Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 September 1894 — DON'T KILL THE DOG. [ARTICLE]

DON'T KILL THE DOG.

A Physician’s Advice to Persona Who May Be Bitten. Pittsburg Dispatch. It will surprise many people to know that hardly one dog in fifty or seven ty-five of the dogs reported to be mad is mad, and yet that is what a well-known Pittsburg physician said, last night. He went further and said there had been but one genuine case, of hydrophobia in Pittsburg in several years. “Impress this upon people who have been bitten by a supposed mad dog—don’t kill the dog. It is”about the worst thing that can be done, lor it gives no chance to the victim bitten to know whether.he has been bitten by a mad dog or not. The dog should be carefully penned up, and after a time killed. Then let a section of his spinal cord be submitted to a competent person, and he will soon see whether the dog had rabies or not. “When a person is bitten by a dog the first thing to do is to suck the blood out of the wound and with it the virus if the dog has rabies. But rare must be iaiceg-fEgt ,tß6re".t>.<£ttfrr ;uts on the lips or in the mouth. Where the dog’s teeth have had to iro through clothing before reaching the flesh the chances are better, for the poisonous saliva would likely be taken off in penetrating the cloth. After the blood has been sucked out i physician should be consulted and ;auterization "'resorted to. If no physician be near the wound should je cauterized anyway, well and deep, ivith a hot iron if. less severe means :annot be obtained. Under the old Pethods of curing hydrophobia, when the virus once got into the system there could really be no cure. The ease was fatal. Pasteur's ‘attenuated virus’ plan, from the remits set forth, seems to be a great benefit. But dont kill the dog.” A recent article in a medical review says that Tizonni and Centanni say they can not only confer immulity from the bites of a dog afflicted with rabies, but can cure hydrophojia after the disease has developed.