Medicine: Rabies

In Louisville, Ky., 15 families were registered last week with the public health department as having one or more members taking the Pasteur treatment to immunize them against rabies (hydrophobia) caught, it was feared, from the bites of rabid dogs. Private physicians were treating others.

Dr. Arthur T. McCormack, secretary of the State Board of Health, attributed the Louisville situation to: 1) dogs left un-muzzled by their owners; 2) ownerless dogs which the state has neglected to kill off; 3) failure to immunize dogs with rabies vaccine.

Rabies is a disease which attacks the nerves and brain of practically allmammals and fowl. A virus is present in the saliva of the infected beast.When the mad animal bites another animal or a human, the saliva carryingthe virus enters the wound. It often happens that a bite through clothing is not infectious for the simple reason that the mad dog’s saliva is wiped off his teeth as they bite; through the clothing. The virus entering the flesh works its way to a nerve where it finds the best medium for proliferating. And as the viri develop they travel up the network of nerves in the animal’s, or human’s, body to the spinal cord, and eventually to the brain. The virus of rabies is more active in cold weather than in warm. There are more dogs actually mad in December than in July, contrary to the vulgar belief in summer “dog days.” Nor, as is all too often thought, are all dogs mad that may be seen running wildly, jaws slavering and eyes excited. A dog might be angry without being mad.

The effects of rabies are the same in animals or humans, making proper allowance for the beast’s normal way of expressing itself. The first usual symptom in a dog is its abnormal affection. It feels something is wrong and tries to tell its master. It is restless, easily irritated, will snap at objects. Later its throat begins to become paralyzed.* The pain of swallowing even water is terrific. So it avoids water, giving reason for the name hydrophobia. It bites at things or other animals, sometimes so tenaciously that its jaws must be pried open. Saliva drools from its jaws, but does not always “froth,” as has long been the gossip of ignorant urchins and constables. The suffering dog tries to bark. But its jaws are set and the only sound it can make is a low-pitched howl followed by an irregular series of hoarse barks. It is the weirdest, most pleading whine of all dogdom. And when men hear it, they chase the dog with sticks and stones—mad dog! Once hydrophobia definitely develops, it is impossible to cure it, whether in dog, rabbit, cow or man. No human with a definitely developed case of rabies has ever been known to be cured. He dies, actually, like a dog. The muscles of his throat are paralyzed. To eat or drink is crazing torture. He does not fear water. But he does fear the thought of swallowing anything. Nor does he bark like a dog, as popular myths say. His voice is only hoarse. However the paralysis of the disease spreads as in the dog. His dripping saliva is as infectious. The lower jaw drops, the legs cannot support the body. Incapacity extends, until the heart itself can no longer beat.

Louis Pasteur (1822-95) originated the cure for incipient hydrophobia in humans. He had confirmed positively that germs cause disease and that some might be killed by heat. This is the principle upon which milk is pasteurized, an important point. But of far greater importance in medicine is another fact that Louis Pasteur verified — many diseases may be prevented and cured by injecting into the patient an attenuated solution of the very germ that caused the disease. This is immunity, and was first applied with scientific precision to humans by Louis Pasteur in the 1880’s. With hydrophobia, this mean giving doses of serum as soon as possible after the bite. Pasteur prevented hundreds of horrible deaths from this disease.*

The best preventive of rabies is to muzzle all dogs until all signs of rabies disappear from a district. In 1902 England did this, and also required that all dogs imported into the country be quarantined for six months. It had not a single case of rabies in dogs or any other animals from 1902 until the World War when aviators carried their pets above and over quarantine. Another preventive is the use of prophylactic serum for animals, manufactured by most of the biological chemical houses. The Louisville authorities would like either or both of these preventives applied to their district. But they are blocked, seemingly, by a generalpublic apathy.

This is not the first time that Louisville has cried “mad dog.” Last autumn, an ecstatic writer of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote: “Once Kentucky had charm and individuality. Now it is hard to distinguish it from Kansas. The hills are full of antievolutionists, prohibitionists and reformers, and the Ku Klux Klan’s fiery crosses burn under the walls of its abandoned distilleries. . . .” Enraged, fuming, two-fisted Governor W. J. Fields telegraphed the St. Louis paper: “Your vicious and unwarranted editorial attack upon Kentucky . . . indicates that you are either a liar or a fool, and I am inclined to believe that you are both.” Paralyzed, the affair died.

*This symptom seems to the uninitiated like lockjaw—an entirely different disease.

*In his honor Pasteur Institutes have been established over the whole world. The latest is at Bangkok, where snake serum is being developed. There was even a play written last year to praise his life.