HYDROPHOBIA.
Hydrophobia is the disease in man which is caused by the bite of a dog or other animal suffering from rabies. It is seldom if ever communicated otherwise than by inoculation. The incubation period in the dog varies from three to six weeks, and in man is usually about the same; but occasionally it is much longer, occasionally even more than a year.
At the Pasteur Institute, Paris, patients who have been bitten by rabid dogs are treated by the inoculation of an attenuated virus of rabies derived from rabbits, with promising results.
Dogs only acquire rabies from dogs or other animals already rabid. So far as is known, it does not arise de novo. Hence the necessity for an extensive area of muzzling when cases of rabies occur. The enforcement of this plan has greatly reduced the amount of hydrophobia in this country in recent years. There has been much misplaced sympathy with dogs on this score. In the dog the symptoms of rabies occur in three stages: a premonitory stage, in which the dog’s habits change, he becomes morose and quiet, and dribbles; a second stage, in which he has paroxysms of fury, his voice is high-toned and croupy, and he cannot swallow water; and a third or paralytic stage, in which his jaws drop, he drags his hind legs and soon dies.