The horrible spasms of the human being at the sight of, or the attempt to swallow, fluids occur sufficiently often to prove the identity of the disease in the biped and the quadruped; but not in one in fifty cases is there, in the dog, the slightest reluctance to liquids, or difficulty in swallowing them.
In almost every case in which the dog utters any sound during the disease, there is a manifest change of voice. In the dog labouring under ferocious madness, it is perfectly characteristic. There is no other sound that it resembles. The animal is generally standing, or occasionally sitting, when the singular sound is heard. The muzzle is always elevated. The commencement is that of a perfect bark, ending abruptly and very singularly, in a howl, a fifth, sixth, or eighth higher than at the commencement. Dogs are often enough heard howling, but in this case it is the perfect bark, and the perfect howl rapidly succeeding to the bark.
Every sound uttered by the rabid dog is more or less changed. The huntsman, who knows the voice of every dog in his pack, occasionally hears a strange challenge. He immediately finds out that dog, and puts him, as quickly as possible, under confinement. Two or three days may pass over, and there is not another suspicious circumstance about the animal; still he keeps him under quarantine, for long experience has taught him to listen to that warning. At length the disease is manifest in its most fearful form.
There is another partial change of voice, to which the ear of the practitioner will, by degrees, become habituated, and which will indicate a change in the state of the animal quite as dangerous as the dismal howl; I mean when there is a hoarse inward bark, with a slight but characteristic elevation of the tone. In other cases, after two or three distinct barks, will come the peculiar one mingled with the howl. Both of them will terminate fatally, and in both of them the rabid howl cannot possibly be mistaken.
There is a singular brightness in the eye of the rabid dog, but it does not last more than two or three days. It then becomes dull and wasted; a cloudiness steals over the conjunctiva, which changes to a yellow tinge, and then to a dark green, indicative of ulceration deeply seated within the eye. In eight and forty hours from the first clouding of the eye, it becomes one disorganised mass.
There is in the rabid dog a strange embarrassment of general sensibility–a seemingly total loss of feeling.
Absence of pain in the bitten part is an almost invariable accompaniment of rabies. I have known a dog set to work, and gnaw and tear the flesh completely away from his legs and feet. At other times the penis is perfectly demolished from the very base. Ellis in his “Shepherd’s Sure Guide,” asserts, that, however severely a mad dog is beaten, a cry is never forced from him. I am certain of the truth of this, for I have again and again failed in extracting that cry. Ellis tells that at the kennel at Goddesden, some of the grooms heated a poker red hot, and holding it near the mad hound’s mouth, he most greedily seized it, and kept it until the mouth was most dreadfully burned.
In the great majority of cases of furious madness, and in almost every case of dumb madness, there is evident affection of the lumbar portion of the spinal cord. There is a staggering gait, not indicative of general weakness, but referable to the hind quarters alone, and indicating an affection of the lumbar motor nerve. In a few cases it approaches more to a general paralytic affection.
In the very earliest period of rabies, the person accustomed to dogs will detect the existence of the disease.
The animal follows the flight, as has been already stated, of various imaginary objects. I have often watched the changing countenance of the rabid dog when he has been lost to every surrounding object. I have seen the brightening countenance and the wagging tail as some pleasing vision has passed before him; but, oftener has the countenance indicated the mingled dislike and fear with which the intruder was regarded. As soon as the phantom came within the proper distance he darted on it with true rabid violence.
A spaniel, seemingly at play, snapped, in the morning, at the feet of several persons. In the evening he bit his master, his master’s friend, and another dog. The old habits of obedience and affection then returned. His master, most strangely, did not suspect the truth, and brought the animal to me to be examined. The animal was, as I had often seen him, perfectly docile and eager to be caressed. At my suggestion, or rather entreaty, he was left with me. On the following morning the disease was plain enough, and on the following day he died. A post-mortem examination took place, and proved that he was unequivocally rabid.
A lady would nurse her dog, after I had declared it to be rabid, and when he was dangerous to every one but herself, and even to her from the saliva which he plentifully scattered about. At length he darted at every one that entered the room, until a footman keeping the animal at bay with the poker, the husband of the lady dragged her from the room. The noise that the dog made was then terrific, and he almost gnawed his way through the door. At midnight his violence nearly ceased, and the door was partially opened. He was staggering and falling about, with every limb violently agitated. At the entreaty of the lady, a servant ventured in to make a kind of bed for him. The dog suddenly darted at him, and dropped and died.
A terrier, ten years old, had been ill, and refused all food for three days. On the fourth day he bit a cat of which he had been unusually fond, and he likewise bit three dogs. I was requested to see him. I found him loose in the kitchen, and at first refused to go in, but, after observing him for a minute or two, I thought that I might venture. He had a peculiarly wild and eager look, and turned sharply round at the least noise. He often watched the flight of some imaginary object, and pursued with the utmost fury every fly that he saw. He searchingly sniffed about the room, and examined my legs with an eagerness that made me absolutely tremble. His quarrel with the cat had been made up, and when he was not otherwise employed he was eagerly licking her and her kittens. In the excess or derangement of his fondness, he fairly rolled them from one end of the kitchen to another. With difficulty I induced his master to permit me to destroy him.
It is not every dog, that in the most aggravated state of the disease shows a disposition to bite. The finest Newfoundland dog that I ever saw became rabid. He had been bitten by a cur, and was supposed to have been thoroughly examined in the country. No wound, however, was found: the circumstance was almost forgotten, and he came up to the metropolis with his master. He became dull, disinclined to play, and refused all food. He was continually watching imaginary objects, but he did not snap at them. There was no howl, nor any disposition to bite. He offered himself to be caressed, and he was not satisfied except he was shaken by the paw. On the second day I saw him. He watched every passing object with peculiar anxiety, and followed with deep attention the motions of a horse, his old acquaintance; but he made no effort to escape, nor evinced any disposition to do mischief. I went to him, and patted and coaxed him, and he told me as plainly as looks and actions, and a somewhat deepened whine could express it, how much he was gratified. I saw him on the third day. He was evidently dying. He could not crawl even to the door of his temporary kennel; but he pushed forward his paw a little way, and, as I shook it, I felt the tetanic muscular action which accompanies the departure of life.
On the other hand there are rabid dogs whose ferocity knows no bounds. If they are threatened with a stick, they fly at, and seize it, and furiously shake it. They are incessantly employed in darting to the end of their chain, and attempting to crush it with their teeth, and tearing to pieces their kennel, or the wood work that is within their reach. They are regardless of pain. The canine teeth, the incisor teeth are torn away; yet, unwearied and insensible to suffering, they continue their efforts to escape. A dog was chained near a kitchen fire. He was incessant in his endeavours to escape, and, when he found that he could not effect it, he seized, in his impotent rage, the burning coals as they fell, and crushed them with his teeth.
If by chance a dog in this state effects his escape, he wanders over the country bent on destruction. He attacks both the quadruped and the biped. He seeks the village street, or the more crowded one of the town, and he suffers no dog to escape him. The horse is his frequent prey, and the human being is not always safe from his attack. A rabid dog running down Park-lane, in 1825, bit no fewer than five horses, and fully as many dogs. He was seen to steal treacherously upon some of his victims, and inflict the fatal wound. Sometimes he seeks the more distant pasturage. He gets among the sheep, and more than forty have been fatally inoculated in one night. A rabid dog attacked a herd of cows, and five-and-twenty of them fell victims. In July, 1813, a mad dog broke into the menagerie of the Duchess of York, at Oatlands, and although the palisades that divided the different compartments of the menagerie were full six feet in height, and difficult, or apparently almost impossible to climb, he was found asleep in one of them, and it was clearly ascertained that he had bitten at least ten of the dogs.
At length the rabid dog becomes completely exhausted, and slowly reels along the road with his tail depressed, seemingly half unconscious of surrounding objects. His open mouth, and protruding and blackened tongue, and rolling gait sufficiently characterise him. He creeps into some sheltered place and then he sleeps twelve hours or more. It is dangerous to disturb his slumbers, for his desire to do mischief immediately returns, and the slightest touch, or attempt to caress him, is repaid by a fatal wound. This should be a caution never to meddle with a sleeping dog in a way-side house, and, indeed, never to disturb him anywhere.
In an early period of the disease in some dogs, and in others when the strength of the animal is nearly worn away, a peculiar paralysis of the muscles of the tongue and jaws is seen. The mouth is partially open, and the tongue protruding. In some cases the dog is able to close his mouth by a sudden and violent effort, and is as ferocious and as dangerous as one the muscles of whose face are unaffected. At other times the palsy is complete, and the animal is unable to close his mouth or retract his tongue. These latter cases, however, are rare.
A dog must not be immediately condemned because he has this open mouth and fixed jaw. Bones constitute a frequent and a considerable portion of the food of dogs. In the eagerness with which these bones are crushed, spicula or large pieces of them become wedged between the molar teeth, and form an inseparable obstacle to the closing of the teeth. The tongue partially protrudes. There is a constant discharge of saliva from the mouth, far greater than when the true paralysis exists. The dog is continually fighting at the corners of his mouth, and the countenance is expressive of intense anxiety, although not of the same irritable character as in rabies.
I was once requested to meet a medical gentleman in consultation respecting a supposed case of rabies. There was protrusion and discoloration of the tongue, and fighting at the corners of the mouth, and intense anxiety of countenance. He had been in this state for four-and-twenty hours. This was a case in which I should possibly have been deceived had it been the first dog that I had seen with dumb madness. After having tested a little the ferocity or manageableness of the animal, I passed my hand along the outside of the jaws, and felt a bone wedged between two of the grinders. The forceps soon set all right with him.
It is time to inquire more strictly into the post-mortem appearances of rabies in the dog.
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 papillae, 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 froenum 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 oesophagus; 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.
When there are no solid indigesta, but a fluid composed principally of vitiated bile or extravasated blood, there will be a strong indication of the presence of rabies. When, also, there are in the duodenum and jejunum small portions of indigesta, the detection of the least quantity will be decisive. The remainder has been ejected by vomit; and inquiry should be made of the nature of the matter that has been discharged.
The inflammation of rabies is of a peculiar character in the stomach. It is generally confined to the summits of the folds of the stomach, or it is most intense there. On the summits of the rugae there are effusions of bloody matter, or spots of ecchymosis, presenting an appearance almost like crushed black currants. There may be only a few of them; but they are indications of the evil that has been effected.
