Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 January 1877 — Hydrophobia and Spitz Dogs. [ARTICLE]

Hydrophobia and Spitz Dogs.

Hydrophobia as a cause of death appears to have greatly increased in England as well as in the United States within recent years. In the five years ending with 1864 there was an average of four cases a year; in the five years ending with 1874 the average was forty-three cases a year, and it is thought that it has been still worse in 1875 and 1876. For a disease to suddenly increase in so great a degree as this implies necessarily the operation of some very effective cause not in operation in the earlier years, and when an increase so great is observed in countries so widely separated as England and the United States, all causes related to climate and to communication of the virus from one to another are of course excluded. But if we find active in each county a recentlyintroduced agent capable of originating the disease, we may conclude with reasonable certainty that that is the cause of its increased prevalence. In either country this reasoning points to the Spitz dog as the offender. In England, as well as in the United states, this animal is of recent introduction. But he has another name. He is called in England the Pomeranian dog; this is because he was first known in Europe as coming from Pomerania, but he had reached Pomerania previously from some of the neighboring Scandinavian or Russian countries toward the Arctic Circle. In this country the date of his introduction cannot be definitely fixed, but if there Were any specimens’brought earlier than the return of Kane’s expedition, there is no recbrff'of ft. So far as known, his spread through the country is due to the specimens brought by that expedition. In the case of each country, the great increase of hydrophobia is coeval, not perhaps with the introduction, but certainly with the extensive distribution of this animal. Hydrophobia seepjs tobe bred dut*eventually in other countries, where the animals. are removed from possible contact with others in a wild state. In France and Germany it is constant, for there the starved wolves come down in winter and bite the dogs. In England it was comparatively unknown a few years since, as shown by the statistics quoted 'hb6ve, and ip the United States it was the same; but the introduction of an ani jnal only removed by slight differences from his condition in a wild state, and a great change of elimate, with its peculiar effect on his nervous system, have suddenly revived an old evil, which will con tinue to trouble us till we exterminate this species of dog. — N. Y. HerM.