Hydrophobia in dogs and other animals : and the sanitary precautions against its transmission to the human race.

  • Russel, Charles P.
Date:
[1874?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hydrophobia in dogs and other animals : and the sanitary precautions against its transmission to the human race. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    HYDROPHOBIA IN DOGS AND OTHER AjmALS, AND THE SANITARY PRECAUTIONS AGAINST TO THE HUMAN RACE. W. De F. Day, M. D., Sanitary Superintendent: Sir—The subject of hydrophobia has been recenTH^^taratt^gg^ore than ordinary attention, not only here, but also throughout France and England, particularly the latter country, in the north of which canine madness has for several years been prevailing to an alarming extent. On account of its undue frequency there has been provoked considerable discussion as to the character of rabies, and during Feb- ruary last a number of communications upon the subject appeared in the London Lancet. In this correspondence the Hon. Grantley F. Berkeley, the well-known sportsman, maintains the remarkable theory that there are two distinct forms of rabies canina—one hydrophobia, pure and simple, characterized by a. dread of watery and communicable by inoculation—another attributable solely to distemper^ not marked by any fear of water ^ and incapable of transmission. The first form, viz., genuine hydrophobia, he considers so extremely rare as to be scarcely ever observed. These singular views are warmly endorsed by Dr. E. P. Philpots, whose confidence in their truth is so strong that he expresses his anxious desire to be bitten by some so-called rabid animal. Considering the dangerous influence of such positive opin- ions upon the ignorant and credulous, it might almost be hoped that for the sake of humanity, as well as of science, the doctor's wish should be speedily gratified.* * A melancholy instance of the fatal results of the same incredulity has lately been witnessed in the death by hydrophobia on June 17, 1874, of Mr. Francis Butler, long prominent in this city as a canine veterinarian and dealer in the rarer breeds of dogs. Mr. Butler was an accomplished gentleman, a linguist, and author of several excellent treatises relating to dogs. He was devoted to a profession in which his innate fondness for the canine race had induced him to engage. Some six weeks previous to his death he was severly bitten in the thumb while administering medicine to a Spitz with suspicious symptoms ; but confident in his peculiar opinion —one similar to that of Sir G. Berkeley—he neglected the proper precautions, and soon after fell a victim at his home in Brooklyn to the deadly invasion of the rabific virus.