Canine Madness.
The Times, 1824-08-07T00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR O)F TIIFE TDIES. Sir.-I the following tt acs appear to you to lead to any useful in. ferences. they are much at vou setrice:-About two years ago I possessed a hnc Newfbundland dog: it hiad been in my possession for nea ly six nmonthis, when it suddenlr lost its appeiite. became dull, and occ,sionally disobedient. Thie dog being only IS Months old, I concluded that it had tbe distemper; and for three or four days I administered to him appropriate medidnes. Its bark at this period lost its loud and lively tone, anal becasue low and sepulchralr his hoarse howling was unimtlermitted. As he had never been out of my sight daring all the time I possetssed hic, unless when chained up in a yard to which no dog had access, it inever once occurrefi to me that he could be mad. I was in the habit of taking him so the Park, and he comn3only precipitated himself iNto the water with de. iight: now, however, he approached it with reluctance; but still he did enter it, Though neithier beating nor coaxing could urevail onhi to quit his depth. On taking him homc on thelast occasion thath acconipanted me to the Park, a gentleman stopyed nie on the Ne Road, to observe that the dog appeared maad. immediatelytoo him to Messrs. Blaine anti Youatt's, where he becatne in the tcurs of a frw hours so decidedly iisad, that he was of course destroyed. There are one or two circumsitances which I had in this case an op portunity of observing that are particularly worthy of norice. H knew me to the last mument, and the sound of my voice cearl af fected hitm. Though when at the doctor's his mrzind trt absent I may use such an expression, and his eye restless and heavy, h rose and followed me at once on my caling him by name; and h turned his head to me in the same way, several hours afterward when he was so exhausted that he could not, without great difictt move, and the eye-balls were almost starting from the bead. knowledge of the master is therefore no proof that a dog is not ma His mouth was open and foaming for several houra before h was confiaed, or i should rather use the word slobb rin bait it was not until the last two or three hours of his exist ence that he began to snap, and then he snapped all th straw in his kennel into small pieces of two or three inches in length An absence of any disposition to bite is, therefbre, no proof' that ,ir is nat I-A 14e was dejected for I think at least foar days bo tore he showed anv aecivse symptoms: maotiess mat, therefor. cwuic on gradually. Tlsough he had lost his predilection for tl: water, he did enter it: absolute hvdroplhobia, toeretbrc, is not ni cessart to prove a state of madness in the dog Afiter geat difficult. I recaled to mind, that about six or seven weeks before his death; dog had sprung out upon him from a shop in the Strand, as I w: walking with hlm. This, I am contidenit, was the only bite he colzq have received while he belonged to me; yet I foutd on inquirv th; his assailant had r:oc gone iiacd, nor had exciibited any symptoms . diseaase. The precaution was taken ot killing him imeediateiv; ib it' my dog had received no other accident, it is dear either that mat ness may be conveyed by a bite from a dog in a state of irritati( (and this is held by many medical men), or that the disease m.ty I communicated by an animal which has riot itselt' exhibited any rab symptoms. Whichever alternative is adopted, it is obvious that z dog, however quiet, or however upparently weal, should be suflert to be at large. I viil only add, that no doubt can cxist of the reality of the dog madness, since Messrs. Blaine and Y'ouuitt had anr opportunitv of o serving him for nearly 20 hours, and were thoroughly convinced the fact. Indeed. could a doubt have remainied, I would never ha suffered him to bekeLilied. for his value ras extremelv vreat. Ykours, &c. X's. Y: I CA NIN E MfADNESS.