Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 190, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 August 1914 — HOW TO KNOW RABIES [ARTICLE]

HOW TO KNOW RABIES

Symptoms in Dogs a Layman May Understand. Hydrophobia Is Usually Spread by the Infected, Ownerless Cur Traveling Far and Wide, Says a Philadelphia Veterinarian. Philadelphia.—" Mad dog!" A terrible cry, and one that sends the bravest stampeding frantically. It has always been, in the imagination of men, one of the most dreadful warnings. And why not? The statistics show that among hydrophobia patients the mortality is 100 per cent, says the Philadelphia North American. Then, too, there are people who say there is no such thing as rabies, that it Is all the wild-eyed superstition of a fright-crazed people. In these summer months, when the rumors fly, which a<re you to believe? Here below is the expert testimony of an authority upon the disease and situation, Dr. C. J. Marshall, the state veterinarian. He tells just how you may know a mad dog, and discusses the state of affairs with evident surety.

The symptoms of rabies are very easily recognized,by a person who is familiar with the disease, yet the average layman seldom recognizes it, Doctor Marshall says. Among the ordinary symptoms observed is a change in the disposition Of the animal. If he has been affectionate, he often becomes cross and irritable, while dogs that are of a nervous, ferocious temperament frequently become very affectionate and timid. In many cases the animal goes away from home and may travel several miles, and on his return will show that he has been in a number of fights with other dogs. There is always a change in the voice of the animal. Instead of a bark he makes more of a cry and does more barking than usual. In some cases dogs that are affected are constantly

licking or biting the body, sometimes even licking through the skin and doing extensive damage to that particular part. They usually have a de-praved-appetite, and will eat pieces of wood, cloth, leather or any rubbish that they may find. Dogs that are kept in the bouse or in kennels frequently chew up the furniture or tear the bars of the cage with their teeth, and sometimes even tear their teeth otit or lacerate their mouths through such violence. Doctor Marshall has very dubious opinions of those who deny that there is such a thing as rabies. He says: "There is nuch a disease as rabies. I have seen hundreds of dogs, a number of cats, many head of cattle and a large number of horses die of the disease which has been, by all the means of establishing a diagnosis known to our profession, declared and verified as rabies. There is no disease of which I know that is more easily recognized or more sure to cause death, or one that causes more intense suffering in its victims than rabies. In my opinion it id unwise for intelligent persons to deny its existence, or to minimize or magnify the losses and suffering occasioned by it. I know very well that all animals and all persons bitten by a rabid animal do not develop rabies, but I know of no transmissible disease in which all animals that are susceptible will develop the disease when exposed to it. The best records I have at hand show where rabid dogs have bitten persons around the extremities 17 out of 100 have developed the disease, while 80 out of 100 bitten about the face have produced the malady. This is because the teeth of the animal when slashing at the legs become cleaned of the poisonous saliva, and usually do not carry, by they cut through to the skin, enough disease germs to impregnate the torn flesh. "On the other hand, when an uncovered portion of the body is bitten all of the deadly bacteria are on the points of the dog’s teeth and ; tear into the flesh fully armed. I know that the British isles have exterminated the disease by judicious use of muzzles

and by proper quarantine measures. No cases have been reported from Australia, and probably never will be as long as the present system of quarantine is in vogue. The only way that rabies can be spread is by the biu. of an animal. Dogs, being loose and free to roam, are naturally subject to it. No dogs have, so far as my records or knowledge of them go, been known to go mad of their own accord. It is simply a disease which is carried from place to place by dogs which have been bitten by other dogs and which will bite still other dogs in their turn. The mad cats which are occasionally seen have been bitten by mad dogs. The horses and cattle have been contaminated in the same way. If every dog in the United States were’ muzzled and quarantined as they are restricted in England and Australia there would be no rabies. “It is the ownerless dog which causes the trouble. He travels far and wide, fighting over a wide range of territory. In one of the stray flurries he may be nipped by a dog which is in the early stages of rabies. He may be caught by a raving rabies sufferer and bitten before he can escape. In any event, he develops the disease. “Thd household pet, no matter how carefully he is watched, may on some pleasant little jog, when out for exercise orilj a few minutes, perhaps be cut by a contaminated hound and doomed. However, these animals rarely spread rabies.