The Dog

by William Youatt

In dumb madness the unfailing accompaniment is, to a greater or less degree, paralysis of the muscles of the lower jaw, and the tongue is discoloured and swollen, and hanging from the mouth; more blood than usual also is deposited in the anterior and inferior portion of it. Its colour varies from a dark red to a dingy purple, or almost black. In ferocious madness it is usually torn and bruised, or it is discoloured by the dirt and filth with which it has been brought into contact, and, not unfrequently, its anterior portion is coated with some disgusting matter. The papillæ, or small projections on the back of the tongue, are elongated and widened, and their mucous covering evidently reddened. The orifices of the glands of the tongue are frequently enlarged, particularly as they run their course along the frœnum of the tongue.

The fauces, situated at the posterior part of the mouth, generally exhibit traces of inflammation. They appear in the majority of cases of ferocious madness, and they are never deficient after dumb madness. They are usually most intense either towards the palatine arch or the larynx. Sometimes an inflammatory character is diffused through its whole extent, but occasionally it is more or less intense towards one or both of the terminations of the fauces, while the intermediate portion retains nearly its healthy hue.

There is one circumstance of not unfrequent occurrence, which will at once decide the case — the presence of indigestible matter, probably small in quantity, in the back part of the mouth. This speaks volumes as to the depraved appetite of the patient, and the loss of power in the muscles of the pharynx.

Little will depend on the tonsils of the throat. They occasionally enlarge to more than double their usual size; but this is more in quiet than in ferocious madness. The insatiable thirst of the rabid dog is perhaps connected with this condition of them.

The epiglottis should be very carefully observed. It is more or less injected in every case of rabies. Numerous vessels increase in size and multiply round its edge, and there is considerable injection and thickening.

Inflammation of the edges of the glottis, and particularly of the membrane which covers its margin, is often seen, and accounts for the harsh guttural breathing which frequently accompanies dumb madness. The inflammatory blush of the larynx, though often existing in a very slight degree, deserves considerable attention.

The appearances in the trachea are very uncertain. There is occasionally the greatest intensity of inflammation through the whole of it; at other times there is not the slightest appearance of it. There is the same uncertainty with regard to the bronchial tubes and the lungs; but there is no characteristic symptom or lesion in the lungs.

Great stress has been laid on the appearance of the heart; but, generally speaking, in nine cases out of ten, the heart of the rabid dog will exhibit no other symptoms of disease than an increased yet variable deepness of colour in the lining membrane of the ventricles. No dependence can be placed on any of the appearances of the œsophagus; and, when they are at the worst, the inflammation occupies only a portion of that tube.

With regard to the interior of the stomach, if the dog has been dead only a few hours the true inflammatory blush will remain. If four-and-twenty hours have elapsed, the bright red colour will have changed to a darker red, or a violet or a brownish hue. In a few hours after this, a process of corrosion will generally commence, and the mucous membrane will be softened and rendered thinner, and, to a certain extent, eaten through. The examiner, however, must not attribute that to disease which is the natural process of the cession of life.

Much attention should be paid to the appearance of the stomach and its contents. If it contains a strange mingled mass of hair, and hay, and straw, and horse-dung, and earth, or portions of the bed on which the dog had lain, we should seldom err if we affirmed that he died rabid; for it is only under the influence of the depraved appetite of rabies that such substances are devoured. It is not the presence of every kind of extraneous substance that will be satisfactory: pieces of coal, or wood, or even the filthiest matter, will not justify us in pronouncing the animal to be rabid; it is that peculiarly mingled mass of straw, and hair, and filth of various kinds, that must indicate the existence of rabies.