Rabbies Timeline
2300 BC
Dog owners in the
Babylonian city of Eshnunna
are fined heavily for deaths caused by their dogs biting people.
800-700 BC
Homer likens Hector to a “raging dog” in The
Iliad, one of the oldest Greek poems known today. He writes that Sirius,
the dog star of Orion, “exerts a malignant influence upon the health of
mankind".
500 BC
Democritus,
a Greek philosopher records a case of canine rabies.
400 BC
Aristotle writes that “dogs
suffer from the madness. This causes them to become very irritable and all
animals they bite become diseased.”
By
now, the Greeks have two special rabies gods; one to prevent rabies,
(Arisaeus, son of Apollo) and a one to heal rabies,
(Artemis).
001-100 AD
Rabies is widespread
across the Roman
Empire,
Greece and Crete.
The
Roman Cardanus describes saliva from a rabid dog as a
virus – the Latin word for poison.
Pliny
the Elder also devises a series of treatments based around the idea
that rabies is a tongue worm.
A Roman physician named Celsus
takes a special interest in rabies and discovers saliva alone contains the
virus. He recommends cleaning, sucking and burning (cauterizing) the wound
before leaving it open so the virus could drain out. This will remain the only
accepted treatment for the next 1800 years.
201-300
The
treatment for rabies in cattle is described by early veterinary medicine
writer, Vegetius Renatus.
501-600
Aetious,
a Mesopotamian physician, writes an accurate description of dog rabies
symptoms.
601-700
Greek
physician, Paulus Aegineta records the difference between
fatal hydrophobia caused by dog bites and simple hydrophobia stemming from a
different cause.
801-900
Syrian
doctors believed hydrophobia was incurable. They helped suffering patients by
giving water disguised inside drops of honey.
Rhazes,
(Al-Razi) a Persian physician identifies hydrophobia and further describes
rabies symptoms in humans.
1001-1100
The writings of another Arab
physician, Avicenna, (Abu Ali Sina) mark a step forward in
knowledge about the disease. His books were used in European medical schools
for nearly 500 years.
1026
Madness in dogs is recorded in
the laws of Howel the Good, of Wales. This is the earliest
record of rabies in Great Britain.
1198
Poisons and Their Antidotes, by
Talmud scholar and physician Moses Maimonides, contains
remedies against bites from mad dogs.
1271
First large rabies outbreak
reported. 30 people die after rabid wolves invade villages in Franconia
(Germany).
1400
During the 15th century, Spain is
ravaged by canine rabies
1500
During the 16th century,
Christian Europeans believe a patron saint named St. Hubert will cure rabies.
Many travel to his shrine at Liege, Belgium and die of ‘the madness’.
Jean Gerson, a French theologian, speaks out against
superstitious practices in religion.
1586
Canine rabies spreads through
Flanders, (North Belgium) Austria, Turkey and Hungary.
1604
Rabies reaches Paris, causing
panic.
1671
Superstitious practices for
treating rabies are condemned by the Sorbonne.
1700
Rabies spreads through Europe
during the 18th century.
1703
The first case of rabies is
reported in the Americas by a priest in Mexico. He is told off for raising the
problem by his superiors in Spain.
1734-5
Canine rabies appears in
England.
1750
Rabies is reported in Barbados
among dogs and hogs. They are said to die around three days after getting
sick.
1752
Orders to shoot dogs on sight are
given in England when rabies appears around St. James, London.
1753
Canine rabies is present in the
State of Virginia, North America.
1759-1762
Serious outbreak of rabies
reported in London. All dogs are confined for one month. Dogs on the street are
killed and a reward of 2 shillings per dog is offered. The reward prompts
barbaric scenes of killing in the streets.
1763
Serious rabies outbreaks reported
in France, Italy and Spain. Authorities slaughter dogs. In Madrid, Spain, 900
dogs are killed in just one day.
1768-1771
Rabies breaks out in Boston
and other North American towns. Foxes and dogs carry the disease to farm
animals. The symptoms are unusual and rabies is reported as a new
disease.
1774
Rabies is a general disease
throughout England. People are discouraged to keep dogs. Bigger rewards – up to
five shillings - are paid for each dog killed.
1776-1778
The French West Indies is
invaded by rabies. Cattle and people are bitten by infected dogs.
1785-1789
Rabies is now common across
North America.
1789
A New Yorker dies from
hydrophobia after skinning an infected cow.
1790-1821
Rabies is common in France
and Silesia (now Poland and the Czech Republic). It spreads through wolves and
foxes in central Europe.
1797
Rabies appears on Rhode
Island.
1800
Rabies becomes widespread in
Northern, Western and Eastern Europe during the 9th century. It is common in
the Ukraine. There are accounts of European villagers dying from contact with
mad wolves, foxes and dogs. There is also a reappearance of rabies in North
America and it moves up to Canada. And in England, it never goes
away.
1803
Hundreds of dead foxes are
spotted at the foot of the Jura Alps, eastern France. This outbreak, the
largest yet recorded lasts for thirty years and wipes out all foxes in some
areas, terrifying villagers. In the same year, rabies appears in Peru for the
first time.
1804
Zinke, a German scientist
demonstrates rabies is passed through saliva by conducting experiments on
animals.
1806
Dogs belonging to English
officers introduce rabies to Argentina.
1810
Rabies reappears in eastern USA
and Ohio.
1825
Rabies enters the Black Forest,
Germany.
1835
Rabies appears in Chile and kills
many.
1881
French chemist Louis
Pasteur and his assistant, Physician-scientist Emile
Roux, begin research on a cure for rabies.
1883
Roux presents a medical paper
about the rabies research he as been doing with Pasteur. Roux creates a rabies
vaccine from the spinal cord of an infected animal and tests it on
dogs.
1885
Joseph Meister
is mauled by a rabid dog and brought to Pasteur. Pasteur gives him the rabies
vaccine immediately, despite the risks to his own career as he is not a doctor,
but a chemist. The treatment was successful, and Pasteur was hailed as a
hero and successfully discovered a vaccine.
1892
Canadian physician
William Osler, describes hydrophobia in a medical textbook. He
recommends careful washing and treatment of the wound. Osler is unaware of
Pasteur’s breakthrough.
1953
The first US case of rabies in a
bat is reported by the CDC.
1959
Dr. Robert
Kissling developed the fluorescent antibody test for
rabies.