I do not mean to say that the child died hydrophobous, or that its death
was accelerated by the nascent disease existing in the dog. There was
probably some nervous affection that hastened the death of the infant,
and the dog bit the child at the very period when the malady first began
to develop itself. On the following day there were morbid lesions enough
to prove beyond doubt that he was rabid.
This case is introduced because I used afterwards to accompany every
examination of supposed or doubtful rabies with greater caution than I
probably had previously used.
It is occasionally very difficult to detect the existence of rabies in
its nascent state. In the year 1813, a child attempted to rob a dog of
its morning food, and the animal resisting the theft, the child was
slightly scratched by its teeth. No one dreamed of danger. Eight days
afterwards symptoms of rabies appeared in the dog, the malady ran its
course, and the animal died. A few days afterwards the child
sickened--undoubted characteristics of rabies were observed--they ran
their course and the infant was lost.
There are other cases--fortunately not numerous--in the records of human
surgery, resembling this. A person has been bitten by a dog, he has paid
little or no attention to it, and no application of the caustic has been
made. Some weeks, or even months, have passed, he has nearly or quite
forgotten the affair, when he becomes languid and feverish, and full of
fearful apprehensions, and this appearing perhaps during several days,
or more than a week. The empoisonment has then ceased to be a local
affair, the virus has entered into the circulation, and its impression
is made on the constitution generally. Fortunately the disposition to
bite rarely develops itself until the full establishment of the disease,
otherwise we might sometimes inquire whether it were not our duty to
exterminate the whole race of dogs.
The following case deserves to be recorded. On the 21st of October,
1813, a dog was brought to me for examination. He had vomited a
considerable quantity of coagulated blood. I happened to be particularly
busy at the moment, and not observing anything peculiar in his
countenance or manner, I ordered some astringent sedative medicine, and
said that I would see him again in the afternoon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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