Youatt mentions as a symptom, that the dog in all he does is instigated by the spirit of mischief or of malice,—that he desires to do injury, and is prompted by malice in all his acts. This, to an outward observer, will appear a correct judgment; but it is essentially wrong. It is the conclusion reached by one who judges mainly of exteriors; it can be true only to those who are willing to look no deeper than the surface. There can be no malice in a raging fever, which vents itself on every object within its reach, animate or inanimate. Mischief is too playful a term to apply to a consuming wrath that ultimately destroys the life. All pain is lost; as a consequence all fear is gone. The poor beast is urged by some power too mighty for its control, which lashes it on beyond all earthly restraint to pull to pieces, to gnaw, and to attempt to eat every object it can get at; but how far it is urged by malice or mischief, the following anecdote will serve to show:—
A butcher had a large bull mastiff of which he was very fond; but, observing something very strange in his pet's behavior, he came to consult the author about the dog. The man was told to bring the animal for inspection early the same evening. This order was given from no suspicion of the truth, for the owner's description was too confused to be rightly interpreted. The animal was accordingly brought punctual to time, led through the streets by a silk handkerchief carelessly tied round the neck of the beast. The author being at the exact moment of the dog's arrival, fortunately, engaged, the butcher had to wait some few minutes, during which time the writer's eyes were kept upon the huge creature. It was remarked to look round in a strange manner. The eye was retracted and the nose dry. It was at length seen to put its mouth against its master's boot, continue in that position uttering a strange noise, and to move its jaws as if biting at some substance. The butcher all this time stood perfectly still, allowing his favorite to follow the bent of its inclination without rebuke or opposition. When the mastiff's head was removed, the boot it had apparently been biting was perfectly dry. The author observed nothing more than this; but, afraid to confess his dread, lest the cry of mad dog should be raised, and do more, much more, harm than good, he called to the butcher, telling him he was going abroad shortly, and would call upon him. In the mean time, he was to take the dog home, place it where it could do no injury, and in a place whence there was no possibility of escape. The man touched his hair and retired.
No time elapsed before the author paid his promised visit; and when he did so, he was pleased to hear the dog was securely confined in that which ought to have been the front kitchen of the house in which the butcher resided. To this spot the man led the way, and was about fearlessly to open the door, when he was entreated to stay his hand. The author listened at the closed entrance, and from the interior there soon came forth sounds that left no doubt of the poor creature's real condition. The butcher was thereupon informed that his dog was mad. The man was at first wholly incredulous; whereon the writer requested him to look through a chink, and say how the animal was employed. "He is tearing a piece of wood to pieces, and munching it as though he were very hungry. Poor thing, I must go to him! He has taken no victuals or drink these three days." The author interposed, to prevent the master from fulfilling his humane suggestion. With much difficulty he was persuaded to wait the turn of events, and not to unloose the door that night. The next morning the butcher was thoroughly convinced. Neither he nor his family had been able to get any rest on account of the dog's cries; and before that day expired, to anticipate the poor animal's fate, the unfortunate beast was shot.
In this case the dog exhibited no malice, neither did he appear to be prompted solely by mischief. When the muzzle was first lowered to the master's boot, the poor animal doubtless was moved to that action by the irresistible desire natural to the disease. The longing was to bite something, no matter what; any object must be cooler than the heat that burnt within the wretched creature's throat and stomach. The teeth were impulsively prepared to bite, but between the desire and its consummation, reflection came. The affection natural to the dog acted as a restraint. It was unable entirely to destroy the prompting of disease, but it turned the bite which it was prepared to give into a mumble, and the loved master escaped unhurt.
There is also something which must not be quite overlooked in the habitual wanderings that, as the disease grows in virulence beyond the dog's control, causes the animal constantly to leave the home within which its attachment resides. There is something likewise in the disposition, which causes the poor beast to quit the society of all it loves; and to leave the house in which those for whom its life would cheerfully be sacrificed dwell, to inhabit a dark and noisome corner. It is not mischief which makes the creature respond to its master's voice so long as memory has power—even after rabies has set in. There is no malice in the end of the disease; it is blind and indiscriminate fury, which would much rather vent itself on things than upon beings—even finding an unholy pleasure in injuring itself by gnawing, biting, and tearing its own flesh; and so truly is the fury blind, that most frequently the eyes ulcerate, the humors escape, and the rabid dog becomes actually sightless.
Of the causes or treatment of this disorder we know nothing; neither are we likely to learn, when the nature of the disease is considered. The danger of the study must excuse our ignorance; nor is this much to be regretted, since it is highly improbable that medicine could cure what is so deeply seated and universally present. The entire glandular structure seems to be in the highest degree inflamed; and besides these, the brain, the organs of mastication, deglutition, digestion, nutrition, generation, and occasionally of respiration, are acutely involved. The entire animal is inflamed. Some except from this category the muscular system; but such persons forget that paralysis of the hind extremities is often present during rabies. The body seems to be yielded up to the fury of the disease, and it obviously would be folly trying to cure a malady which has so many and such various organs for its prey. Neither are we better informed with regard to the causes which generate the disease. Hot weather has been imagined to influence its development; but this belief is denied, by the fact that mad dogs are quite as, if not more, frequent in winter than in summer. Abstinence from fluids has been thought to provoke it; but this circumstance will hardly account for its absence in the arid East, and its presence in a country so well watered as England, especially when the unscrupulous nature of the dog's appetite is considered. The French have been supposed to set this latter question at rest by a cruelty, miscalled an experiment. They obtained forty dogs, and withheld all drink from the unhappy beasts till they died. Not one of them, however, exhibited rabies, and by this the French philosophers think that they have demonstrated that the disorder is not caused by want of water. No such thing; they have proved only their want of feeling, and show nothing more than that one out of every forty dogs is not liable to be attacked with rabies. They have demonstrated that the utmost malice of the human being can be vented upon his poor dumb slave without exciting rabies. They have made plain that the poor dog can endure the most hellish torments the mind of man can invent without displaying rabies. They have held themselves up to the world, and in their book have duly reported themselves as capable of perverting science to the most hideous abuses, and under its name contemplating acts and beholding sufferings at which the feelings of humanity recoil with disgust.
It is rarely that more than one mad dog appears at a time in England; so, to perfect their experiment, it would be requisite for the French philosophers to procure all the specimens of the canine species in this island, and doom them to torture; since, of the predisposing disposition or circumstances necessary to the development of this disease, man knows nothing. Ignorance is not to be concealed under the practices of barbarity.
Irritation or teazing, by exciting the nervous irritability of the dog, appears more likely than any physical want to excite rabies.
Tetanus.—I have witnessed no case of this description in the dog. Both Blaine and Youatt speak of tetanus as extremely rare in that animal; but both mention having encountered it, and that it was in every instance fatal. Since such is its termination, I am in no hurry to meet with it, and care not how long it remains a stranger to me. If any of my readers were to have a dog subject to this disease, the best treatment would be the application of ether internally as medicine, with slops or light puddings as food. The effects of the ether ought to be kept up for a considerable period at one time, and recommenced so soon as the slightest trace of the disorder reappears.