disease from the sick to the well by sponges, etc.,
which have come in contact with the affected organs. These should be
destroyed. To prevent the spread of the disease the infected animals should
be kept isolated until they have recovered.

RABIES OF CATTLE.

Rabies is a disease preeminently affecting the canine race, although all
warm-blooded animals, including man, are susceptible to the malady, which
is always communicated through bites from a preceding case. It has required
many years of patient, scientific research to lead the ablest investigators
to a clear comprehension of the cause, nature, and characteristics of this
affection. It was known and described several centuries prior to the
beginning of the Christian era, and from the earliest dawn of history it
has been feared and dreaded. Its terrible manifestations have always been
surrounded with an atmosphere of awe and mystery, and it is not surprising
that myths, fallacies, and misconceptions in regard to it have been common
and widely accepted. As the investigations by which we have come to a
tolerably clear understanding of the facts concerning rabies have been
comparatively recent, and for the most part, have appeared in scientific
periodicals, fallacies in regard to the disease continue to have a strong
hold upon the public mind. For instance, it is still a widely prevalent
belief that if persons or animals are bitten by a dog they are liable to
become rabid if the dog should contract the disease at any future time.
There is no foundation for this impression, and it would be a great comfort
to many people who are now and then bitten by animals if the fallacy of
this idea were known. All experience, both scientific and practical, goes
to show that rabies is transmitted only by animals that are actually
diseased at the time the bite is inflicted. Rabies is an infectious disease
involving the nervous system and characterized by extreme excitability and
other nervous disorders and always terminating in death. The contagion of
this disease has never been isolated, but the fact that it is caused by a
specific organism principally found in the nervous system is indisputable.
For instance, if an emulsion of the brain of a rabid animal is filtered
through a germ-proof filter, the filtrate will be harmless. This fact
indicates that the infectious principle is not in solution, but is an
organism withheld from the filtrate by the filter. This contagion can be
prop