These observations make the impact of Pasteur’s work disproving spontaneous generation all the more relevant. It also led to rather interesting ideas about what causes rabies: from spontaneous generation of the disease in dogs to sexual frustration in humans. The “hydrophobia hysteria” that the authors describe led to an increase in public awareness. There was a large increase in the number of pet dogs and, not surprisingly, rabies cases throughout Europe and the United States in the 1800s. The book builds up to Pasteur’s creation of the first known treatment of this invariably fatal disease.
The pace of the book picks up as it becomes more narrowly focused in the middle chapters. These chapters also describe the potential for rabies as the disease that significantly contributed to vampire and werewolf legends. The pace of the introductory chapters is, unfortunately, rather slow, with the focus on the dual nature of dogs as both “man’s best friend” and demon-hound. For the most part, these images capture the terror rabies has engendered throughout the centuries. The compelling illustrations that open each chapter range from 15th century manuscript woodcuts to modern photographs. The book is organized semi-chronologically, with the first several chapters dedicated to the early history of rabies. Throughout the book, the authors emphasize both notable rabies cases throughout history and the impact of the disease on shaping our language, religion, literature, cinema, and the science of microbiology. This book spans both millennia and the globe with descriptions of Greek myths with rabid overtones and the rabies outbreak in New York’s Central Park in 2009.
In their book, Rabid: A Cultural History of the World’s Most Diabolical Virus, Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy describe the cultural impact of this rare but viscerally terrifying viral infection. The fear of rabies lurks deep in the world’s collective consciousness.
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