From appearances that present themselves in the intestines, the bladder, the blood-vessels, or the brain, no conclusion can be drawn; they are simply indications of inflammation.
We now rapidly, and for a little while, retrace our steps. What is the cause of this fatal disease, that has so long occupied our attention? It is the saliva of a rabid animal received into a wound, or on an abraded surface. In horses, cattle, sheep, swine, and the human being, it is caused by inoculation alone; but, according to some persons, it is produced spontaneously in other animals.
I will suppose that a wound by a rabid dog is inflicted. The virus is deposited on or near its surface, and there it remains for a certain indefinite period of time. The wound generally heals up kindly; in fact, it differs in no respect from a similar wound inflicted by the teeth of an animal in perfect health. Weeks and months, in some cases, pass on, and there is nothing to indicate danger, until a degree of itching in the cicatrix of the wound is felt. From its long-continued presence as a foreign body, it may have rendered the tissue, or nervous fibre connected with it, irritable and susceptible of impression, or it may have attracted and assimilated to itself certain elements, and rabies is produced.
The virus does not appear to have the same effect on every animal. Of four dogs bitten by, or inoculated from, one that is rabid, three, perhaps, would display every symptom of the disease. Of four human beings, not more than one would become rabid. John Hunter used to say not more than one in twenty; but that is probably erroneous. Cattle appear to have a greater chance of escape, and sheep a still greater chance.
The time of incubation is different in different animals. With regard to the human being, there are various strange and contradictory stories. Some have asserted that it has appeared on the very day on which the bite was inflicted, or within two or three days of that time. Dr. Bardsley, on the other hand, relates a case in which twelve years elapsed between the bite and the disease. If the virus may lurk so long as this in the constitution, it is a most lamentable affair. According to one account, more than thirty years intervened. The usual time extends from three weeks to six or seven months.
In the dog I have never seen a case in which plain and palpable rabies occurred in less than fourteen days after the bite. The average time I should calculate at five or six weeks. In three months I should consider the animal as tolerably safe. I am, however, relating my own experience, and have known but two instances in which the period much exceeded three months. In one of these five months elapsed, and the other did not become affected until after the expiration of the seventh month.
The quality and the quantity of the virus may have something to do with this, and so may the predisposition in the bitten animal to be affected by the poison. If it is connected with oestrum, the bitch will probably become a disgusting, as well as dangerous animal; if with parturition, there is a strange perversion of maternal affection–she is incessantly and violently licking her young, continually shifting them from place to place; and, in less than four-and-twenty hours, they will be destroyed by the reckless manner in which they are treated. In both cases the development of the disease seems to wait on the completion of her time of pregnancy. It appears in the space of two months after the bite, if her parturition is near at hand, or it is delayed for double that time, if the period of labour is so far distant.
The duration of the disease is different in different animals. In man it has run its course in twenty-four hours, and rarely exceeds seventy-two. In the horse from three to four days; in the sheep and ox from five to seven; and in the dog from four to six.
Of the real nature of the rabid virus, we know but little. It has never been analysed, and it would be a difficult process to analyse it. It is not diffused by the air, nor communicated by the breath, nor even by actual contact, if the skin is sound. It must be received into a wound. It must come in contact with some tissue or nervous fibre, and lie dormant there for a considerable, but uncertain period. The absorbents remove everything around; whatever else is useless, or would he injurious, is taken away, but this strange substance is unchanged. It does not enter into the circulation, for there it would undergo some modification and change, or would be rejected. It lies for a time absolutely dormant, and far longer than any other known poison; but, at length, the tissue on which it has lain begins to render it somewhat sensible, and assimilates to itself certain elements. The cicatrix begins to be painful, and inflammation spreads around. The absorbents are called into more powerful action; they begin to attack the virus itself, and a portion of it is taken up, and carried into the circulation, and acquires the property of assimilating other secretions to its own nature, or it is determined to one of the secretions only; it alters the character of that secretion, envenoms it, and gives it the power of propagating the disease.
Something like this is the history of many animal poisons. In variola and the vaccine disease the poison is determined to the skin, in glanders to the Schneiderian membrane, and in farcy to the superficial absorbents. Each in its turn becomes the depot of the poison. So it is with the salivary glands of the rabid animal; in them it is formed, or to them it is determined, and from them, and them alone, it is communicated to other animals.
Professor Dick, in his valuable Manual of Veterinary Science, states some peculiar views, and those highly interesting, respecting the disease of rabies. He holds it to be essentially an inflammatory affection, attacking peculiarly the mucous membrane of the nose, and extending thence through the cribriform plate of the ethmoid bones to the interior part of the brain, and so giving rise to a derangement of the nervous system as a necessary consequence. This train of symptoms constitutes mainly, if not wholly, the essence of an occasional epidemic not unlike some forms of influenza or epizootic disease, and the bite of a rabid animal is not always, to an animal so bitten, the exciting cause of the disease, but merely an accidental concomitant in the prevailing disorder. Also the disease hydrophobia, produced in man, is not always the result of any poison introduced into his system, but merely the melancholy, and often fatal result of panic fear, and of the disordered slate of the imagination. Those who are acquainted with the effects of sympathy, and imitation, and panic, in the production of nervous disorders, will readily apprehend the meaning of the Professor.
Some of these diseases speedily run their course and exhaust themselves. Cowpox and farcy, in many instances, have this character. Perhaps, to a certain degree, this may be affirmed of all of them. I have seen cases, which I could not mistake, in which the symptoms of rabies were one after another developed. The dog was plainly and undeniably rabid, and I had given him up as lost; but, after a certain period, the symptoms began to be less distinct; they gradually disappeared, and the animal returned to perfect health. This may have formed one ground of belief in the power of certain medicines, and most assuredly it gives encouragement to perseverance in the use of remedial measures.
It has then been proved, and I hope demonstratively, that rabies is propagated by inoculation. It has also been established that although every animal labouring under this disease is capable of communicating it, yet, with very few exceptions, it can be traced to the bite of the dog. It has still further been shown that the malady, generally appears at some period between the third and seventh month from the time of inoculation. At the expiration of the eighth month, the animal may be considered to be safe; for there is only one acknowledged case on record, in which the disease appeared in the dog after the seventh month from the bite had passed.
Then it would appear that if a species of quarantine could be established, and every dog confined separately for eight months, the disease would be annihilated in our country, or could only reappear in consequence of the importation of some infected animal. Such a course of proceeding, however, could never be enforced either in the sporting world or among the peasantry. Other measures, however, might be resorted to in order to lessen the devastations of this malady; and that which first presents itself to the mind as a powerful cause of rabies is the number of useless and dangerous dogs that are kept in the country for the most nefarious and, in the neighbourhood of considerable towns, the most brutal purposes; without the slightest hesitation, I will affirm that rabies is propagated, nineteen times out of twenty, by the cur and the lurcher in the country, and the fighting-dog in towns.
A tax should be laid on every useless dog, and doubly or trebly heavier than on the sporting-dog. No dog except the shepherd’s should be exempt from this tax, unless, perhaps, it is the truck-dog, and his owner should be compelled to take out a license; to have his name in large letters on his cart; and he should be heavily fined if the animal is found loose in the streets, or if he is used for fighting.
The disease is rarely propagated by petted and house-dogs They are little exposed to the danger of inoculation; yet, we pity, or almost detest, the folly of those by whom their favourites are indulged, and spoiled even more than their children.
We will now suppose that a person has had the misfortune to be bitten by a rabid dog: what course is he to pursue? What preventive means are to be adopted? Some persons, and of no mean standing in the medical world, have recommended a ligature. The reply would be, that this ligature must be worn during a very inconvenient and dangerous period of time. The virus lies in the wound inert during many successive weeks and months.
Dr. Haygarth first suggested that a long-continued stream of warm water should be poured upon the wound from the mouth of a kettle. He says that the poison exists in a fluid form, and therefore we should suppose that water would be its natural solvent. Dr. Massey adds to this, that if the wound is small, it should be dilated, in order that the stream may descend on the part on which the poison is deposited. We are far, however, from being certain that this falling of water on the part, may not by possibility force a portion of the virus farther into the texture, or cause it to be entangled with other parts of the wound. [2]
There is a similar or stronger objection to the cupping-glass of Dr. Barry. The virus, forced from the texture with which it lies in contact by the rush of blood from the substance beneath, is too likely to inoculate, or become entangled with, other parts of the wound.
There is great objection to suction of the wound; for, in addition to this possible entanglement, the lips, or the mouth, may have been abraded, and thus the danger considerably aggravated. There also remains the undecided question as to the absorption of the virus through the medium of a mucous surface.
Excision of the part is the mode of prevention usually adopted by the human surgeon, and to a certain extent it is a judicious practice. If the virus is not received into the circulation, but lies dormant in the wound for a considerable time, the disease cannot supervene if the inoculated part is destroyed.
This operation, however, demands greater skill and tact than is generally supposed. It requires a determination fully to accomplish the desired object; for every portion of the wound with which the tooth could possibly have come into contact, must be removed. This is often exceedingly difficult to accomplish, on account of the situation and direction of the wound. The knife must not enter the wound, or it will be likely to be itself empoisoned, and then the mischief and the danger will be increased instead of removed. Dr. Massey was convinced of the impropriety of this when he advised that,
“should the knife by chance enter the wound that had been made by the dog’s tooth, the operation should be recommenced with a clean knife, otherwise the sound parts will become inoculated.”
If the incision is made freely and properly round the wound, and does not penetrate into it, yet the blood will follow the knife, and a portion of it will enter into the wound caused by the dog, and will come in contact with the virus, and will probably be contaminated, and will then overflow the original wound, and will be received into the new incision, and will carry with it the seeds of disease and death: therefore it is, that scarcely a year passes without some lamentable instances of the failure of incisions. It has occurred in the practice of the most eminent surgeons, and seems scarcely or not all to impeach the skill of the operator.
Aware of this, there are very few human practitioners who do not use the caustic after the knife. Every portion of the new wound is submitted to its influence. They do not consider the patient to be safe without this second operation. But has the question never occurred to them, that if the caustic is necessary to give security to the operation by incision, the knife might have been spared, and the caustic alone used?
