Hydrophobia in dogs and other animals : and the sanitary precautions against its transmission to the human race.
- Russel, Charles P.
- Date:
- [1874?]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Hydrophobia in dogs and other animals : and the sanitary precautions against its transmission to the human race. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![Hensinger observes that there is undoubtedly a type of ijiter- mittent fever in ma7i having some relation to anthrax, in which not only hydrophobia and aphagia, but also at times all the symptoms of rabies are present. This is called febris hydrophobica,'' and Faber is reminded by it of a similar epidemy which broke out among the German soldiers after the conquest of Rome, A. D. 553. Bollinger alludes to the theory which refers the epizootic outbreaks of hydro- phobia to a peculiar miasma. On account of the analogies between anthrax and rabies, attempts have been made to establish their closer identity by referring to their localities of origin, anthrax being usually regarded as of malarial source ; but facts have not sustained this theory. There is no doubt that simultaneous epizootics of anthrax and rabies have, at various periods, occurred among dogs and other animals in different portions of Europe, and that it has sometimes been exceedingly difficult to distinguish the two diseases. Under ordinary circumstances, however, the differential diagnosis is easy. The appearance of carbuncular tumors and ecchymotic spots, the terrible rapidity of the successive stages, the immediate prostration, the tendency to gangrene, the passage of bloody stools, the yellow hue of the visible mucous membranes—all these are assuredly suffi- cient to establish the presence of anthrax fever, notwithstanding that other symptoms similar to those of rabies may be present. The pathological appearances, moreover, in anthrax are peculiar and characteristic, while, as we have seen, those of rabies are inconstant and indefinite. After death by the former the animal's body is in a state of immediate putrefaction—the blood is black and thick like pitch—the spleen is enlarged from the presence of enormous tumors— there is infiltration of the mesenteric glands—hsemorrhagic effusions are noticed in the intestinal tube, cellular tissue, serous cavities, and muscular interspaces—the Peyer's plates are generally inflamed and sometimes ulcerated. According to Lafontaine, in certain countries from the source of the Vistula to the Carpathian mountains, there is a curious disease named the Plica Polonica, vj]\\Qh attacks dogs, wolves, foxes, sheep, cattle, horses, and human beings. When it seizes upon the canine race they are said to exhibit symptoms closely resembling those of rabies, and are frequently destroyed under the impression that they are mad. They carry the tail between their legs, foam at the mouth.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22268133_0042.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
