the human system, no antidote has ever yet, for this fell and intractable disease, been found.
While walking the London Hospitals, upwards of thirty-five years ago, I received an invitation from Mr. Youatt to attend a lecture on rabies—dog madness. He had, during the lecture, a dog present laboring under incipient madness. In a day or two after the lecture, he requested me and other students to call at his infirmary and see the dog, as the disease was at that time fully developed. We did so, and found the poor animal raving mad—frothing at the mouth, and snapping at the iron bars of his prison. I was particularly struck with a peculiar brilliancy and wildness of the dog's eyes. He seemed as though, with affright and consternation, he beheld objects unseen by all around. It was pitiful to witness his frightened and anxious countenance. Death soon closed the scene!
I have thought it my duty to bring the value of lunar caustic as a preventive of hydrophobia prominently before your notice, and to pay a tribute of respect to the memory of Mr. Youatt—a man of talent and genius.
Never kill a dog supposed to be mad who has bitten either a child, or any one else, until it has, past all doubt, been ascertained whether he be really mad or not. He ought, of course, to be tied up, and be carefully watched, and be prevented the while from biting any one else. The dog, by all means, should be allowed to live at least for some weeks, as the fact of his remaining will be the best guarantee that there is no fear of the bitten child having caught hydrophobia.
There is a foolish prejudice abroad, that a dog, be he mad or not, who has bitten a person ought to be immediately destroyed; that although the dog be not at the time mad, but should at a future period become so, the person who had been bitten when the dog was not mad,
