Dorothy Wells, Age 13, Of Chester, Va., for her question:

What animals are likely to get rabies?

Certain animals can be stricken with this dread disease, and others cannot become infected with the deadly virus at all. Certain animals infected with rabies can transmit it to other animals and to human beings. Other infected animals cannot hand the di6ease on to others.

An animal doctor may call, this deadly disease hydrophobia, a word that means fear of water. Its common name is rabies, and an animal infected with rabies is said to be rabid. At one stage the suffering creature yearns for water, but he cannot swallow a drink to quench his torturing thirst. Then comes a violent stage when the rabid animal rages around in blind fury, trying to bite his friends and foes and every living creature in his path.

Rabies seems to be a dog's disease, but it can also attack our furry cats. We become aware of it when it strikes our pets, but it also strikes certain groups of animals in the wilds. The animals most prone to hydrophobia are the toothy, meat eating mammals. In the wilds it is a deadly enemy of foxes and jackals, skunks and wolves, badgers and the toothy, warm blooded bats that feed mostly on insect meat. Members of the bird world also can be infected with the rabies virus, but the disease is less serious in these toothless animals.

In order to develop through its full cycle, the cruel rabies virus must sett1e in the salavary glands that produce the spit or saliva in the mouth. The saliva is a digestive juice, and the saliva of toothy, meat eating mammals suits the rabies virus just fine. Birds have a different digestive system with no saliva and no teeth to chew

Their food if a hen is bitten by a rabid dog, the disease may not develop. If it does, it may or may not prove fatal. In the final stages, a rabid chicken may rush around like a mad dog, trying to peck and claw other animals. But the wounded creatures are stricken as they would still be from the bite of a rabid dog.

In dogs and other animals prone to rabies, the cruel disease always is fatal. But those of us who have pet dogs and cats can see to it that they never become infected. The animal doctor will give your friend an anti rabies shot that will protect him from the virus of hydrophobia for two whole years.

Human beings also are toothy, meat eating mammals, and we, too, can become infected with the cruel virus. If an infected person is not treated, the disease runs its cruel course and proves fatal to the victim. There are no anti rabies shots to protect us, but medical science has a serum to treat a human being after he or she has been infected, say, by a rabid dog. If a person gets  to a doctor in time, 14 daily injections can save his life.