There is a beautiful species of dog, often the inhabitant of the
gentleman's stable--the Dalmatian or coach dog. He has, perhaps, less
affection for the human species than any other dog, except the greyhound
and the bull-dog; he has less sagacity than most others, and certainly
less courage. He is attached to the stable; he is the friend of the
horse; they live under the same roof; they share the same bed; and, when
the horse is summoned to his work, the dog accompanies every step. They
are certainly beautiful dogs, and it is pleasing to see the thousand
expressions of friendship between them and the horse; but, in their
continual excursions through the streets, they are exposed to some
danger, and particularly to that of being bitten by rabid dogs. It is a
fearful business when this takes place. The coachman probably did not
see the affray; no suspicion has been excited. The horse rubs his muzzle
to the dog, and the dog licks the face of the horse, and in a great
number of cases the disease is communicated from the one to the other.
The dog in process of time dies, the horse does not long survive, and,
frequently too, the coachman shares their fate. I have known at least
twenty horses destroyed in this way.
A depraved appetite is a frequent attendant on rabies in the dog. He
refuses his usual food; he frequently turns from it with an evident
expression of disgust; at other times, he seizes it with greater or less
avidity, and then drops it, sometimes from disgust, at other times
because he is unable to complete the mastication of it. This palsy of
the organs of mastication, and dropping of the food, after it has been
partly chewed, is a symptom on which implicit confidence may be placed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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