Rabies (Lyssa) is an acuteinfectious viral disease of the nervous system transmitted by the saliva of infected animals, particularly dogs. The animals most liable to be afflicted with rabies are dogs; but cats, wolves, foxes, etc, are also subject to it.
The early symptoms of rabies in the dog are such as restlessness and general uneasiness, irritability, sullenness, an inclination for indigestible and unnatural food, and often a propensity to lap its own urine. As the disease proceeds the eyes become red, bright, and fierce, with some degree of strabismus or squinting; twitch-ings occur round the eye, and gradually spread over the whole face. After the second day the dog usually begins to lose perfect control over the voluntary muscles. He catches at his food, and either bolts it almost unchewed, or, in the attempt to chew it, suffers it to drop from his mouth. This want of power over the muscles of the jaw, tongue, and throat increases until the lower jaw becomes dependent, the tongue protrudes from the mouth, and is of a dark, and almost black colour. A peculiar kind of delirium also comes on, and the animal snaps at imaginary objects. His thirst is excessive, although there is occasionally a want of power to lap. His desire to do mischief depends much on his previous disposition and habits. He utters also a peculiar howl, and his bark is altogether dissimilar from his usual tone. In the latter stages of the disease a viscid saliva flows from his mouth, and his breathing is attended with a harsh, grating sound.
The loss of power over the voluntary muscles extends, after the third day, throughout his whole frame, he staggers in his gait, and frequently falls. On the fourth or fifth day of the disease the dog dies, sometimes in convulsions, but more frequently without a struggle.
With regard to man the rabid virus seems to be more violent when it proceeds from wolves than from dogs. It appears to be contained solely in the saliva of the animal, and does not produce any effect on the healthy skin. But if the skin is deprived of the epidermis, or if the virus is applied to a wound, the inoculation will take effect. The development of the rabid symptoms is rarely immediate; it seldom takes place before the fortieth or after the sixtieth day, but in some cases has occurred after six months or even longer. It begins with a slight pain in the scar of the bite, sometimes attended with a chill; the pain extends and reaches the base of the breast, if the bite was on the lower limbs, or the throat, if on the upper extremities. The patient becomes dejected, morose, and taciturn. He prefers solitude, and avoids bright light; frightful dreams disturb his sleep;
the eyes become brilliant; pains in the neck and throat ensue. These symptoms precede the rabid symptoms two or three days. They are followed by a general shuddering at the approach of any liquid or smooth body, attended with a sensation of oppression, deep sighs and convulsive starts, in which the muscular strength is much increased. A foamy, viscid slaver is discharged from the mouth; the deglutition of solid matters is difficult; the respiration hard; the skin warm, burning, and afterwards covered with sweat; the pulse strong; the fit is often followed by a syncope; the fits return at first every few hours, then at shorter intervals, and death takes place generally on the second or third day. The treatment for rabies at the start of the 20th century consisted in preventing its development, which may be effected by applying a ligature, where possible, to impede the circulation from the wound, by sucking it, and thoroughly cauterizing it either with nitrate of silver or with iron heated to a white heat, the pain of cautery being less as the temperature is greater. If these means are not available, any burning substance and most acids were used.
Louis Pasteur put forward a method of preventing the development of the disease by a system of successive inoculations with rabid virus of greater and greater intensity; the inoculation being made the first day with marrow which has been extracted from the rabid animal 12, 10, and 8 days; then the second day with marrow extracted 6, 4, and 2 days; the third day with one day's marrow, etc. Louis Pasteur's method was favourably reported on by an English commission (1886-1887), but there is doubt regarding the number of cures really performed. As a contemporary critic of the Pasteur system remarked, every one who is bitten and inoculated is counted in the list of cures, though there is nothing to prove that he ever contracted the rabies. Despite the lack of scientific proof, Pasteur's dubious innoculation are still in use 100 years later, and there is still no cure for rabies though with careful medical attention patients have survived. Research Rabies
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Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
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