Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 79, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 April 1911 — Is YOUR DOG GOING MAD? [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Is YOUR DOG GOING MAD?

BY ARNO DOSCH

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I • r " ..Vi _y\ .J-vV *■ ' NYONE can foil when a j dog is going mad and prevent him from doing harm. The symptoms develop over a period of from three to eight days before the biting mania seizes him. Meanwhile I he gives a hundred warnings. All that is neces-

•ary is to chain him. That this piece of information has JUrt been given publicity before, except in the case of a few New England towns, is due to the general lack Of oaution, but, with the alarming Increase of rabies both in animals and men, it has become essential. Too many dogs are going mad every day. Something will have to be done about It. The disease is now so prevalent that it is pertinent to ask: * Is your dog- going mad too? This questlpn may strike you as unnecessarily alarming, especially if you happen to live where there have never been any mad dogs. In that case you are to be congratulated. Places with such a record are becoming rare. Your turn may be next. J Left to spread as far. as it might, with practically no attempt to stop it, rabies during the past few years has become thickly disseminated over the whole of the United States, except the far West. Along the Atlantic coast and in the middle West, both North and South, there is hardly a district unaffected by it, and each additional dog that goes mad is carrying it as far as he can travel in two or three days' time. It has arrived at the point 'where it threatens everyone, and, If it were not for the twenty-five or more Institutions which are now giving the 'Pasteur treatment in the affected districts, the number of human deaths would be startling. Three years, ago rabies began to press Itself upon public attention. Up to that time It had never appeared asfjbuch of a danger in America, although mad dogs had shown themselves at intervals for more than a century. Each in Itself had always been a terrifying object, but the numbers were comparatively scarce. Conservative estimates of the medical men and boards of health place the number of deaths annually from this dread disease at 20,000. The question of what to do is also before this country. Two courses are ppen: policing and a study of the disease which may lead to its prevention. Effective policing has always meant a rigid muzzle and leash law and the chloroforming of all stray dogs. But it has been proved to be successful. After centuries of terror over rabid animals, England, since 1897, has succeeded by this means in remaining rid of them entirely, and only a few months ago when some of the virus* , was needed in a research laboratory in Liverpool it had to be obtained outside the country. Berlin has practically eradicated the disease within the city following an epidemic during which a dog went mad on the streets •very day. Paris, overcoming a sentimental opposition, reduced the mad dogs from 560 during the year 1901 to 10 In 1907, simply by compelling owners to look afW their pets. ’ Attempts to stop the disease in this country have been spasmodic and hysterical. It has required the death Of some well-known person or some unusual circumstance to awaken the police.

There are three ty£es of rabies: furious, which we recognize; dumb, which we do not; and a mixture of the two. The furious 1b the most important The first action on the part of a dog which points to furious rabies is a marked and unusual restlessness. He Jumps up constantly without canse and is hypersensitive to light and sound. He snoops in dark corners and licks everything nervously. He becomes effusive In bis affection, and his master, wondering, feels that there is trouble, and asks the poor dumb brute what alls him. Then, all at once, his disposition changes. He snaps suddenly, and the next instant wags his tall in apology for his action. In a moment he snaps again. Meanwhile he eats aqyl drinks normally and shows no sign of paralysis, which we’have been taught to look for when rabies Is suspected. The restlessness Increases in a way that can hardly fall of notice, and then a night comes when he gives little gasping howls, which sound as if they had been choked off In the middle. Anyone who has ever heard this howl kpows instinctively that there Is something wrong. There is no confusing it with the ordinary barking at passing or imaginary objects, and it sounds nothing at all like baying at the moon. The howls are senseless and the hearer realizes it. At first the dog remains near the house, giving his master ample time to take action. In fact he forces the attention of everyone within hearing and spreads a vague uneasiness. His howls get on the nerves of those within door* and they are rather apt to call out to him to be still. Some comment Is probably made on the peculiar effect his howling has. A timid member of the household suggests that the dog is going mad, hut the idea is scouted. When this has gone on half the night, and the family Is distraught for lack of sleep, the howls begin to grow fainter and the family falls into a peaceful sleep. But the dog has gone •way to menace the surrounding country for fifty or a hundred miles. He wanders aimlessly, the disease grlpying him tighter lour by hour, and..

