The symptom which is most frequently first observed in a rabid dog is a certain peculiarity in its manner, that is to say, you will notice some strange departure from its usual habits. In a very great number of instances, the peculiarity consists in a disposition to pick up straws, bits of paper, rags, threads, or the smallest objects which may happen to be on the floor. More especially is this trait said to be particularly common in small dogs. Others, again, evince an early predisposition to lick the parts of another dog; also an attachment to the sensation of cold appears in many cases, it being very common for dogs to lick cold iron, cold stones, etc, while others early in the disease will devour their own excrement and lap their own urine. An early antipathy to strange dogs and cats is very commonly observed, but especially to cats. As the disease progresses, the affected dogs bite those with which they are domesticated, and, lastly, the persons around. But, except in a moment of irritability, they seldom attack the human subject. The irritability that induces them to bite is very powerful, but is devoid of wildness. It is, in fact, more like peevishness than fury. A stick held up at them always excites their anger in a violent degree, and throughout the disease there is generally a wonderful impatience of control, while they are with difficulty frightened. In sheep, as well as in dogs, there is a peculiar change of the voice, which is a noticeable and valuable symptom, as it is undoubtedly an unequivocal sign of the malady.

Dr. John Hunter calculated that oat of every dozen of rabid dogs about one evinces no particular tendency to bite. That these animals, and wolves also, have no special dread of water is proved by facts. Thus, a rabid wolf at Fréjus swam across several rivers, while mad dogs can drink without difficulty. Another painful illustration is recorded by Dr. Gillman, who speaks of a dog which was not deemed rabid because it ate and drank well; but as it seemed indisposed, it was killed, though not before it had bit a man, who fell a victim to hydrophobia.

Now when a dog bites a person, it is in my opinion mistaken policy to have it destroyed immediately; it rather ought to be chained up, because, by destroying it at once, the possibility of ascertaining whether it was rabid is prevented, and constant alarm is thus kept up in the minds of the wounded person and bis friends. If the animal be affected with rabies, in all likelihood the disease will be manifested in the course of, say, sis weeks or two mouths. However, by this statement I do not lay down a positive rule, for the time that the poison may rest latent in the system seems indefinite.

I hope, therefore, that I have said enough to make the reader aware that mad dogs are not particularly characterised by "an inability to lap water, nor by any degree of fury. These animals, when actually affected with rabies, from their quiet manner have even not been suspected of having the disorder, and have been allowed to wander ad lib., been fondly caressed, and even slept with.

Now the causes of this peculiar distemper in dogs are at the present time in a very unsatisfactory state of explanation, and little mora than conjecture prevails upon the Subjeet.

It is not positively known whether rabies sometimes originates spontaneously in these animals, although I admit that this opinion is gaining ground; or whether, like small-pox in the human species, it is propagated by contagion. That the disease is frequently imparted in consequence of one dog biting another, every one well knows; yet there are many instances in which this mode of propagation cannot be even suspected. Several facts render it probable that among dogs the disease is often communicated by contagion. It is also observed that in insular situations dogs are seldom affected; and this circumstance is ascribed to such animals being in a kind of quarantine. The celebrated sportsman Mr. Meynell secured his dogs from the malady by compelling every new hound to perform a quarantine before he was suffered to join the pack. Great heat was also supposed to be an exciting cause of the disease in dogs, but without much foundation. A very hot climate, or one exposed to the extremes of heat and cold, a very hot and dry season, feeding upon putrid, stinking, and maggoty flesh, want of water, worms inhabiting the kidneys, intestines, brain, or cavities of the nose, are declared by some authorities as causes of the disease. But we have the clearly demonstrated reliable information from the unimpeachable lips of Dr. John Hunter, that in the hot island of Jamaica, where dogs are exceedingly numerous, not one was known to go mad during forty years. Cold weather has also been set down as conducive to rabies amongst the canine race, because, as is suggested, from the ponds being frozen, they cannot quench their thirst. That neither of these sentiments about heat and cold being the cause of the origin of the disease in dogs is correct will be manifest to anybody who calmly and patiently investigates this important subject. Indeed, one French authority asserts that January, the coldest month in the year, and August, the hottest, are those which furnish the fewest instances of hydrophobia; on the contrary, the greatest number of rabid wolves is in March and April

Again, according to Savary, dogs never go mad in the island of Cyprus, nor in that part of Syria which is near the sea; while Volney assures us that these animals enjoy the same fortunate exemption both in the latter country and in Egypt The traveller Brown also declares that in Egypt they are never, or very rarely, attacked with rabies; and Baron Larrey observes, "Although hydrophobia is more frequent in warm, than temperate climates, it is not observed in Egypt; and the natives assured him that they knew of no instance in which this disease had manifested itself either in man or animals. This was attributed to the species and character of the dogs, and their manner of living."