The veterinary surgeon, when operating on the horse, or cattle, or the dog, frequently has recourse to the actual cautery. I could, perhaps, excuse this practice, although I would not adopt it, in superficial wounds; but I do not know the instrument that could be safely used in deeper ones. If it were sufficiently small to adapt itself to the tortuous course of little wounds, it would be cooled and inert before it could have destroyed the lower portions of them. If it were of sufficient substance long to retain the heat, it would make a large and fearful chasm, and probably interfere with the future usefulness of the animal. The result of the cases in which the cautery has been used proves that in too many instances it is an inefficient protection. The rabid dog in Park Lane has already been mentioned. He bit several horses before he could be destroyed. Caustic was applied to one of them, and the hot iron to the others. The first was saved, almost all the others were lost. A similar case occurred last spring; the caustic was an efficacious preventive; the cautery was perfectly useless. What caustic then should be applied? Certainly not that to which the surgeon usually has recourse–a liquid one. Certainly not one that speedily deliquesces; for they are both unmanageable, and, what is a more important consideration, they may hold in solution, and not decompose the poison, and thus inoculate the whole of the wound. The application which promises to be successful, is that of the ‘lunar caustic’. It is perfectly manageable, and, being sharpened to a point, may be applied with certainty to every recess and sinuosity of the wound.
Potash and nitric acid form a caustic which will destroy the substances with which they come in contact, but the combination of this caustic and the animal fibre will be a soft or semi-fluid mass. In this the virus is suspended, and with this it lies or may be precipitated upon the living fibre beneath. Then there is danger of re-inoculation; and it would seem that this fatal process is often accomplished. The eschar formed by the lunar caustic is dry, hard, and insoluble. If the whole of the wound has been fairly exposed to its action, an insoluble compound of animal fibre and the metallic salt is produced, in which the virus is wrapped up, and from which it cannot be separated. In a short time the dead matter sloughs away, and the virus is thrown off with it.
Previous to applying the caustic it will sometimes be necessary to enlarge the wound, in order that every part may be fairly got at; and the eschar having sloughed off, it will always be prudent to apply the caustic a second time, but more slightly, in order to destroy any part that may not have received the full influence of the first operation, or that, by possibility, might have been inoculated during the operation.
Mr. Smerdon, in the Medical and Physical Journal, March 1820, thus reasons:
“All the morbid poisons that require to lie dormant a certain time before their effects are manifested, pass into the system through the medium of the absorbents,” (we somewhat differ from Mr. Smerdon here, but his reasoning is equally applicable to the nervous system,) “and if the absorbents are excited, their action is increased. I am satisfied that even in a venereal sore the application of a caustic, instead of destroying the disease, causes its rapid extension. Then,” asks he, “if the virus on a small venereal sore is rendered more active by the caustic, is it not highly probable that the same law holds good with respect to the poison of rabies?”
The sooner the caustic is applied the better; but I should not hesitate to have recourse to it even after the constitution has become affected. It is related in the Medico-Chirurgical Annals of Altenburg (Sept. 1821), that two men were bitten by a rabid dog. One became hydrophobous and died; the other had evident symptoms of hydrophobia a few days afterwards. A surgeon excised the bitten part, and the disease disappeared. After a period of six days the symptoms returned. The wound was examined; considerable fungus was found sprouting from its bottom. This was extirpated. The hydrophobia symptoms were again removed, and the man did well. This is a most instructive case.
In the Journal Pratique de Medecine Veterinaire, M. Damalix gives an interesting account of the effect of a bite of a rabid dog on a horse. On the 8th of July, 1828, a fowl-merchant, proceeding to the market of Colmar, was attacked by a dog, who, after some fruitless efforts to get into the cart, bit the horse on the left side of the face, and fled precipitately. A veterinary surgeon was sent for, who applied the cautery to the horse, gave him some populeum ointment, and bled him. Everything appeared to go on well, and on the 16th the wounds were healed.
On the 25th a great alteration took place. The horse was careless and slow; he sometimes refused to go at all, and would not attend in the least to the whip, which had never occurred before. In the evening the wounds opened spontaneously, an ichorous and infectious pus run from them; there was salivation and utter loss of appetite: strange fancies seemed to possess him; he showed a desire to bite his master. The veterinary surgeon might approach him with safety; but the moment his owner or the children appeared, he darted at them, and would have torn them in pieces. The disease now took on the appearance of acute glanders; livid and fungous wounds broke out; the stable was saturated with an infectious smell, the horse refused his food, or was unable to eat. The mayor at last interfered, and the animal was destroyed. In the Treatises on The Horse, Cattle, and Sheep, in former volumes, accounts are fully given of this dreadful malady in these animals. It may not be uninteresting to give a hasty sketch of it in some of the inferior classes.
‘Rabies in the Rabbit.’–I very much regret that I never instituted a course of experiments on the production and treatment of rabies in this animal. It would have been attended with little expense or danger, and some important discoveries might have been made. Mr. Earle, in a case in which he was much interested, inoculated two rabbits with the saliva of a dog that had died rabid. They were punctured at the root of the ears. One of the rabbits speedily became inflamed about the ears, and the ears were paralysed in both rabbits. The head swelled very much, and extensive inflammation took place around the part where the virus was inserted. One of them died without exhibiting any of the usual symptoms of the disease; the other, after a long convalescence, survived, and eventually recovered the use of his ears. Mr. Earle very properly doubted whether this was a case of rabies.
Dr. Capello describes, but in not so satisfactory a manner as could be wished, a case of supposed rabies in one of these animals. A rabbit and a dog lived together in a family. They were strange associates; but such friendships are not unfrequent among animals. The dog became rabid, and died. A man bitten by that dog became hydrophobous, and died. No one dreamed of the rabbit being in danger, and he ran about the house as usual; but, one day, he found his way to the chamber of the mistress of the house, with a great deal of viscid saliva running from his mouth, furiously attacked her, and left the marks of his violence on her leg. He then ran into a neighbouring stable, and bit the hind-legs of a horse several times. Finally, he retreated to a corner of the stable, and was there found dead. Neither the lady nor the horse eventually suffered.
‘Rabies in the Guinea-pig’.–A man suspected of being hydrophobous was taken to the Middlesex Hospital. He was examined before several of the medical students; one of whom, in order to make more sure of the affair, inoculated a guinea-pig with the saliva taken from the man’s mouth. The guinea-pig had been usually very playful, and fond of being noticed; but, on the eleventh day after this inoculation, he began to be dull and sullen, retiring into his house, and hiding himself as much as he could in a corner. On the following day he became out of temper, and even ferocious in his way; he bit at everything that was presented to him, gnawed his cage, and made the most determined efforts to escape. Once or twice his violence induced convulsions of his whole frame; and they might be produced at pleasure by dashing a little water at him. In the course of the night following he died.
‘Rabies in the Cat’.–Fortunately for us, this does not often occur; for a mad cat is a truly ferocious animal. I have seen two cases, one of them to my cost; yet, I am unable to give any satisfactory account of the progress of the disease. The first stage seems to be one of sullenness, and which would probably last to death; but from that sullenness it is dangerous to rouse the animal. It probably would not, except in the paroxysm of rage, attack any one; but during that paroxysm it knows no fear, nor has its ferocity any bounds.
A cat, that had been the inhabitant of a nursery, and the playmate of the children, had all at once become sullen and ill-tempered. It had taken refuge in an upper room, and could not be coaxed from the corner in which it had crouched. It was nearly dark when I went. I saw the horrible glare of her eyes, but I could not see so much of her as I wished, and I said that I would call again in the morning.
I found the patient, on the following day, precisely in the same situation and the same attitude, crouched up in a corner, and ready to spring. I was very much interested in the case; and as I wanted to study the countenance of this demon, for she looked like one, I was foolishly, inexcusably imprudent. I went on my hands and knees, and brought my face nearly on a level with hers, and gazed on those glaring eyes, and that horrible countenance, until I seemed to feel the deathly influence of a spell stealing over me. I was not afraid, but every mental and bodily power was in a manner suspended. My countenance, perhaps, alarmed her, for she sprang on me, fastened herself on my face, and bit through both my lips. She then darted down stairs, and, I believe, was never seen again. I always have nitrate of silver in my pocket, even now I am never without it; I washed myself, and applied the caustic with some severity to the wound; and my medical adviser and valued friend, Mr. Millington, punished me still more after I got home. My object was attained, although at somewhat too much cost, for the expression of that brute’s countenance will never be forgotten.
The later symptoms of rabies in this animal, no one, perhaps, has had the opportunity of observing: we witness only the sullenness and the ferocity.
‘Rabies in the Fowl’.–Dr. Ashburner and Mr. King inoculated a hen with the saliva from a rabid cow. They made two incisions through the integument, under the wings, and then well rubbed into these cuts the foam taken from the cow’s mouth. She was after this let loose among other fowls in the poultry-yard. The incisions soon healed, and their places could with difficulty be discovered. Ten weeks passed over, when she was observed to refuse her food, and to run at the other fowls. She had a strange wild appearance, and her eyes were blood-shot. Early on the following morning her legs became contracted, so that she very soon lost the power of standing upright. She remained sitting a long time, with the legs rigid, refusing food and water, and appearing very irritable when touched. She died in the evening, immediately after drinking a large quantity of water which had been offered to her.
‘Rabies in the Badger’.–Hufeland, in his valuable Journal of Practical Medicine, relates a case of a rabid female badger attacking two boys. She bit them both, but she fastened on the thigh of one of them, and was destroyed in the act of sucking his blood. The poor fellow died hydrophobous, but the other escaped. This fact, certainly, gives us no idea of the general character of the disease in this animal; but it speaks volumes as to its ferocity.
‘Rabies in the Wolf’.–Rabies is ushered in by nearly the same symptoms, and pursues the same course in the wolf us in the dog, with this difference, which would be readily expected, that his ferocity and the mischief which he accomplishes are much greater. The dog hunts out his own species, and his fury is principally directed against them; although, if he meets with a flock of sheep, or a herd of cattle, he readily attacks them, and, perhaps, bites the greater part of them. The dog, however, frequently turns out of his way to avoid the human being, and seldom attacks him without provocation. The wolf, on the contrary, although he commits fearful ravages among the sheep and cattle, searches out the human being as his favorite prey. He conceals himself near the entrance to the village, and steals upon and wounds every passenger that he can get at. There are several accounts of more than twenty persons having been bitten by one wolf; and there is a fearful history of sixteen persons perishing from the bite of one of these animals. This is in perfect agreement with the account which I have given of the connexion between the previous temper and habits of the rabid dog, and the mischief that he effects under the influence of this malady. The wolf, as he wanders in the forest, regards the human being as his persecutor and foe; and, in the paroxysm of rabid fury, he is most eager to avenge himself on his natural enemy. Strange stories are told of the arts to which he has recourse in order to accomplish his purpose. In the great majority of cases he steals unawares upon his victim, and the mischief is effected before the wood-cutter or the villager is conscious of his danger.
