HYDROPHOBIA IN ENGLAND

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 85, 4 January 1919, Page 8

HYDROPHOBIA IN ENGLAND

AN .-AIRMAN'S RESPONSIBILITY-. In the year l!) 02 two deaths from hydrophobia were registered in ..the-United Kingdom. Since then up to August of this yenr there hns not been a single case. ~ In ; August last an officer brought a small dog. from abroad in an aeroplane, thus evading the stringent regulations which have been in force nt all ports for more than twenty . years pnst. Such, at least, is the story of the origin of a recent bad outbreak ' in Devon, and Cornwall. Hydrophobia, is, the worst of all dis- • eafes. It can be communicated to any warm-blooded animal...Though.mast common in dogs', the infection often epreads to wolves, foxes, badgers, raccoons, cats, jackals, and skunks. Its symptoms are, beyond description, terrible. In the ease of a dog infected by rabies the voice is lost, the animal can neither,eat nor drink) but the madness itself may bo either dumb or furious. The Indian jackal is .very subject to the disease. News has just reached England of the death of. a man belonging to one of our Territorial regiments, who had been bitten by a mad jackal. The ghastly part of it was that the bite was weeks old, and the.man was eupposed to < have recovered. Then one day, bathing ■ with his companions, the dread symptoms suddenly. developed and he died within a few days. . It is one of the worst horrors of hydrophobia that tho symptoms seldom develop ' until six weeks after-the bite, while the disease may be dormant in the system for months or even for years. ■ . The American skunk is peculiarly subject to hydrophobia. Many Westerners have a positive horror of this animal, believing, as. they do, that a bite from '■ any skunk will produce the disease. The skunk being one of the few wild animals which is without fear of man and which lives close to, houses, is naturally a source of extreme danger when once infected with the hydrophobic .virus... There are many mysteries connected with hydrophobia. In some parts of the world it is entirely unknown, There hns never l)een a case in Australia or New Zealand, in the Azores, Madeira, in St. • Helena, or Sumatra. Though it is common in Egypt ano* North Africa, the whole of South Africa is immune. Its origin is utterly unknown, but it has existed from time immemorial. Xenophon 'and Aristotle both mention it. Pasteur was. the first to :fi.nd a cure. His institute,in Paris treats from 700 to 2000 cases yearly, and the death-rate among hie patients is,now less than half of 1 per cent.—(By T. C. Bridges, in the "Daily Mail.") '