Latent Rabies

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Abstract
Smith et al. (Jan. 24 issue)1 raise the frightening specter of the possibility of latent rabies virus in animals and humans. This observation is not new. At the annual spring fur trappers' rendezvous held on the Green River in Utah in 1833, a noteworthy incident occurred. Supposedly, 12 men were bitten by a "rabid wolf" that "hung about the camp for 2 or 3 nights."2 Of the 12 unfortunates, "2 were seized with madness in camp sometime afterward... one while on a hunt... another on his journey to St. Louis and several died at different times within the next two years." Elements of this incident were recorded by several observers.2 Could this have been an early observation in frontier America of rabies latency in humans?