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Show PROF, SPITZKA ON FASIES Fear of Hydrophobia Kills Many People. r DETAILS CF i:i E;78I20T. I A Question Over Which Djctora Havr I Loiig Disagreed. I ! In tin: spring of lbfi Miss Morosini, a daughter of Jay ( lould'x us.-AK.-i ate, was bitten by a pet d..y, which was promptly killed. Au autopr-y wis nmile by Dr. A. F. Liautard, a veterinary tiurgeou of this city, who found "one large bird feather' in the stomach. The presence of inedible substances io the dog's stomach was formally accepted as almost indisputable proof that the animal was mad, but Frofesihor Spitzka ays he has examined scores of doga, and lie gives the following us the result of such examinations: "Not one of the animals showed any signs of rabies. There wtw scarcely one, and certainly cer-tainly not one youny dog, in whose stomach 1 did nut find more or less foreign material. I rerncmler that kite strings and top pegs were frexpient; that coal, allies, straw, feathers feath-ers and cotton spools were occasional findings. find-ings. Shoe leather, pieces of cloth and, if I remember rightly, a pocket knife, but certainly cer-tainly some untL-iual article of metal, in a pot dog." Yet this dog was pronounced mad, and the ca.se was deemed by her family physician sufficiently grave to warrant the sending of the young lady to Paris for treatment by Pasteur. Meanwhile the brain of the butchered butch-ered dog was pr. served and a healthy dog was inoculated on the brain with a particle of it. At the end of sixteon days this dog wan pronounced mad, it having "showed the first symptoms of dumb rabies tjytt is, paralysis pa-ralysis of the lower jaw. The nif.uth was was slightly open, the jaw hung down, and abundant saliva ilowed from the mouth. Still the dog was very affectionate. This is not a quotation from Professor Spitzka, but from the chronicler of the cose. This was, of course, accepted as confirmatory evidence that the dog which bit Miss Morosinl was mad. Fortunately, however, for that young lady, she had suiiiciciit strength of mind, or enough confidence in Pasteur's treatment, to render her proof against an attack of hydrophobia. hy-drophobia. Concerning this case Professor Spitzka siij-s; "The method of demonstrating rabies by direct inoculation of the brain is fallacious. The conclusion drawn by Liautard, from an experiment thus performed, that the River-i River-i dale dog was mad was obtained by misleading mislead-ing methods. With regard to the dumb rabies which Dr. Liautard thought he had produced in the second dog, every physician familiar with the researches of Schiff, Flourons, Hitzig, Fritsch and Goltz will recognise rec-ognise in it the ordinary results of experimental experi-mental and inflammatory disturbance of the lint iu functions in the dog. According as the irritating injection affects one certical field or the other the paralysis will vary, but paraplegia is quite characteristic of meningitis menin-gitis and encephalitis in the dog." In plain language, tiie inflammation of the brain set up by the placing of a foreign substance sub-stance uuder the skull and iu contact with the brain matter is sufficient to account for all the symptoms displayed by dogs experimented experi-mented on and commonly pronounced those of genuine rabies. This was eventually proved quite satisfactorily by Professor Spitzka and his associates. They obtained a number of healthy dogs and inoculated their I brains with various substances, such as a particle of tho spinal cord of a healthy calf, an emulsion of calf's cord, an emulsion from the bruin of a man who was supposed to have died of hydrophobia, a piece of common yellow soap mid male uremic liquid. The elTects of tlio inoculations with these various substances wero substantially the same as that of the virus from the supposed mad dog which bit Miss Morosini. In fact Professor Spitzka says there were no symptoms of hydrophobia related of Dr. Liautard's animal ani-mal which were not present in these dogs. He was inclined to pronounce the mental disturbances dis-turbances resembling dumb rabies, so called, much greater than the animals ho experimented experi-mented on. The.se dogs wero conlined in tho veterinary infirmary of Atcheson & Kiimill, on Fourteenth Four-teenth street, near Avenue A, and some of them may still bo seen thero, A mongrel bulldog, inoculated with healthy chITb cord, : man ilV-.it;' I on . i.. r'uird day a slight droop of tho left upper ftyo lid, the eyes nppeared dull, there was manifest paralysis of the hind legs, tho tail sometimes Coll between them, the disposition dis-position was exceedingly friendly, howngged his tail feebly, crawled forward and fawned as soon as tho floor was opened. On the seventh day be manifested a desire to devour furoign substances. Ou the eighth day, although al-though his disposition toward tho oxpert-inenlalists oxpert-inenlalists was unchanged, he quarreled with another dog over food. On tho eleventh dny the paraplegic gait was very marked. The dog seemed to bo noting impulsively at times; attempted to swallow a dry drumstick drum-stick of a fowl, and would have eaten othor foreign substances if not prevented. A mongrel mon-grel Spitz, which had been noted as rather an aggressive animal before tho operation, became, in three- flays, entirely changed fawned, wagged its tail, nnd clung to any one who would give it a friendly word. Ou tho eleventh day tho paraplegia was more marked, the nnltnal was unable to jump down a distance of two feet, but let itself down on its fore feet and then slid down the rest of its body. At the same time it had become be-come shy, avoided visitors, crouched and concealed itself. Here is tho seventh day's record of a large cur inoculated wit h twenty drops of an emulsion emul-sion of calf's eottl: "Tho animal is very stupid, runs against objects, does not avoid obstacles and exhibits decided manege movements, running In cir.-cles cir.-cles to tho right. On iK'iug roused, when lying down, which is tho animal's usual position, it rolls over and frequently slips with its hind le.;s, which tremble- a great deal. At night this dog howls a great deal and growls nt people entering the court at oil times. There i? a question as to whether it is able to see well; but owing to its stupidity, stupid-ity, it i diilicult to settle this point satisfactorily." satisfac-torily." A large dog inoculated with a piece of eoriiinnii veljow soap showed on the seventh dav the drooping j.iw, and its tongue often protruded between tho twin. It ran around aimlesd and arriving at a running hydrant stood i'till if ensive, but did not drink. Tho nnunal inni'tilated with uremic liquid died on the s.-veullt day of blood poisoning. Tarfs of the lira in and spina i cord were found reduced to pus. Tho rest of the dogs recov-and recov-and some wero subset piently exhibited hy 1'iMfes.snr Spiuku before tho Society of Medical Jurisprudence and State Medicine. |