DBook II RABIES 129

that, as I have said, they have a peculiarly dry temperament,
and their blood is parched.3* At first, then, they become sad
and solitary, like atrabilious persons, and presently, as the blood
little by little, begins to be heated, they become enraged against
everything, begin to hate everything they see, and proceed to
bite everything in their anger; their eyes grow red, they foam
at the mouth, and at last become raving mad. 'The animals
which they have bitten develope rabies in every case, and all
die, with the exception of man. 'This is because animals other
than man, by reason of their savage nature in which they are
akin to the dog, on receiving the contagion necessarily become
rabid on account of their analogy; whereas the nature of the
human being is far removed from that savagery and that kin—
ship, and so does not possess an analogous element prepared
to receive the contagion. 'That is why not all men who have
been bitten become rabid, but many of them, thanks to their
special temperament, either do not contract the contagion, or
they get the better of it.  Novw I think that this is what Aristotle
meant, though I am aware that, in the text where he discusses
this subject, some authorities wish to read ^before man', in—
stead of ^except man'. We should then have to read mp(»
instead of æXi)r» in the Greek text.3' But there is no need to
make this change.

The reason why dogs themselves and those who have been
bitten by a dog are so terribly afraid of liquids (whence they
are called hydrophobes), is hard to explain, and the cause is
extremely obscure. For we cannot believe what many assert,
and what seems to be the view of Aetius,? that they are so
afraid of water because they imagine that they see puppies in
the water; for certain persons who had already begun to shrink
from water have been asked whether they thought they saw
anything of that sort, and replied that they did not. Can it
be, then, that just as in certain other diseases, patients on ac—
count of an unhealthy condition of the stomach or tongue,
&show a violent disinclination for certain things, persons suffer—
ing from rabies have a similar disinclination? Or should we
rather say that the defect and unhealthy condition does not
occur in the stomach or tongue, for they are actually thirsty
and even crave for liquids, so far as the tongue is concerned;
then is the defect rather in the phantasy?93  'This is indicated
by the fact that they refuse to look at or touch liquids, though