"Mr Youatt's description has been the one most uniformly accepted and quoted. He says, The disease manifests itself under two forms. The furious form, characterized by augmented activity of the sensorial and locomotive systems, a disposition to bite, and a continued peculiar bark. The animal becomes altered in habits and disposition, has an inclination to lick or carry inedible substances, is restless and snaps in the air, but is still obedient and attached. Soon there is loss of appetite and thirst, the mouth and tongue swollen; the eyes red, dull, and half closed; the skin of the forehead wrinkled; the coat rough and staring; the gait unsteady and staggering; there is a periodic disposition to bite, the animal in approaching is often quiet and friendly, and then snaps; latterly, there is paralysis of the extremities; the breathing and deglutition become affected by spasms; the external surface irritable, and the sensorial functions increased in activity and perverted; convulsions may occur. These symptoms are paroxysmal, they remit and intermit, and axe often excited by sight, hearing, or touch.

"The sullen form is characterized by shyness and depression, in which there is no disposition to bite, and no fear of fluids. The dog appears to be unusually quiet, is melancholic, and has depression of spirits; although he has no fear of water he does not drink; he makes no attempt to bite, and seems haggard and suspicious, avoiding society, and refusing food. The breathing is laboured and the bark is harsh, rough, and altered in tone; the mouth is open from the dropping of the jaw; the tongue protrudes, and the saliva is constantly flowing. The breathing soon becomes more difficult and laborious; there are tremors, and vomiting, and convulsions."

"Virchow denies the existence of two distinct forms; he considers these to be merely prolonged states of certain stages of the disease, viz., that the sullen form is the first or melancholic stage, and that the furious is the second or stage of irritation. He describes the disease in dogs as consisting of three stages, and in the following manner: the first stage is the melancholic, and is often unnoticed and unrecognised at its onset; still there maybe observed a palpable change in the natural condition, alternation of depression and exaltation, restlessness and change of place, sudden waking from sleep, irritability, deranged digestion, anexoria. The dog has often a greedy appetite, but sometimes leaves his food or snaps at it; there is natural thirst and no fear of water. After these premonitory symptoms have set in, the specific character soon becomes developed; there is great susceptibility in the cicatrix, when a bite or wound has been the antecedent, a change of affection, character, and desires, a proneness to lap his own urine, and eat the faeces of other dogs; a peculiar idiosyncrasy to take all sorts of unwholesome and indigestible things, such as straw, paper, wood, etc.; there is much sexual excitement, and eager licking of the genitals of other dogs; he seems friendly with the cat, but exhibits a marked change of affection towards his master; he becomes shy and backward, and avoids observation. The organs of deglutition and respiration become involved; there are spasms and difficulty in swallowing, as if something was sticking in the throat; alternation in the voice; arrest of salivary secretion; application of the tongue to cold surfaces, such as stone, iron, etc. Changes also take place in the motor system, for in all there is more or less debility and weakness."

"The second stage is the irritable and furious. It commences generally in from one to three days, but may set in after twelve hours; it is seldom, however, met with after the eighth day. This irritation, the height of the disease, is not always uniform in its course; the paroxysms are strongest and longest at the onset, commencing with restlessness and irritability; he runs out of the house, attempts to bite, goes from place to place without thought or reason, endeavours to break his chain or destroy his kennel, and on his inability to do so increases in rage, and if he gets loose will run great distances. It is this proneness to bite which renders this period so dangerous. The paroxysms may last several hours, and often even a whole day; then follows a remission which is very deceptive, as all the signs of disturbance subside; but the dog, aware of his unsociability, generally hides. The disease is very often described from dogs who have been hunted, hooted, and followed about in the streets and goaded on to madness, and in these severe symptoms are superadded, such as panting and flow of saliva, outstretching of the tongue, thirst, dread of water, thrusting the tail between the legs, starting of the hairs, etc., etc. The chief and prominent symptoms of this stage consist in psychical and aesthetic changes; there is a kind of acute mania and delirium, disobedience, no knowledge of his master, no avoidance of danger, sudden anger and snappishness, outbursts of wildness, loss of general sensation, and all sexual feeling. The changes in respiration and deglutition are, altered tone of voice, between barking and howling, indicative of extreme distress, swelling of the fauces, tongue, and nose. The movements of the body are rash and hasty, and the heart's impulse strong. The duration of this stage varies; it generally lasts three or four days, passing into the next and final stage; but in rare instances it may terminate suddenly in death, through a form of apoplexy.

"The third stage is the paralytic. The paroxysms now become weaker and remittent, the animal emaciates rapidly, the coat falls off, the flanks sink in, the hind extremities are weak and lame, he lies on one side in great prostration, but when roused is still snappish, and bites; if able to walk, he totters and drags himself along; the eyes are sunken and dull, the mouth open and dry, the tongue hanging out and hard, the heart's action weak, irregular, and intermittent, the breathing oppressed; convulsions may occur. Death takes place from exhaustion, or during a paroxysm, in five to eight days from the first attack."*

I am not aware of any certain cure for this disease.