The following observations and experiments respecting rabies, by Dr. Hertwich, Professor at the Veterinary School at Berlin, are well worthy of attention.
1. Out of fifty dogs that had been inoculated with virus taken from a rabid animal of the same species, fourteen only were infected.
2. In the cases where inoculation had been practised without effect, no reason could be assigned why the disease should not have taken place. This consequently proves that the malady is similar to others of a contagious nature, and that there must exist a predisposition in the individual to receive the disease before it can occur. In one experiment, a mastiff dog, aged four years, was inoculated without exhibiting any symptoms of the malady, while seven others, who had been inoculated at the same time and place, soon became rabid. Several of these animals had been inoculated several times before any symptoms showed themselves, while in others, on the contrary, once was sufficient.
3. It appears that in a state of doubtful rabies, one or two accidental or artificial inoculations are not sufficient to create a negative proof of its existence.
4. This disease has never ben communicated to an individual from one infected by means of the perspirable matter; this, therefore, is a proof that the contagious part of the disease is not of a volatile nature.
5. It does not only exist in the saliva and the mucus of the mouth, but likewise in the blood and the parenchyma of the salivary glands; but not in the pulpy substance of the nerves.
6. The power of communicating infection is found to exist in all stages of the confirmed disease, even twenty-four hours after the decease of the rabid animal.
7. The morbid virus, when administered internally, appears to be incapable of communicating this disease; inasmuch as of twenty dogs to whom was given a certain quantity, not one exhibited the least symptom of rabies.
8. The application of the saliva upon recent wounds appears to have been as often succeeded by confirmed rabies as when the dog had been bitten by a rabid animal.
9. It cannot now be doubled that the disease is produced by the wound itself, as was supposed by M. Girard of Lyons, not by the fright of the individual, according to the opinion of others, but only from the absorption of the morbid virus from its surface.
10. Several experiments have proved to me the little reliance there is to be placed on the opinions of Baden and Capello, who believe that, in those dogs who become rabid after the bite of an animal previously attacked with this disease, the contagious properties of the saliva is not continued, but only exists in those primarily bitten.
11. During the period of incubation of the virus there are no morbid, local, or general alterations of structure or function to be seen in the infected animal; neither are there any vesicles to be perceived on the inferior surface of the tongue, nor any previous symptoms which are found in other contagious diseases.
12. This disease is generally at its height at the end of fifty days after either artificial or accidental inoculation; and the author has never known it to manifest itself at a later period.
13. It is quite an erroneous idea to suppose that dogs in a state of health are enabled to distinguish, at first sight, a rabid animal, inasmuch as they never refuse their food when mixed with the secretions of those infected. [3]
The following singular trial respecting the death of a child by hydrophobia is worth quoting:
‘Jones v. Parry.’–The plaintiff is a labourer, who gets only fourteen shillings a week to support himself and his family. The defendant is his neighbour, and keeps a public-house. This was an action brought by the plaintiff to recover damages against the defendant for the loss of his son, who was bitten by the defendant’s dog, and afterwards became affected with rabies, of which disease he died.
It appeared in the evidence that the defendant’s dog had, some time ago, been bitten by another dog; in consequence of which this dog was tied in the cellar, but the length of the rope which was allowed him enabled him to go to a considerable distance. The plaintiff’s child knew the dog, having often played with him when he was at large. Some time ago the child crossed the street, near to the place where the dog was fastened, who rushed out of the place in which he was confined to where the child stood, sprung upon him, and bit him sadly in the face, and afterwards violently shook him. The child being thus wounded, a surgeon was sent for, who, after having dressed him, and attended him for a certain time, gave directions that he should be taken to the sea-side, and bathed in the salt water.
This having been continued for some time, the child was brought home, and, at the expiration of a month from the day on which he was bitten, became evidently and strangely ill. The surgeon proved beyond all shadow of doubt thai the child laboured under rabies; that he had the never-failing symptoms of that dreadful affliction; and that a little while before he expired, he even barked like a dog. The surgeon’s charge to the father for his attendance was’L1. 6s. 6d.’, which, together with the charge of the undertaker for the funeral of the child, amounted to between six and seven pounds. Application was made to the defendant to defray this expense, which at first he expressed a willingness to comply with, but afterwards refused; upon which this action was brought.
After some time the defendant offered to pay the plaintiff the sum of ‘L6. 3s. 6d.’, and the expense of the funeral and the surgeon, provided the plaintiff would bear the expenses of the lawsuit, which he was not in a condition to do, as probably it would amount to more than that money. On this account, therefore, the action was now brought into court. There was no proof that the defendant knew or suspected his dog to be mad, previously to his attacking the boy; but an animal known to have been bitten by a mad dog, ought either to have been at once destroyed, or so secured that it was impossible for him to do mischief.
Lord Kenyon observed to the jury, that this was one of those causes which came home to the feelings of all, yet must not be carried farther than justice demanded. A cause like this never, perhaps, before occurred in a court of justice; but there had been many resembling it in point of principle. If a dog, known to be ill-tempered and vicious, did any person an injury without provocation, there could be no question that the owner of the dog was answerable, in a court of justice, for the injury inflicted. Here was a worse case. The dog by whom the child was bitten had been attacked by another that was undeniably rabid. His master was aware of this, and placed him in a state of partial confinement–a confinement so lax, and so inefficient, that this poor child had broken through it, and was bitten and died. What other people would have done in such a situation he could not tell; but, if he were asked what he would do, he answered, he certainly would kill the dog, however much of a favourite he had been, because no atonement was within the reach of his fortune to make to the injured party for such a dreadful visitation of Providence as this. It was not enough for the owner of such a dog to say, he took precaution to prevent mischief: he ought to have made it impossible that mischief could happen; and, therefore, as soon as there was any reasonable suspicion that the dog was rabid, he ought to have destroyed him.
But, if the owner wished to save the animal, until he was satisfied of the actual state of the case, he ought to have secured him, so that every individual might be safe. Whether the defendant thought he had done all that was necessary, his lordship did not know; but this he knew, that the dog was not perfectly secured, otherwise this misfortune could not have happened.
The care which the defendant took in this case was not enough, and, therefore, he had no doubt that this action was maintainable. The jury would judge what damages they ought to give. He would refer this to their feelings. They could not avoid commiserating the distress of the family of this poor man. He should, however, observe to the jury, that they must not give vindictive damages; but still he did not think that damages merely to the amount of ‘L6’. or ‘L7’., which was stated to be the expense of the funeral, &c., would at all meet the justice of the case. He was inclined to advise them to go beyond that, although he did not plead vindictive damages. There would be costs to be defrayed by the plaintiff, well known in the profession under the head of “extra costs,” even although he had a verdict. If the verdict had been at his disposal, he would have taken care that these costs should have been borne by the party that had been the cause of the injury. That appeared to him to be the justice of the case.
He trusted that none who heard him would doubt his sincerity, when he said, he lamented the misfortune which had given birth to this action; and, with that qualification of the case, he must say that he was not sorry that this action had been brought. He thanked the plaintiff for bringing it; for it might be of public benefit. It would teach a lesson that would not soon be forgotten, “That a person, who knowingly keeps a vicious, dangerous animal, should be considered to be answerable for all the acts of that animal.” There were instances in which very large damages had been given to repair such injuries. He did not say that the present case called for large damages; but, if other cases of the same kind should be brought into court after this had been made public, he hoped the jury would go beyond the ordinary limits, and give verdicts which might operate ‘in terrorem’ on the offending parties.
Verdict for the plaintiff–damages L36. [4]
A child was bitten by a rabid dog at York, and became hydrophobous. All possibility of relief having vanished, the parents, desirous of putting an end to the agony of their child, or fearful of its doing mischief, smothered it between two pillows. They were tried for murder, and found guilty. They were afterwards pardoned; but the intention of the prosecutor was that of deterring others from a similar practice, in a like unfortunate situation [5].
In 1821, a physician, at Poissy, was sentenced to pay 8000 francs (L320) to a poor widow whose husband died of hydrophobia, in consequence of a bite from the physician’s dog, he knowing that the dog had been bitten, yet not confining him.
[Our author having written so extensively upon the subject of rabies, it would seem superfluous in us to attempt to add anything more upon a subject so ably and practically handled by one having so great opportunities to make personal observations. However, to allay the feelings of many of our dogkilling citizens, we will not hesitate to assert that we do not place as much credence in the frequency of rabies as is generally done; but, on the other hand, are strongly led to believe that the accounts of this much-dreaded malady are greatly exaggerated both in this country and in England.
That there may be a few cases of rabies in our country in the course of a year, we do not doubt; but, at the same time, we are satisfied that the affection in its genuine form is quite rare, and that the great hue and cry made every season about mad dogs, is more the result of ignorance and fright than of reality.
Our limits in this publication would not allow us sufficient space to enlarge upon the many pathological questions naturally arising from a minute examination of this subject, more particularly as our views are somewhat at variance with the generally received opinion, and which, of course, we would be forced to express with considerable diffidence, owing to the impossibility of collecting such evidence as might seem necessary to substantiate any peculiar doctrine.
That tetanus, hysteria, and other spasmodic affections have often been mistaken for rabies, there is no doubt, and we can easily imagine the mental effect produced upon an individual of a highly nervous temperament, by the knowledge of his being bitten by an animal known to be hydrophobic; and we can, without difficulty, reconcile with our best judgment the belief ‘that the workings of such an individual’s imagination, occasioned by the never-ceasing dread of the horrid malady to which he is now exposed, might be sufficient to produce a train of symptoms somewhat resembling the actual state of rabies.’
For the benefit of these nervous unfortunates, we might say to them, that the statistics of this affection show a very considerable ratio in favour of escape from inoculation when bitten, or of entire recovery even after the development of the disease, and that there are many other ills in the catalogue of medicine that they should take equal pains to provide against as lyssa canina. We doubt not that the minds of many will be relieved, when informed that John Hunter mentions an instance, in which, out of twenty persons bitten by a rabid dog, only one suffered from the malady; and that of fifty-nine dogs inoculated by Professor Hertwick at the veterinary school of Berlin, only fourteen were affected; and of eleven patients entrusted to the care of M. Blaise of Cluny, seven recovered after exhibiting greater or less degrees of spasmodic symptoms.
