Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1910-09-13
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1910,
HYDROPHOslA A REALITY.

nv - n1UI''
In a report just issued by the fed
eral public health service it is de
olared that hydrophobia is reality
and not dream. Local physicians,
many of whom actually have treated
or observed cases of hydrophobia,
may be inclined to think that such
sn assertion was unnecessary; that
the public health service might just
as well have wasted its ink announc-
ing that typhoid fever, tuberculosis or
diphtheria are realities and not
dreams. But the Newport News ply
sicians and public have learned by
bitter experience what is not SO well
known in some other places In spite
of what the professional world has
learned about this. perhaps the most
awful, in some respects, of all dis
eases. there are many educated peo-
Pile who refuse to believe that rabies
is anything but a myth and think that
tht vi paul
to Pasteur institutes are thrown away
just as surely as if they had been
handed over to some fortune teller or
other charlatan This is amazing, but
true. Only n few months ago. when
a dog-muzzling ordinance was being
discussed in P Virginia city, promi-
nent newspaper made in its editorial
column a statement to the effect that
no reputable physician could be found
who ever had seen a case of rabies.
The public health service report. OF
which A. NJ. Stimson is the author.
gives much interesting information
concerning this dreaded disease and
repudates certain of the mad-dog
fallacies which always have held a
place in the public mind These very
faIlacies and the superstition with
which the disease has been regarded
for generations probably are respon-
sible for the reluctance of many SEN
sible people to admit that the disease
exists or that, if it does exist, il can
he transmitted to mankind
Among other things. the report says
that rabies may not be uniformly ia
tai, though 1t is almost so. The dis
ease practically is incurable. although,
pasteurisation generally prevents de
ve!opment if the treatment is ad-
minis,ered in time. Mad-dogs sR not
aiways frenzied, frothing at the
mouth and bent upon attacking every
body and everything they meet, the
report says. The rabid dog" i, con
tinues. is sick; he is not necessarily
running Wild and furious: he is fire..
quently obedicnt up to a late stage
and often seems TO have bone in
his throat or to have sustained in
jury 70 the back
One idea that is almost universally
prevalent is referred to as a failacy
by the report. This is the belief that
foOA[r = AAEAM AAWAL tasty u
TED in the sammer than IN other sea
sons Of the year. II is declared thai
the disease may be transmitted a.
readily and a. surely in midwinter a.
at any other time. and the expisna
zion OF the contrary belief is the fac
that people ami dogs are movinl
about In the open more during ih'
summer than a; any other time ]
is fact that ninc-tenfhs Of al m
mad dog scares occur during the ho
season. but IL Is equally a. true tina
rine tenths Of the mad-doE scarcs ar
caused b. dogs crazcd by heat or su
ferirg from us other Than rabiei
The report says that the malady
liable to Occur ia either Arctic q
Equatorial regions. and dogs. coyote
wolves and skunks are especially So
crptibie 10 g.