Oct., 19501 STREPfOMYGiN ;& SULFADIAZINE IN PLAGUE : GHOSH 441

TWO INSTANCES OF PROVED RABIES brain up for examination. This particular instance raises the issue as to the extent rabies IN THE TIGER is responsible for the man-eating propensity of By S. R. PANDIT tigers and, for the matter of that, for the un- (Pasteur Institute and Medical Research Institute, natural and destructive behaviour displayed at Shillong) times by other species such as the elephant. In such instances it is not necessary to start Since all mammals and most vertebrates are only anti-rabic treatment in the victims but also to to the should be 110 susceptible rabies, tiger submit the where, for examina- but there are records 111 the brain, available, exception, although tion at the Institute '. statistics of Pasteur Institutes of instances of individuals mauled by leopards, etc., being The second instance of rabies in the same treated with anti-rabic vaccine, the writer is not species occurred in April last, near Saikowaghat aware of proved rabies recorded in the Bengal in the north-east frontier of Assam. The brain tiger. was sent by the assistant surgeon, fixed in At the informa- the last few there were two spirit. my request, following During years tion has been Dr. J. N. Civil at this of a micro- supplied by Palit, instances, Institute, positive north-east to whom I render in the brain of the Surgeon, frontier, scopic finding Bengal tiger, thanks. The was first seen at dusk on the first in 1943 and the second the tiger during 13th in Garaimari 12 miles current year. The brains were received at the April, 1950, village, from On the of 13th to Institute in a fixative?formol saline and Saikowaghat. night between dusk and the animal had The 14th, dawn, methylated spirit, respectively. biological traversed at least 12 terrorized the test was therefore not but with Neri miles, possible, inhabitants of five or six and had the routine stain at this villages stain, employed attacked 14 at least five heads of Institute, well-developed and well-differentiated persons, cattle and a dog, of whom one person and the Negri bodies were seen microscopically in dog were killed on the spot and two other numbers, leaving 110 room for any doubt what- persons died in on the soever. The existence of even in the hospital following day.' rabies, The last that was attacked in his house of the the of person King Jungle, emphasizes enormity at Saikowaghat at 5 in the morning, managed the problem of eradication of rabies from this to escape from the the door of with so much of it in wild beast, shutting country, stalking the room behind him. The animal life. imprisoned was shot by a shikari an hour after, and The first brain (in formol saline) was received measured 9 feet 4 inches. in January 1943 from Dr. Hugh H. Smith, [In this connection a reference to the article entitled Chief Medical Medical Associa- ' Officer, Nowgong Rabies in the MongooseVol. G8, 1932, with the be of interest. The is the tion, Salana, Nowgong' District, history p. 451, may following that the tiger had severely mauled eighteen summary of the article :? people in just over twenty-four hours but made Three new cases of mongoose bite have been no attempt to eat any of the victims \ He also described. One positive mongoose's brain has been stated that he had started anti-rabic treatment reported. Attention is drawn to a death presumably from mongoose bite in an untreated case. All of the as he rabies in the survivors, suspected mongoose bite cases treated and mongoose brains tiger. Because of the extreme interest of the examined at Kasauli during the last 10 years, from 1922 case, I tried to obtain from Dr. Smith further to 1931, are tabulated. details of the ravages of the animal, but failed. The possibility of rabies coming into the domestic The following paragraph regarding the incident carnivora from the wild carnivora is discussed. is extracted from my Annual Report of the The suggestion is made to the effect that a mongoose Institute for 1943.* bite should be treated as a serious bite.?Editor, I.M.G.] 1 Among the specimens of brain tissue examined for evidence of rabies (vide table V) was that of a Bengal tiger, which Was positive for Negri bodies. This is perhaps the first instance of a positive brain recorded in this species. The history is as follows : The animal mauled in over severely eighteen" people just twenty-four hours but made 110 attempt to eat any "of the victims". It was later killed by shots in the shoulder in daylight near a railway station and the medical officer of the tea estate, who had already started anti-rabic treatment among the surviving victims, sent the

* Annual Report of the Pasteur Institute and Medical Research Institute, Shillong, for the year 1943?Assam Government Press.