It may prove interesting to our readers, to insert in these pages an account of the first two cases of rabies known in Philadelphia, and as related to us by a venerable and much-esteemed citizen, who is well known in the scientific world as a gentleman of deep research, and we agree with him in opinion, that this much-dreaded disease is most frequently the result of like causes, or rather that like symptoms often induce the belief of the presence of this malady, when, in fact, no such disease does exist.
Towards the close of the last century, there lived a tailor in Front street, near Market, in the midst of the most respectable people of that period; among the number was our esteemed friend Mr. Hembel, as also Judge Tilghman. This tailor possessed an ill-tempered little spaniel, who, lounging about the street-door, attacked every one that passed by, snapping and snarling in the most worrisome manner, more particularly at every little urchin that invaded his “right of pavement,” and not unfrequently biting them or tearing their clothes from their back. The owner of the dog was appealed to on many occasions by the neighbours, begging that the quarrelsome brute should either be disposed of or kept within doors. To all these solicitations and warnings the little tailor paid no heed, but continued stitching his breeches and cribbing his customers’ goods, while the ugly little spaniel, without interruption, amused himself by snapping at and biting the heels of the passers-by.
The nuisance at last became insufferable, and Judge Tilghman applied to Mr. Hembel to assist him in getting rid of this troublesome brute; the latter gentleman advised the administration of a small quantity of strychnia, concealed in a portion of meat, which proposition was agreed upon and immediately carried into execution. A short time after the administering of this dose the spaniel sickened, and retired from his post to the kitchen, which was in the basement, and where an Irish domestic was engaged in washing; the dog appeared uneasy for a time, and suddenly, being taken with the involuntary muscular convulsions that so frequently follow the administration of this powerful drug, ran around the kitchen yelping and howling at a most terrible rate, and ultimately, to the no small discomfiture and amazement of the maid, sprang up into the wash-tub, at which unceremonious caper, on the part of the dog, the woman became greatly alarmed and ran out into the street, followed by the whole household, crying mad dog, which soon produced an uproar in the neighbourhood, no one daring to satisfy himself as to the correctness of the report, and all, perhaps, too ignorant of the subject to discern the real cause of the animal’s singular behaviour. The tailor, still bearing a strong attachment to his unfortunate favourite, and being somewhat more daring than his neighbours, ventured, at length, to peep into the kitchen to see the state of affairs, and seeing the dog still convulsed and foaming at the mouth, was more than ever confirmed in the belief of hydrophobia, and knowing full well the biting propensities of the animal, independent of rabies, concluded, much to the relief of every one, to shoot him. The next step in the programme was the dragging out and consigning of the patient to a watery grave, which was accomplished by placing, with a pair of tongs, a noose over the head of the animal, and thus hauling him out of the basement window amid the cheers of the assembled populace who soon cast him into the Delaware.
The second case of rabies as related to us by Mr. Hembel was as follows:–In 1793 the barbers of the city were in the habit of going around to the various boarding-houses for the purpose of shaving the visitors in their apartments, instead of accommodating them, as at the present time, in their own establishments.
One of these knights of the razor, living also in Front street, when going to and from a fashionable boarding-house in the vicinity, was not unfrequently assailed by a small cur who often took him by the heels when hurrying along.
To get rid of this annoying little animal as speedily and secretly as possible, he had recourse to the powers of strychnia, which produced in a very short time similar effects upon the poor victim, and the result was another great hue and cry about mad dogs.
These authentic and remarkable cases of hydrophobia were heralded in all the papers of the day, which, from that time forward, were filled with notes of caution to all dog-owners.
Of the ‘treatment’ of rabies we will make but a few remarks, as of the immense number of specifics proposed for this disease, amounting in all to several hundred, few or none can be relied on to the exclusion of the others; but those medicines, perhaps, known as opiates or anti-spasmodics, claim a larger share of attention than any others in combating the disease after its development. In looking over the very original works of Jacques Du Fouilloux, a worthy cynegetical writer of the sixteenth century, we find a prescription that was supposed by many to be an infallible specific for this disease, and as it appears to us quite as certain in its effects on the animal economy as many others of the inert substances that have been lauded to the skies both in our country and in other parts of the world as antidotes, we take the liberty of transcribing it, as also of adding a translation of his quaint French.
‘Autre recepte par mots preservants la rage.’
‘Ay appris vne recepte d’vn Gentil-homme, en Bretaigne, lequel faisoit de petits escriteaux, ou n’y auoit seulement que deux lignes, lesquels il mettoit en vne omellette d’oeufs, puis les faisoit aualer aux chiens qui auorient este mords de chiens enragez, et auoit dedans l’escriteau, ‘Y Ran Quiran Cafram Cafratrem, Cafratrosque’. Lesquels mots disoit estre singuliers pour empescher les chiens de la rage, mais quant a moi ie n’y adiouste pas foy.
I have learned a recipe from a nobleman of Brittany, which is composed of a written charm, in which there are only two lines; these he put in an omelet of eggs, he then made the dogs that had been bitten by a rabid animal swallow them. There was on the paper “‘Y Ran Quiran Cafram Cafratrem, Cafratrosque'”. These words were said to be singularly efficacious in preventing madness in dogs, but for my part I do not credit it.
Although our quaint author considered the above charm even too marvellous for his belief, we give below his own prescription in which he placed implicit confidence, but, no doubt, on trial it would prove ‘”as singularly efficacious” as the other’.
Baing pour lauer, les chiens, quand ils ont este mords des chiens enragez, de peur qu’ils enragent.
Quand les chiens sont mords ou desbrayez de chiens enragez, il faut incontinent emplir vne pippe d’eau, puis prendre quatre boisseaux de sel et les ietter dedans, en meslaut fort le sel auec vn baston pour le faire fondre soudainement: et quand il sera fondu, faut mettre le chien dedans, et le plonger tout, sans qu’il paroisse rien, par neuf fois: puis quand il sera bien laue, faut le laisser aller, cela l’empeschera d’enrager.
When a dog has been bitten or scratched by another affected with madness, we must immediately take a tub of water and throw into it four bushels of salt, stirring it briskly with a stick to make it dissolve quickly. When the salt shall be dissolved, put the dog into the bath, and plunge him well nine times, so that the bath shall cover him each time; now that he is well washed you may let him go, as this will prevent his becoming rabid.
Having given publicity to the two preceding valuable receipts, we must be pardoned for adding our own views upon this point, as a caution to those who may not feel sufficient faith in the remedies above mentioned.
The wound should be thoroughly washed and cleansed as soon as possible after the bite is inflicted: no sucking of the parts, as is advised by many, for the purpose of extracting the poison, as the presence of a small abrasion of the lips or interior of the mouth would most assuredly subject the parts to inoculation. If the wound be ragged, the edges may be taken off with a pair of sharp scissors; the wound must then be thoroughly cauterized with nitrate of silver (lunar caustic), being sure to introduce the caustic into the very depths of the wound, so that it will reach every particle of poison that may have insinuated itself into the flesh. If the wound is too small to admit of the stick of caustic, it may be enlarged by the knife, taking care, however, not to carry the poison into the fresh cut, which can be avoided by wiping the knife at each incision. Should the wound be made on any of the limbs, a bandage may be placed around it during the application of these remedies, the more effectually to prevent the absorption of the virus. Nitrate of silver is a most powerful neutralizer of specific poisons, and the affected parts will soon come away with the slough, no dressings being necessary, except perhaps olive oil, if there should be much inflammation of the parts. If the above plan be pursued, the patient need be under no apprehension as to the result, but make his mind perfectly easy on the point. This is the course generally pursued by the veterinary surgeons of Europe, and there are but few of them who have not, some time in their practice, been bitten and often severely lacerated by rabid animals; nevertheless, we never hear of their having suffered any bad effects from such accidents. If caustic be not at hand, the wound may be seared over with red-hot iron, which will answer as good a purpose, although much more painful in its operation. Mr. Blaine, in closing his able and scientific article on this subject, very justly remarks,
“Would I could instil into such minds the ‘uncertainty’ of the disease appearing at all; that is, even when no means have been used; and the ‘perfect security’ they may feel who have submitted to the preventive treatment detailed. I have been bitten several times, Mr. Youatt several also; yet in neither of us was any dread occasioned: our experience taught us the ‘absolute certainty’ of the ‘preventive’ means; and such I take on me to pronounce they always prove, when performed with dexterity and judgment.” We acknowledge ourselves a convert to this gentleman’s doctrine; and feel satisfied that if the above course be adopted, there need be no fear whatever of the development of this frightful affection.–L.]
[Footnote 1: ‘La Folie des Animaux’, by M. Perquin.]
[Footnote 2: The physician Apollonius, having been bitten by a rabid dog, induced another dog to lick the wound,
“ut idem medicus esset qui vulneris auctor fuit.”]
[Footnote 3: ‘Journal Pratique de Med. Vet.’]
[Footnote 4: ‘Sporting Magazine’, vol. xviii. p. 186.]
[Footnote 5: Daniel’s ‘Rural Sports’, vol. i. p. 220.]
* * * * *
CHAPTER VIII.
THE EYE AND ITS DISEASES.
The diseases that attack the same organ are essentially different, in different animals, in their symptoms, intensity, progress, and mode of treatment. In periodic ophthalmia–that pest of the equine race and opprobrium of the veterinary profession–the cornea becomes suddenly opaque, the iris pale, the aqueous humour turbid, the capsule of the lens cloudy, and blindness is the result. After a time, however, the cornea clears up, and becomes as bright as ever; but the lens continues impervious to light, and vision is lost.
Ophthalmia in the dog presents us with symptoms altogether different. The conjunctiva is red; that portion of it which spreads over the sclerotica is highly injected, and the cornea is opaque. As the disease proceeds, and even at a very early period of its progress, an ulcer appears on the centre; at first superficial, but enlarging and deepening until it has penetrated the cornea, and the aqueous humour has escaped. Granulations then spring from the edges of the ulcer, rapidly enlarge, and protrude through the lids. Under proper treatment, however, or by a process of nature, these granulations cease to sprout; they begin to disappear; the ulcer diminishes; it heals; scarcely a trace of it can be seen; the cornea recovers its perfect transparency, and vision is not in the slightest degree impaired.
