Rabies in Britain Dogs, Disease and Culture, 1830-2000

Rabies was a constant threat in Victorian Britain and gripped popular imagination, not least because its human form, hydrophobia, produced a vile death with the mind and body out of control. This book explores the changing understanding of rabies amongst veterinarians, animal welfare campaigners, state officials, politicians and the public.

NEIL PEMBERTON is a Research Associate in the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine and the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine at the University of Manchester, UK. He has recently published on English bloodhounds as tools of detection, homicide investigation, the Victorian deaf community and debates about noise in interwar Britain. His new book, Leech (2012), is co-written with Robert G. W. Kirk.

MICHAEL WORBOYS is a director of the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine and Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine at the University of Manchester, UK. He has worked on the history of science and imperialism, tropical medicine, and bacteriology. His recent publications include Spreading Germs: Disease Theories and Medical Practice in Britain, 1865-2000 and, with Sanjoy Bhattacharya and Mark Harrison, Fractured States: Smallpox, Public Health and Vaccination Policy in British India, 1800-1947.

"Pemberton and Worboys's study is fascinating, revealing the complexities of a nation struggling to understand and cope with increasingly complex relationships affecting custom and norms." - Nancy LoPatin-Lummis, University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point