Preventive treatment of hydrophobia and other diseases : a paper read before the Abernethian Society, Thursday, January 12th, 1888 / by T. Lauder Brunton.

  • Brunton, Thomas Lauder, Sir, 1844-1916.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Preventive treatment of hydrophobia and other diseases : a paper read before the Abernethian Society, Thursday, January 12th, 1888 / by T. Lauder Brunton. 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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    muscles of tlie anterior part of the body, so that the animal lies perfectly inert, but even in this stage it may retain the tendency to snap at any object which is brought within reach of its mouth. The symptoms just detailed are those of the ordinary form of rabies. In all cases there is a mixture of nervous excitement with nervous paralysis, the excitement gradu- ally passing into paralysis in the ordinary form, or furious form, as it is sometimes called in order to distinguish it from the second or dumb form. In the dumb form the excitement is much less, the paralysis appears quickly and affects the muscles of the lower jaw rapidly, so that the animal does not howl. It also rarely bites. These two forms appear to depend upon the concentration of the virus, a concentrated virus tending to produce the rapid paralysis, evidencing itself in the dumb form, whereas a less active virus tends to exert a slower paralytic action and to produce the furious form. In other animals the symptoms of rabies are evidenced also by excitement and paralysis, the amount of each varying in different cases. In rabbits tetanic spasms are occasionally noticed, combined with the paralysis ; and in horses a convulsion seems to come on whenever they attempt to run at anyone in order to bite. In consequence of this peculiarity horses are not liable to spread the disease. The post-mortem appearances in cases of rabies are not well marked. They consist chiefly in congestion of the parts which I have already mentioned as being affected during life, namely, the brain, medulla, and spinal cord, the throat, and the stomach. The stomach is frequently found filled with sticks, stones, hay, straw, mud, and other foreign substances, and this is generally relied upon as being perhaps the most distinctive appearance in cases of rabies. The stomach itself is often very greatly ecchymosed, and microscopic examination has shown that in the medulla oblongata numbers of leucocytes have escaped from the blood-vessels into the surrounding