There is a state of the orbit which requires some consideration. It is connected with the muscles employed in mastication. Generally speaking, the food of the dog requires no extraordinary degree of mastication, nor is there usually any great time employed in this operation. That muscle which is most employed in the comminution of the food, namely, the temporal muscle, has its action very much limited by the position of the bony socket of the eye; yet sufficient room is left for all the force that can be required. In some dogs, either for purposes of offence or defence, or the more effectual grasping of the prey, a sudden violent exertion of muscular power, and a consequent contraction of the temporal muscle, are requisite, but for which the imperfect socket of the orbit does not seem to afford sufficient scope and room. There is an admirable provision for this in the removal of a certain portion of the orbital process of the frontal bone on the outer and upper part of the external ridge, and the substitution of an elastic cartilage. This cartilage momentarily yields to the swelling of the muscles; and then, by its inherent elasticity, the external ridge of the orbit resumes its pristine form. The orbit of the dog, the pig, and the cat, exhibits this singular mechanism.
The horse is, to a certain extent, also an illustration of this. He requires an extended field of vision to warn him of the approach of his enemies in his wild state, and a direction of the orbits somewhat forward to enable him to pursue with safety the headlong course to which we sometimes urge him; and for this purpose his eyes are placed more forward than those of cattle, sheep, or swine. That which Mr. Percivall states of the horse is true of our other domesticated animals:
“The eyeball is placed within the anterior or more capacious part of the orbit, nearer to the frontal than to the temporal side, with a degree of prominence peculiar to the individual, and, within certain limits, variable at his will.”
In many of the carnivorous animals the orbit encroaches on the bones of the face. A singular effect is also produced on the countenance, both when the animal is growling over his prey and when he is devouring it. The temporal muscle is violently acted upon; it presses upon the cartilage that forms part of the external ridge; that again forces itself upon and protrudes the eye, and hence the peculiar ferocity of expression which is observed at that time. The victims of these carnivorous animals are also somewhat provided against danger by the acuteness of sight with which they are gifted. Adipose matter also exists in a considerable quantity in the orbit of the eye, which enables it to revolve by the slightest contraction of the muscles.
We should scarcely expect to meet with cases of fracture of the orbital arch in the dog, because, in that animal, cartilage, or a cartilago-ligamentous substance, occupies a very considerable part of that arch; but I have again and again, among the cruelties that are practised on the inferior creation, seen the cartilage partly, or even entirely, torn asunder. I have never been able satisfactorily to ascertain the existence of this during life; but I have found it on those whom I have recommended to be destroyed on account of the brutal usage which they had experienced. Blows somewhat higher, or on the thick temporal muscle of this animal, will very rarely produce a fracture.
A few cases of disease in the eye may be interesting and useful.
‘Case’ I.–The eyes of a favourite spaniel were found inflamed and impatient of light. Nothing wrong had been perceived on the preceding day. No ulceration could be observed on the cornea, and there was but a slight mucous discharge. An infusion of digitalis, with twenty times the quantity of tepid water, was employed as a collyrium, and an aloetic ball administered. On the following day the eyes were more inflamed, The collyrium and the aloes were employed as before, and a seton inserted in the poll.
Three or four days afterwards the redness was much diminished, the discharge from the eye considerably lessened, and the dog was sent home. The seton, however, was continued, with an aloetic ball on every third or fourth day.
Two or three days after this the eyes were perfectly cured and the seton removed.
‘Case’ II.–The eye is much inflamed and the brow considerably protruded.
This was supposed to be caused by a bite. I vainly endeavoured to bring the lid over the swelling. I scarified the lid freely, and ordered the bleeding to be encouraged by the constant application of warm water, and physic-ball to be given.
On the following day the brow was found to be scarcely or at all reduced, and the eye could not be closed. I drew out the haw with a crooked needle, and cut it off closely with sharp scissors. The excised portion was as large as a small-kidney-bean. The fomentation was continued five days afterwards, and the patient then dismissed cured.
‘Case’ III.–A pointer was brought in a sad state of mange. Redness, scurf, and eruptions were on almost every part. Apply the mange ointment and the alterative and physic balls. On the following day there was an ulcer on the centre of the cornea, with much appearance of pain and impatience of light. Apply an infusion of digitalis, with the liquor plumbi diacetatis. He was taken away on the twelfth day, the mange apparently cured, and the inflammation of the eye considerably lessened. A fortnight afterwards this also appeared to be cured.
‘Case’ IV.–A spaniel had been bitten by a large dog. There was no wound of the lids, but the eye was protruded from the socket. I first tried whether it could be reduced by gentle pressure, but I could not accomplish it. I then introduced the blunt end of a curved needle between the eye and the lid; and thus drawing up the lid with the right hand, while I pressed gently on the eye with the left hand, I accomplished my object. I then subtracted three ounces of blood and gave a physic-ball. On the following day the eye was hot and red, with some tumefaction. The pupil was moderately contracted, but was scarcely affected by any change of light. The dog was sent home, with some extract of goulard, and a fortnight afterwards was quite well.
‘Case’ V.–A dog received a violent blow on the right eye. Immediate blindness occurred, or the dog could apparently just discern the difference between light and darkness, but could not distinguish particular objects. The pupil was expanded and immovable. A pink-coloured hue could be perceived on looking earnestly into the eye. A seton was introduced into the poll, kept there nearly a month, and often stimulated rather sharply. General remedies of almost every kind were tried: depletion was carried to its full extent, the electric fluid was had recourse to; but at the expiration of nine weeks the case was abandoned and the dog destroyed. Permission to examine him was refused.
I have, in two or three instances, witnessed decided cases of dropsy of the eye, accumulation of fluid taking place in both the anterior and posterior chambers of the eye; there was also effusion of blood in the chambers, but in one case only was there the slightest benefit produced by the treatment adopted, and in that there was gradual absorption of the effused fluid.
About the same time there was another similar case. A pointer had suddenly considerable opacity of one eye, without any known cause: the other eye was not in the least degree affected. The dog had not been out of the garden for more than a week. The eye was ordered to be fomented with warm water.
On the following day the inflammation had increased, and the adipose matter was protruded at both the inner and outer canthus. The eye was bathed frequently with a goulard lotion. On the fourth day the eyeball was still more inflamed, and the projections at both canthi were increased. A curved needle was passed through both eyes, and there was considerable bleeding. On the following day the inflammation began to subside. At the expiration of a week scarcely any disease remained, and the eye became as transparent as ever.
A curious ease of congenital blindness was brought to my infirmary. A female pointer puppy, eight weeks old, had both her eyes of their natural size and formation, but the inner edge of the iris was strangely diseased. The pupil was curiously four-cornered, and very small. There hung out of the pupil a grayish-white fibrous matter, which appeared to be the remainder of the pupillary membrane.
Six months afterwards we examined her again, and found that the pupil was considerably enlarged, and properly shaped, and the white skin had vanished. In the back-ground of the eye there was a faint yellow-green light, and the dog not only showed sensibility to light, but some perception of external objects. At this period we lost sight of her.
A very considerable improvement has taken place with regard to the treatment of the enlarged or protruded ball of the eye. A dog may get into a skirmish, and have his eye forced from the socket. If there is little or no bleeding, the case will probably be easily and successfully treated.
The eye must, first, be thoroughly washed, and not a particle of grit must be left. A little oil, a crooked needle, and a small piece of soft rag should be procured. The blunt end of the needle should he dipped into the oil, and run round the inside of the lid, first above and then below. The operator will next–his fingers being oiled–press upon the protruded eye gently, yet somewhat firmly, changing the pressure from one part of the eye to the other, in order to force it back into the socket.
If, after a couple of minutes’ trial, he does not succeed, let him again oil the eye on the inside and the out, and once more introduce the blunt end of the needle, attempting to carry it upwards under the lid with two or three fingers pressing on the eye, and the points of pressure being frequently changed. In by far the greater number of cases, the eye will be saved.
If it is impracticable to cause the eye to retract, a needle with a thread attached must be passed through it, the eye being then drawn as forward as possible and cut off close to the lids. The bleeding will soon cease and the lids perfectly close.
‘Ophthalmia’ is a disease to which the dog is often liable. It is the result of exposure either to heat or to cold, or violent exertion; it is remedied by bleeding, purging, and the application of sedative medicine, as the acetate of lead or the tincture of opium. When the eye is considerably inflamed, in addition to the application of tepid or cold water, either the inside of the lids or the white of the eye may be lightly touched with the lancet. From exposure to cold, or accident or violence, inflammation often spreads on the eye to a considerable degree, the pupil is clouded, and small streaks of blood spread over the opaque cornea. The mode of treatment just described must be pursued.
The crystalline lens occasionally becomes opaque. There is cataract. It may be the result of external injury or of internal predisposition. Old dogs are particularly subject to cataract. That which arises from accident, or occasionally disease, may, although seldom, be reinstated, especially in the young dog, and both eyes may become sound; but, in the old, the slow-growing opacity will, almost to a certainty, terminate in cataract.
There is occasionally an enlargement of the eye, or rather an accumulation of fluid within the eye, to a very considerable extent. No external application seems to have the slightest effect in reducing the bulk of the eye. If it is punctured, much inflammation ensues, and the eye gradually wastes away.
In ‘amaurosis’, the eye is beautifully clear, and, for a little while, this clearness imposes upon the casual observer; but there is a peculiar pellucid appearance about the eye–a preternatural and unchanging brightness. In the horse, the sight occasionally returns, but I have never seen this in the dog.
The occasional glittering of the eyes of the dog has been often observed. The cat, the wolf, some carnivora, and also sheep, cows, and horses, occasionally exhibit the same glittering. Pallas imagined that the light of these animals emanated from the nervous membrane of the eye, and considered it to be an electrical phenomenon. It is found, however, in every animal that possesses a ‘tapetum lucidum’. The shining, however, never takes place in complete darkness. It is neither produced voluntarily, nor in consequence of any moral emotion, but solely from the reflection that falls on the eye.
[The eye and its diseases being so concisely treated by Mr. Youatt, we are emboldened to add a more full and particular treatise on this interesting subject, couched in language the most simple, and we trust sufficiently plain to be understood by the most unscientific patron of the canine race.
THE EYE AND ITS DISEASES.
THE NICTITATING MEMBRANE.
It is somewhat astonishing that an organ, so delicate and so much exposed as the eye of the hunting dog necessarily is, should not more frequently be attacked with disease, or suffer from the thorns, poisonous briars, and bushes that so constantly oppose their progress while in search of game. Nature, ever wise in her undertakings, while endowing this organ with extreme sensibility, also furnished it with the means of protecting itself in some measure against the many evils that so constantly threaten its destruction.
