mischief is effected before the wood-cutter or the villager is conscious
of his danger.
The following observations and experiments respecting rabies, by Dr.
Hertwich, Professor at the Veterinary School at Berlin, are well worthy
of attention.
1. Out of fifty dogs that had been inoculated with virus taken from a
rabid animal of the same species, fourteen only were infected.
2. In the cases where inoculation had been practised without effect, no
reason could be assigned why the disease should not have taken place.
This consequently proves that the malady is similar to others of a
contagious nature, and that there must exist a predisposition in the
individual to receive the disease before it can occur. In one
experiment, a mastiff dog, aged four years, was inoculated without
exhibiting any symptoms of the malady, while seven others, who had been
inoculated at the same time and place, soon became rabid. Several of
these animals had been inoculated several times before any symptoms
showed themselves, while in others, on the contrary, once was
sufficient.
3. It appears that in a state of doubtful rabies, one or two accidental
or artificial inoculations are not sufficient to create a negative proof
of its existence.
4. This disease has never ben communicated to an individual from one
infected by means of the perspirable matter; this, therefore, is a proof
that the contagious part of the disease is not of a volatile nature.
5. It does not only exist in the saliva and the mucus of the mouth, but
likewise in the blood and the parenchyma of the salivary glands; but not
in the pulpy substance of the nerves.
6. The power of communicating infection is found to exist in all stages
of the confirmed disease, even twenty-four hours after the decease of
the rabid animal.
7. The morbid virus, when administered internally, appears to be
incapable of communicating this disease; inasmuch as of twenty dogs to
whom was given a certain quantity, not one exhibited the least symptom
of rabies.
8. The application of the saliva upon recent wounds appears to have been
as often succeeded by confirmed rabies as when the dog had been bitten
by a rabid animal.
9. It cannot now be doubled that the disease is produced by the wound
itself, as was supposed by M. Girard of Lyons, not by the fright of the
individual, according to the opinion of others, but only from the
absorption of the morbid virus from its surface.
10. Several experiments have proved to me the little reliance there is
to be placed on the opinions of Baden and Capello, who believe that, in
those dogs who become rabid after the bite of an animal previously
attacked with this disease, the contagious properties of the saliva is
not continued, but only exists in those primarily bitten.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account