Up to 1877, paralysis as a predominant feature of rabies was not distinguished. It was recognized that paralysis might sometimes appear as a terminal condition, but always following, it was thought, the usual hydrophobic symptoms. Bruardel's1 description is typical of that time: "In man rabies passes through three stages; the first is characterized by melancholy; the second by excitement and spasms of the organs of respiration and deglutition; the third, of short duration, which is rarely reached by the patient, is characterized by paralysis."
Gamaleia2 in 1877, in a study of twenty cases of rabies in which paralysis was the predominant symptom, endeavored to distinguish on this basis a paralytic form of the disease differing from the usual type, in which paralysis occurred not at all or only as a terminal event. He grouped his cases according to the mode of onset of the paralysis. In some cases