when the morning comes, he is foaming at the mouth —a mad dog. The biting mania is on him, and he attacks everything, cattle, horses, dogs, cats, children. Fortunately the only other animal which gets the biting mania is the horse. The disease is spread in almost every case by dogs. After two or three days, if he has not meanwhile been shot, he comes badk, but, by this time, he has done his damage. He is weak in the hind legs, then in the fore legs. His eyes become covered with a film and his under Jaw hangs down. Before long general paralysis sets in and he dies. The warning which can hardly fail to be noticed is the howl, and, when his owner hears this, it Is high time to- act He can be caught without much danger of biting, as a mad dog only attacks his master when the disease has completely captured his mind. But the Saliva 1b already virulent, and gloves should be worn. Otherwise a little of It penetrating the sldn or rubbed from the hand to a freshly shaved chin is enough to communicate the disease. In dumb rabies the first sign is the dropping of the Jaw. When this happens to a dog, it is only necessary to place a dish of water before him to discover whether he has rabies. He will lick at it, if rabid, but he will not be able to swallow, and the Smount in the dish will remain the same. As he cannot bite he is not very dangerous, but his saliva is as virulent as if he had furious rabies, and he should be kept apart. Usually a dog with dumb rabies Is believed to have a bone in his throat, and some kindly person puts a hand in his mouthliterally into the Jaws of death. « In mixed rabies the dog is more or less furious. He showfc some of the symptoms of*both the other forms. About the only other diseases to which* dogs are prone show themselves in a way not to be confused with rabies. Gastric trouble and rheumatism appear much as in human beings, and distemper is accompanied by coughing and sneezing, a high fever and running at the eyes. The cardinal rut» is never to kill a biting dog if possible to avoid it. Catch and chain him, and wait to see if the symptoms of rabies develop. If he is all right at the end of a week those he bit may breathe more freely, but, if he becomes rabid, they have no time to lose* With the Increase in rabies some knowledge of what to do for a dog’s victims is as essential as a pocket supply of potassium permanganate in the rattlesnake country. Dr. George G. Rambaud, of the Pasteur Institute of New York, gives the following directions as first aid to the injured: “The wounds should be treated like any other infected wounds. Bleeding should be encouraged, as a free flow j)t blood may carry off with It a great part of the virus. Then the wound should be thoroughly-washed with any good antiseptic solution. The newer colloidal silver or silver-salt preparations are to be preferred, but, in their absence, iodine, a four per cent solution of carbolic acid, or even lemon Juice, are useful.” Cauterisation, the oldest treatment,

Dr. Rambaud decries because, he says, it gives a false sense of security. But Dr. Anna Williams, who is devoting her life to the study of rabies in the research laboratory of the New York. Board of Health, says she is willing to take her chances on if the wound is not too deep. The average person, however, will prefer to take the Pasteur treatment. Since its discovery in 1884 it has been tried on more than 250,000 people, and of ‘those who took it only one-half of one per cent have died. On the subject of the disease itself there is not much room for question. The existence of the virus has been proved beyond all reasonable doubt by inoculating a whole series of dogs, one from another, and having each one de? velop the same symptoms and die in the same way. But, what has stood in the way of a greater knowledge, aside from the treatment, has been the doubt as to the nature of the virus. Some hold it is a bacterium, the lowest form of plant life, and others that it is a protozoon, the lowestf form of animal life. Bacteria are subject to epidemics; the known/ protozoons are not. The layman can only Imps for the protozoon conclusion. The Pasteur treatment normally consists of injections into the flank of an emulsion of small portions of ths spinal cord of Inoculated rabbits dissolved in a salt solution. Fbr bites on the hand or body, if the patient begins the treatment within a week, it is continued for eighteen days. If the delay is greater, it is continued for several days longer. Pasteur himself laid down the rules which have been followed more or less closely ever since. But experience has shown that this treatment is much less successful for* bites on the face, where the reach to the nerve center is shorter. To meet the emergency face bites have given rise to, within the past two years a new treatment hqs been developed which Immunizes the, patient in twelve days. It is rather heroic, but it has been used a great many times without bad results, saving the lives of many who had no time to spare. Instead of hsing virus the virulence of which has been allowed to die out, as in the old method, the emulsion consists of a serum obtained from sheep strongly Immunized against rabies mixed with fresh virulent virus. The Pasteur treatment is only preventive. The serum meets and grapples with the virus on its way up the nerve to the brain. Once it has reached the nerve center, it defies treatmnt But, if you do not know you have been exposed, your first Intimation is after the virus is in the brain engaged in its fateful work. Death from rabies has become too common to occupy a front-page position in the newspapers. That alone shows the prevalence of the disease. Tomorrow or next week, when you read of little children being bitten on the street, remember that one of those children might have been yours. Imagine, then, the furious animal rushing at your child, tearing at his face and body!—ls the picture too horrible? It is happening every day. Your child may be next. i