do you like your dog fight as far
as you have got2" was the question which
a Bee reporter asked DR. Miller yesterday.
The doctor said in reply
Il don't like dog fights. never
did. spent much time and some
money in stopping real dog fights in
Omaha when l was a much younger
man than l am now. 1 suppose you mean
by my dog fight the fight l am making
against official and all other forms of
cruelty to the dog. 1 am sorry that was
forced by the city council and Mayor Dahl-
man into another controversy in defense
Of the dog and society against an inhuman
wrong l tried hard to avoid II through
Chief Donahue by appeals to Mayor Dahl-
man before he issued his proclamation and
publicly afterward. But Mayor Dahlman
was defiant TO the point of insolence, ana
as president Of the Nebraska Humane so
ciety and as a citizen had to fight against
It as am now fighting, or brand myself
craven and a coward 1 know the cost
and the pain of contendlng against ira
dition which feeds on fears Of the old MAD
dog ghost. Men sneer who do not know
and call names which sometimes call
back. Not In nearly two generations nave
our homes been threatened by that instru-
ment of torture-the muzzle. The great
New York Times said few days ago, NO
gentleman would put muzzle on dog
Mad Dog Theory.
but how do you account for the popular
insistence upon the mad dog theory-who
is responsible for it?''
Il win answer that in this way; for hun
dreds of years the Christian world was
taught to believe in literal physical hell
of fire and birthstone in which unrepentant
sinners, including infant innocents, have to
suffer everlasting punishment at the hands
OF an avenging God. The Holy Bible said
So and the man in the pulpit who dared to
doubt or failed to preach the horrible doc
| trine would have been in danger of being
burned at the stake. 1 distinctly remem-
/ Der hearing all this monstrous stun
preached when l was boy, and even after
was a man. Is there a man in any pulpit
in America who would, dare to preach that
| doctrine now to an average congregation OF
! white men and women? But it took more
than an hundred years in our country for
ministers of Christ to break away from
J the shackles imposed upon them by re-
| Igious superstition intolerance and big
! otry. Why? Because II they had dared to
| speak from their conscience and their con-
victions they would have been arraigned,
tried by ecclesiastical court organized to
convict them of heresy, branded as religious
infides and outlaws before the world.
There were no Bovelands in those days.
This is an Illustration of my answer to
The Bees very pertinent question which,
as 1 come to it. Is this: Medical teachers
! teach what they have been taught to teach
about rabies Gamma. Like the preacher of
| hell fire and damnation, they must be or
! thodox DR.. Thomas Watson, for INSTANCE,
! the great London practitioner and teacher,
never saw a case of rabies in his great
| practice in the greatest city In the world,
/ but he accepted what had been taught and
told him by others. And so it goes. The
average medical man OF our day falls into
line, accepts all he reads about the musty
old tradition, and every wild cry of Mad
dogl mad dogr is accepted by him as a
correct diagnosis"
Weir MitcheIPs Statement.
''I suppose you must have noticed the
statement in a leading editorial in The Bee
Yesterday in which Weir Mitchell and some
! OF the greatest medical minds Of the coun-
/ try contend that hydrophobia is not caused
| by dog bitesP
\ Indeed, l did notice It. That editorial
was simply superb. Not merely in proving
I by one of the greatest medical men on
\ earth that dog bites do not produce the
disease which medical error and popular
ignorance call rabies Gamma, but In its
:
| as the protector of the home. 1t was an
I admirable article DR.. Weir Mitchell is a
mast and present grand master OF medical
1 science His fame covers the civilized
I world. His support of my own View advo-
| Gated by me for thirty years without the
I aids or means OF exhaustive research, is a
4 vindication from which medical ignora-
fmuses and thousands of good but deluded
I people in Omaha can make no successful
appeal Weir Mitchell is supported in his
views by the greatest medical men in the
world, and yet / am personally insulted
! and derided by medical quacks and other
I nobodies in Omaha for my efforts IN trying
\ TO relieve people OF fear of a disease which
! DR.. Mitchell says has no existence. said
the same thing under a storm Of reproaches
\ twenty years before DR.. Mitchell did, with
no pretense to the knowledge upon which
! he based the actual science Of the subject"
u only Pities DnhIman.
Mayor Dahlman seems to have retraeted
I his order for dog shooting. What have you
TO say to that?'
Il L have nothing unkind TO say OF Mayor
\ Dahlman, nor can longer discuss him
Il seriously. am really sorry for him. In
u his first proclamation he said there was no
4 rabies in Omaha. In his latest he says the
town is fun OF It. 1 only say to all men
ana women IN Oiildhut dbdlu anu again,
not as a matter OF myfpoOr personal opin-
ion, but as a scientific fact, that there is,
and never was, a case OF rabies Gamma in
Omaha In it's entire history"
you have said TO one OF the heads of
The Bee staff l am informed, that this
dog question has already become a political
question. DO you confirm the truth of that
statement"
Il do. and. II you win kindly Permit me,
will tell you why It is because II Is not
in the blood OF free American citizens to
allow the civil authority to strike a blow
1 at their homes and its dearest associations
without striking back. Their own stout
weapon is the ballot and no men on earth
know better when and how TO use It than
the men OF Omaha OF all classes backed
by their wives and children. II I do not
much miss my reckoning there will be
plenty OF live thunder all around the sky
when the next city election comes on unless
that dog-muzzle ordinance Is promptly re-
pealed, and such is the feelings that even
il that should be done either now or later
on. doubt very much whether the ques-
ton can be kept out Of the next municipal
|