In the early stage of rabies, the attachment of the dog towards his owner seems to be rapidly increased, and the expression of that feeling. He is employed, almost without ceasing, licking the hands, or face, or any part he can get at. Females, and men too, are occasionally apt to permit the dog, when in health, to indulge this filthy and very dangerous habit with regard to them. The virus, generated under the influence of rabies, is occasionally deposited on a wounded or abraded surface, and in process of time produces a similar disease in the person that has been so inoculated by it. Therefore it is that the surgeon so anxiously inquires of the person that has been bitten, and of all those to whom the dog has had access, "Has he been accustomed to lick you? have you any sore places about you that can by possibility have been licked by him?" If there are, the person is in fully as much danger as if he had been bitten, and it is quite as necessary to destroy the part with which the virus may have come in contact. A lady once lost her life by suffering her dog to lick a pimple on her chin.
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.
Some dogs vomit once or twice in the early period of the disease: when this happens, they never return to the natural food of the dog, but are eager for everything that is filthy and horrible. The natural appetite generally fails entirely, and to it succeeds a strangely depraved one. The dog usually occupies himself with gathering every little bit of thread, and it is curious to observe with what eagerness and method he sets to work, and how completely he effects his object. He then attacks every kind of dirt and filth, horse-dung, his own dung, and human excrement. Some breeds of spaniels are very filthy feeders without its being connected with disease, but the rabid dog eagerly selects the excrement of the horse, and his own. Some considerable care, however, must be exercised here. At the period of dentition, and likewise at the commencement of the sexual affection, the stomach of the dog, and particularly that of the bitch, sympathises with, or shares in, the irritability of the gums, and of the constitution generally, and there is a considerably perverted appetite. The dog also feels the same propensity that influences the child, that of taking hard substances into the mouth, and seemingly trying to masticate them. Their pressure on the gums facilitates the passage of the new teeth. A young dog will, therefore, be observed gathering up hard substances, and, if he should chance to die, a not inconsiderable collection of them is sometimes found in the stomach. They are, however, of a peculiar character; they consist of small pieces of bone, slick, and coal.
The contents of the stomach of the rabid dog, are often, or generally, of a most filthy description. Some hair or straw is usually found, but the greater part is composed of horse-dung, or of his own dung, and it may be received as a certainly, that if he is found deliberately devouring it, he is rabid.
Some very important conclusions may be drawn from the appearance and character of the urine. The dog, and at particular times when he is more than usually salacious, may, and does diligently search the urining places; he may even, at those periods, be seen to lick the spot which another has just wetted; but, if a peculiar eagerness accompanies this strange employment, if, in the parlour, which is rarely disgraced by this evacuation, every corner is perseveringly examined, and licked with unwearied and unceasing industry, that dog cannot be too carefully watched, there is great danger about him; he may, without any other symptom, be pronounced to be decidedly rabid. I never knew a single mistake about this.
has been said of the profuse discharge of saliva from the mouth of the rabid dog. It is an undoubted fact that, in this disease, all the glands concerned in the secretion of saliva, become increased in bulk and vascularity. The sublingual glands wear an evident character of inflammation; but it never equals the increased discharge that accompanies epilepsy, or nausea. The frothy spume at the corners of the mouth, is not for a moment to be compared with that which is evident enough in both of these affections. It is a symptom of short duration, and seldom lasts longer than twelve hours. The stories that are told of the mad dog covered with froth, are altogether fabulous. The dog recovering from, or attacked by a fit, may be seen in this state; but not the rabid dog. Fits are often mistaken for rabies, and hence the delusion.
The increased secretion of saliva soon passes away. It lessens in quantity; it becomes thicker, viscid, adhesive, and glutinous. It clings to the corners of the mouth, and probably more annoyingly so to the membrane of the fauces. The human being is sadly distressed by it, he forces it out with the greatest violence, or utters the falsely supposed bark of a dog, in his attempts to force it from his mouth. This symptom occurs in the human being, when the disease is fully established, or at a late period of it. The dog furiously attempts to detach it with his paws.