The plica semilunaris, haw or nictitating membrane, though not as largely developed in the dog as in some other animals, is, nevertheless, of sufficient size to afford considerable protection to the ball of the eye, and assists materially in preventing the accumulation of seeds and other minute particles within the conjunctiva. This delicate membrane is found at the inner canthus of the eye, and can be drawn at pleasure over a portion of the globe, so as to free its surface from any foreign substances that might be upon it. Although the eye of the dog is attacked by many diseases, almost as numerous as those of the human being, still they are much less frequent and far more tractable.
OPTHAMALIA–SIMPLE INFLAMMATION OF THE EYE.
In its mild form this disease is frequently met with, and easily yields to the administration of the proper remedies, but when it appears as an epidemic, in a kennel, it proves more stubborn. The discharge in epidemic ophthalmia, when carried from one dog to the eyes of another, no doubt is contagious, and, therefore, it is necessary to separate dogs as much from each other as possible during any prevalent epidemic of this nature.
The disease announces itself by slight redness of the conjunctiva, tenderness to light, and increased flow of the secretions.
The eyeball appears retracted in its socket, and more moist and transparent than usual. The infected vessels of the conjunctiva form a species of net-work, and can be moved about with this membrane, showing that the inflammation is entirely superficial, and not penetrating the other coverings of the eye. Extravasation of blood within the conjunctiva, (bloodshot,) is also not an uncommon appearance, but is frequently the first symptom that draws our attention to the malady.
As the disease progresses, the conjunctiva becomes more vascular, the photophobia intolerable, the cornea itself becomes opaque, and sometimes exhibits a vascular appearance. There is considerable itching of the ball, as evinced by the disposition of the dog to close the eye. If the disease progresses in its course, unchecked by any remediate means, the cornea may lose its vitality, ulceration commence, and the sight be for ever destroyed by the bursting and discharge of the contents of the eye.
‘Causes.’–Simple canine opthalmia proceeds from many causes, distinct in their character, but all requiring pretty much the same treatment. Bad feeding, bad lodging, want of exercise, extremes of heat, and cold, are the most active agents in producing this affection.
‘Treatment.’–The disease in its mild form is very tractable, and requires but little attention; soothing applications, in connexion with confinement to an obscure apartment and low diet, will generally correct the affection in its forming stage.
In all inflammations of the eye, tepid applications we consider preferable to cold, the latter producing a temporary reaction, but no permanent good, while the former exerts a soothing and relaxing influence over the tissues and parts to which they are applied.
Weak vinegar and water, with a small proportion of laudanum, we have frequently seen used with advantage as a wash in this complaint.
When there is fever, it will be necessary to bleed, and purge. Scarifying the conjunctiva with the point of a lancet, has been resorted to by some veterinary surgeons with success.
CHRONIC OPHTHALMIA.
When the disease assumes this form, the discharge from the eyes is lessened, and becomes more thick, the conjunctiva is not of such a bright arterial red, but more of a brick-dust colour, and the inner side of the lids when exposed will present small prominences and ulcerations.
‘Treatment.’–More stimulating collyria will now be necessary, as solutions of sulphate of zinc, copper, acetate of lead, &c. See No. 1, 2, 3, of the Collyria. The direct application of sulphate of copper, or nitrate of silver, will often be of great benefit in changing the action of the parts.
The lids should be turned down and brushed over two or three times with the above articles in substance, and the dog restrained for a few moments to prevent him from scratching during the temporary pain inflicted upon him by the application.
Laudanum dropped in the eye will also prove very beneficial, allaying the itching and pain, at the same time stimulating the organs to renewed action. If the disease does not succumb under this treatment, a seton placed in the pole will generally conquer it.
TRAUMATIC OPHTHALMIA
is produced by wounds of poisoned briars, stings of insects, bites of other dogs, the scratching of cats, or the actual presence of foreign bodies in the eye itself, which latter cause frequently occurs, and is often overlooked by the sportsman.
‘Treatment’.–This species of ophthalmia is best subdued by the application of emollient poultices, depletion, purgation and cooling washes. If a seed, small briar, or other substance has got in under the lids, or inserted itself in the globe of the eye, the dog keeps the eye closed, it waters freely, and in a short time becomes red and inflamed. The removal of the article alone, will generally produce a cure; sometimes it is necessary to use a cooling wash and administer a purge or two. Great care should he had for the extraction of extraneous substances from the eyes of dogs, as their presence often causes great suffering to the animal even while diligently employed in the field. The writer has seen dogs more than once rendered useless while hunting, by grass, cloverseeds, or other small particles burying themselves under the lids.
‘Ophthalmia of Distemper’.–This species of inflammation will be spoken of when treating of this latter affection.
SYMPATHETIC OPHTHALMIA
arises from the presence of some other disease located in another portion of the body, as derangement of the stomach, mange, surfeit, &c. The presence of one of these affections will indicate the cause of the other.
‘Treatment’.–Soothing applications to the organ itself, and remedies for the removal of the primary affection.
HYDROPHTHALMIA
though not a common affection in the canine race, is occasionally met with; several cases have come under the observation of the writer, and no doubt there are but few dog-fanciers who have not seen the eyeballs of some dog suffering with this malady, ready to start from their sockets.
This affection depends upon a superabundance of the humours of the eye, occasioned by over-secretion, or a want of power in the absorbent vessels to carry off the natural secretions of the parts.
Old dogs are more apt to suffer from this disease than young dogs: nevertheless, the latter are not by any means exempt; we once saw a pup, a few days old, with the globe of the eye greatly extended by this affection.
As the disease progresses, the eye becomes more hard and tender, the sight is greatly impaired, and ultimately, if not arrested, the eye bursts, discharges its contents, and total blindness ensues, greatly to the relief of the poor animal.
‘Treatment’.–This disease is very intractable, and is to be combated by saline purges, bleeding, and stimulating application to the organ itself. Mercurial ointment, rubbed over the eyebrow, will assist in stimulating the absorbents.
When the disease has progressed for a long time, and the pain, as is often the case, seems intense, it will save the animal great suffering, by opening the ball and allowing the humours to escape. This may be done by puncturing the cornea or the sclerotic coat with a needle. Setons introduced along the spine would have a good effect.
CONGENITAL BLINDNESS
occasionally occurs throughout a whole litter, no doubt being entailed upon the progeny of those dogs who have defective vision, or who are old and infirm at the time of copulation. The best and only remedy is speedy drowning.
CATARACT
consists in the partial or complete opacity of the crystalline lens; it results from numerous causes, and is more frequent in the old than the young subject. In old dogs both eyes are usually attacked, producing absolute blindness, while in young animals one eye alone is generally attacked.
‘Causes.’–Old age, hard work, and bad feeding, are the agents most active in the production of this affection; it generally comes on slowly, but sometimes very quickly.
When the disease occurs in young dogs, it is generally the result of wounds or blows over the head, convulsions and falls.
‘Treatment.’–Little can be accomplished towards curing this disease either in the old or young dog, as the disease, in spite of all our efforts, will run its course, and terminate in total opacity of the lens. Mild purging, blistering on the neck, introduction of the seton, and blowing slightly stimulating powders into the eye, will sometimes arrest the progress of the disease in the young dog.
ULCERATIONS ON THE CORNEA
are sometimes very troublesome, and if not put a stop to, will often cause opacity and blindness, if not total destruction of the eye.
Slightly stimulating washes and purges are useful; the careful application of nitrate of silver will often induce the ulcer to heal; it must be put on very nicely and gently.
SPOTS ON THE CORNEA
are the result of ulcers and inflammation. If they do not materially interfere with vision, they had better be left alone.
Powdered sugar and a small quantity of alum blown into the eye daily through a quill, we have seen used with much success.
AMAUROSIS–GUTTA SERENA OR GLASS EYE,
A partial or complete paralysis of the optic nerves of either side is not a frequent disease. It usually comes on gradually, but sometimes may appear in the course of a few hours from the effects of wounds or convulsions. When the paralysis is complete, total blindness of course ensues. The intimate connection, or sympathy, existing between the nerves of either eye, is so peculiar that disease of one is quickly followed by a corresponding disease in the other.
Amaurosis, therefore, ordinarily ends in total blindness. The disease is characterized by a dilated stage of the pupil, which seldom contracts under the effect of any degree of light thrown upon it. The coats and humours of the eye are perfectly transparent, in fact appear to be more pellucid than natural.
‘Causes.’–This affection is produced in many different ways; among the most common causes may be mentioned wounds on the head, or of the parts surrounding the nerve, strains, falls, disease of the bone, convulsions, and epileptic fits.
We have seen a case produced by a tumour, which occupied the posterior portion of the orbit, and caused the organ to be somewhat protruded from its proper position, giving the eye the appearance of hydrophthalmia, for which it was taken, the existence of the tumour never for a moment being suspected. In this case there was partial amaurosis in both sides, although nothing of disease could be discovered in the left eye.
Amaurosis is a very deceptive disease, the nerves alone being affected; the humours and coverings of the eye remaining perfectly transparent and natural, imposes upon the inexperienced observer, but is easily detected by those who have witnessed the disease in others. There is a singular watery appearance and vacant stare about the eye of the dog that cannot be mistaken. This peculiarity is owing, no doubt, to the enlargement of the pupil, as before observed.
‘Treatment’.–When proceeding from blows, convulsions, or inflammation of the nerve itself, bleeding will be serviceable, as also purging and blistering. If the disease should appear without any symptom, or other cause, to lead us to believe that there is any local affection, the antiphlogistic course should be laid aside, and resort be had to local and constitutional tonic applications, and revulsive frictions to the nape of the neck and spine. A seton may also be applied; and electricity has been recommended in such cases, no doubt arising from want of tone in the general system.
This affection, in spite of every effort, is very unmanageable, and but seldom yields to any course of treatment. Strychnia has been used lately, both internally and externally, in the cure of this complaint; it may be sprinkled over a blistered surface immediately above the eye, in the proportion of a grain morning and evening; it may also be administered inwardly at the same time, in doses from the half a grain to a grain twice a day.
EXTIRPATION OF THE EYE.
It sometimes becomes necessary, from the diseased state of this organ, that it should be taken completely from its socket. This operation, though frightful, perhaps, to consider, is very simple in its application, and may be performed without difficulty by any one accustomed to the use of the knife. The animal is to be held firmly, as before directed, and an assistant to keep the lids widely extended.
If the lids cannot be drawn well over the eye, owing to enlargement of the ball caused by disease, they may be separated by an incision at the external angle. A curved needle armed with a thread is now to be passed entirely through the eye, being careful to include sufficient of the sound parts within its grasp to prevent its tearing out. This finished, the needle may be detached, and the ends of the thread being united, the movements of the eye can be governed by means of this ligature: then proceed as follows:
1st. The assistant keeping the lids well separated, the operator draws the eye upward and outward, and then inserting the scalpel at the inner and lower angle of the eye, with a gentle sweep separates the ball from the lids, extending the incisions through to the external canthus.
2d. The ball is now to be drawn inwardly and downward, while the scalpel, continuing the circular movement as far as the internal canthus, separates the upper lid.
3d. The muscles and optic nerves still bind this organ to the orbit, which attachments can easily be destroyed by the scalpel, by pulling the eye forward sufficiently to reach them. If the eye has been extirpated on account of any malignant disease, it is necessary to remove every particle of muscle from the orbit; and when the disease has extended itself to the lids, it will also be proper to remove that portion of them included in the affection.
The hemorrhage from the operation is trifling, and may generally be arrested by the pressure of the fingers, or the insertion of a conical ball of lint within the socket, which may be allowed to remain two or three days if necessary. If there is nothing to apprehend from hemorrhage, it is only necessary to draw the lids together, and unite that portion which has been separated by a suture, and place a hood over the whole.
We do not recommend the stuffing of the orbit with lint, except in case of hemorrhage, as its presence will sometimes produce violent inflammation, which may extend to the brain. The cavity of the eye will, in a measure, be filled up by newly formed matter. The dog must be restricted to a low cooling diet, and have administered two or three saline purges.
ULCERATIONS OF THE EYELIDS
are often met with in old mangy, ill-fed animals, and are difficult to overcome, except by curing the the primary affection, which is often no easy task. The lids become enlarged, puffy, and tender, the lashes fall out, and the edges present an angry reddish appearance.
‘Treatment’–Must be directed, in the first place, to the curing of the old affection, by which, in connection with blisters, purging, stimulating washes, &c., a cure may be effected. When the swelling of the lids is considerable, scarifying them with the point of a lancet will often be of much service. Ointment of nitrate of silver may also be smeared on the edges.
WARTS ON THE EYELIDS
sometimes make their appearance; they may be lifted up with the forceps, and excised with a knife or scissors, and the wound touched with nitrate of silver. The same treatment will answer for those warts, or little excrescences, that sometimes come on the inside of the lids.
ENTROPIUM–INVERSION OF THE EYELIDS.
This disease we do not find mentioned by any of the writers on canine pathology: nevertheless, we are led to believe that it is not an uncommon form of ophthalmia; and we must express our surprise that it should have escaped the attention of such close observers as Blain and Youatt.
The acute form of the disease resulting from, or attending, simple ophthalmia, we have often witnessed, but the chronic form, of which we more particularly speak, is more rare. We have seen three cases of the latter, and, no doubt, might have found many more if our opportunities of studying canine pathology were equal to those of the English writers. The inversion of the eyelids upon the globe is accompanied with pain and irritation, swelling and inflammation, both of the lids and eye, which ultimately renders the dog almost useless, if not entirely blind.
‘Causes’.–Neglected chronic ophthalmia was, no doubt, the cause of the disease in two cases, a setter and a pointer, while the other, in a hound, was the result of an acute attack of ophthalmia brought on by scalding with hot pitch thrown upon the animal. Some of this substance entered the eye, while a large portion adhered to the muzzle and lids. The eye, as well as the lids, became inflamed; the latter, being puffed up and contracted on their edges, were necessarily drawn inwards from the tension of the parts, and double entropium was thus produced. The inflammation and tumefaction of the parts continued for a considerable time, and when ultimately reduced by the application of tepid fomentations, the skin appeared greatly relaxed; and the muscular fibres having lost their power of support or contractility, owing to their long quiescence, seemed no longer able to keep their lids in their proper situation; the edges therefore remained in the abnormous position previously assumed.
By this strange condition of the parts, the eyeball continued greatly irritated by the constant friction of the lashes; water was continually flowing over the lids, and from its irritating character produced considerable excoriation of the face and muzzle. The conjunctiva remained inflamed, the cornea in due course became ulcerous, and the eye was ultimately destroyed by the discharge of its contents. This was the course and final termination of the disease in the case of the hound above referred to, all of which disastrous results might have been prevented by proper management.
‘Treatment.’–When in England, we sent to the United States a fine bred pointer dog, designed as a present for one of our sporting friends. This animal travelled from Leeds to Liverpool, chained on top of the railroad cars; the journey occupied several hours, daring which the weather was cold and boisterous, and we noticed on his arrival at the latter place that his eyes were watering and somewhat inflamed. On examining them more particularly, we were enabled to extract several pieces of cinder from under the lids, which seemed to relieve him somewhat. He went to sea, in the care of the steward, on the following day; and remained on deck exposed to the inclemency of the weather during a long voyage. When he arrived in Philadelphia, the inflammation, we were informed, was very considerable, occasioned by the presence of some other small particles of cinder that may have escaped our attention before shipping him. The presence of these foreign substances in the eye, in connection with the salt spray and irritating atmosphere, greatly aggravated the ophthalmia, and resolved it into a chronic affection, which ultimately resulted in entropium.
“Fop” was hunted during the same autumn, which no doubt increased the malady to a considerable extent; and before the hunting season was over, the dog was rendered almost useless: the lids becoming so much swollen and the irritation so considerable, that it was deemed cruel to allow him to go into the field.
When we saw him some time in the course of the same winter, the lower lids of both eyes were completely inverted on their globes, and the conjunctival inflammation and flow of tears considerable.
The eyes seemed contracted within their sockets, and at times were nearly hidden from view, the corneas were somewhat opaque, the photophobia intolerable, and the animal showed evident signs of extreme pain, by his restless anxiety and constant efforts at scratching and rubbing the eyes.
Under the judicious application of cooling astringent collyria, and other remediate means, the irritation and pain of the parts were relieved, and the lids somewhat retracted.
“Fop” remained in this condition till the following autumn, suffering at times considerably from the increased inflammation and tumefaction of the lids, which continued obstinately to persist, insomuch that when turned out by the pressure of the fingers on them, they immediately contracted, and were forced inwards on the ball when freed from the fingers.
Finding that no external application was of any permanent benefit, we resolved to have resort to the same operation we saw practised in the Parisian hospitals for the cure of a similar malformation in the human subject.
To insure quiet we enclosed the body of the dog in a case, made stationary and sufficiently small to prevent struggling, with the head firmly fixed by a sliding door, as represented in the accompanying drawing.
The mouth was kept closed by a small strap passed around the muzzle. This method of fixing a strong dog, we consider the best ever adopted for all nice operations on the face. The first step in the operation was to pinch up a portion of the lax skin of the diseased lid and pass three needles, armed with silk ligatures, successively through the base of the upraised integuments.
One needle approximating the external canthus, another the internal, and a third midway between these two points, as represented in the annexed drawing.
The next step was lo raise up the integuments included in the ligature, and, by means of a pair of sharp scissors, cut off the super-abundant skin as near to the ligatures as possible; having care however to leave sufficient substance included in the ligatures, to prevent their sloughing out before adhesion has taken place. The next and last step of the operation was, to draw the edges of the wound together by tying each ligature, which procedure immediately secured the lid and held it firmly in its natural position. The ligatures were now cut short, and a large wire muzzle, covered over with some dark substance on the operated eye, being put on him, and his legs hobbled with a piece of strong twine, more effectually to prevent his scratching the head, “Fop” was then set at liberty, and soon became reconciled to this eye-shade.
The hemorrhage was trifling, the wound healed up by the first intention and the ligatures were drawn away in a few days, when a perfect cure was effected–the conjunctiva having lost its inflammatory appearance, and the cornea having again become quite transparent.
The other eye was operated on in the same way and with like success. In the first operation we cut away the loose flaccid integuments only; whereas, in the second, we snipped small longitudinal fibres from the cartilage itself, and the operation consequently was more perfect, if possible, than in the first instance.
The eyes were now perfectly restored, and remained well during the whole of the shooting season, after which we lost sight of our patient, he having accompanied one of our friends as a “compagnon de voyage” on a commercial expedition to Santa Fe, and, when on his return, had the misfortune to lose “Fop,” who was carried off into captivity by some prowling Camanches, who no doubt have long since sacrificed him to the Great Spirit in celebrating the buffalo or wolf dance.
PROTRUSION OF THE EYE
The eye may be forced from its orbit by wounds or the bites of other animals.
If not materially injured, the ball should be cleaned with a little tepid water, or by wiping off with a fine silk or cambric handkerchief, and immediately replaced within its socket; otherwise the inflammation and swelling of the lids will soon prevent its easy admission. When handling the protruded eye, the fingers should be dipped in olive oil or warm water.
When sufficient time has elapsed from the occurrence of the accident to prevent the ball being replaced, owing to the swelling and contraction of the lids, an incision may be made at the external angle of the eye, so as to divide the lids, which will then admit the eye into its natural position. If not, the lid itself can be raised up and slit far enough to allow its being drawn over the globe. As considerable inflammation generally follows this accident, it will be prudent to bleed the animal and confine him.
We have seen eyes replaced, that have been out of their sockets for several hours, perfectly recover their strength and brilliancy.
WEAK EYES.
Some dogs, particularly several breeds of spaniels, have naturally weak eyes, attended by an over-secretion and constant flow of tears, more particularly when exposed to the sun. When there is no disease of the lachrymal duct, the secretion may be diminished and the eyes strengthened by the daily application of some slightly tonic wash, as No. 1, 2, 3, &c.
FISTULA LACHRYMALIS.
The lachrymal duct is a small canal, leading from the internal angle of the eye to the nostrils, and is the passage through which the tears escape from the eye. This duct may become closed by inflammation of the lining membrane of the nose, caries of the bone, ulcers, fungous growths, or by the presence of some extraneous substance impacted in it. The tears, no longer having a natural outlet, are necessarily forced over the lids, accompanied, not unfrequently, by a good deal of purulent matter.
This canal, when thus obstructed from some one of the above causes, often forms an ulcerous opening at its upper extremity, just below the internal canthus, for the escape of the pus that usually collects in a sac at that point. This perforation is called “Fistula Lachrymalis.” The tears, entering the canal at its punctum, are carried along till they pass out at the fistulous opening.
Treatment’.–This is a very troublesome affection, and has been