The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-10-19 00:00:00

DREADFUL CASE OF HrDROPHOBIA.

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On Sunday last, a melancholy instance of this dreadful malady
occurred at Kingsland. A youug man named John Sugg. a
bricktnaker, residing in Brown's Fully, IVilliam-street, Kings-
land-road, was about three months since bitten by a dog in a rabid
state, but the part being cauterized, and the wound healed, he
thought lightly of the cireumsdance until Sunday morning, when
he was seized with all the horrible symptoms of hydrophobia, and
died at sic o'clock the following morning in a raving state.
The following is a statement of the case by 111 r. Aitken, a re-
spectable surgeon, residing in the Kingsland-road, Mho attended
the deceased :

On Sunday morning last the deceased, feeling himself particu.
tarty ill, came to ask my advice. He complained of vertigo, a via.
lent pain under the left scapula. and a catching or spasmodic
affection of the muscles, from thence along the lett arm to the tips
of the fingers, accompanied with constant tremour and sudden
starting of that extremity. An aperient draught was prepared for
him. and be attempted to swallow it; but the sight of the fluid so
affected him, that he instantly felt into strong convulsions, from
which he shortly afterwards recovered, and the draught being again
presented to him, he seized the glass, and gulped down the contents,
apparently involuntarily, but was instantly attacked with a great
difficulty of swallowing and rigors. Observing these symptoms, I
was now led to inquire, if lie had at any time been bitten by a dog,
and was informed, that about three months before he had been
bitten in the thumb by his own dog, but the wound was cauterised,
and attended to by my young gentleman, and healed favourably.
I now believed that he was labouring under an attack of hydro.
phobia, and advised him to be bled, to which lie readily consented.
I opened a vein in the right arm, and the blood flowed freely, but,
when nearly a sufficient quantity had been drawn, he turned his
head, and, at the sight of the blood, fell into convulsions, from
which, however, he soon recovered. He still complained of most
violent twitchings along the arm, but went to his horns, and I sent
by his wife such medicines as I deemed proper. During the day
he continued to get worse, and was convulsed at the sight of all
liquids which were presented to him. In the course of the day I
visited him six or eight times. At 10 o'clock at night I again
visited him, and took from his arm 20 ounces of blood. At that
time he was perfectly wild, his countenance frightfully ilistorted,
his whole body in a state of perspiration, and horribly agitated, his
eyes seemed starting from their sockets, and quantities of foamy
saliva were escaping trom his mouth, often attended with motions of
mastication. He appeared to respire with great difficulty, sighing,
said uttering the most pitiful cries. His pulse was at 100, strong ,
and foil, his tongue moist and swelled, and he complained of a'
sensation of a rising in the throat, as if he was choaking. During
all this time lie was perfectly sensible, and cautioned those about
him against approaching him. TIT his paroxysms be occasionally
seized the blankets and pillows with his -mouth, and it was found
necessary to confine him in a strait.waistcoat. In this deplorable
state he continued, sensible to the last moment of his existence, and
expired ineat agony at six o'clock on Monday morning.
l'his unfortunate being was only in the 22d year of his age, and
when lie was attacked by the dog, his wife, in her endeavours to
protect him from the furious animal, was also bitten. No symp.
toms of the horrible distemper have Vet been betrayed by her, but ,
great fears are entertained for her safety, and her state of mind may
be conceived but cannot be described.

SURGERY EXTRAORDINARY.—A few days ago, at Win-
laton, a penurious son of Vulcan, who bad a tumour in one
of his kg., being about to enter into the holy state of matri-
mony, was naturally anxious of appearing to the best ad-
vantage on the happy occasion, and in particular wished to
remove the deformity of his limb: but how .to avoid the
expense was the question, for lie dreaded a surgeon'. bill
more than his scalpel, and a pound of flesh, though his
own, had less value in his eye than a pound of his long-
saved gold. It however a..) happened, that there was
in the village a youth who had undergone the ampu-
tation of a limb in the Infirmary, and it occurred to our
hero that he must necessarily he experienced in such mat-
ters, and to him lie accordingly applied to perform the
operation. The young man consented, and fixing his leg
in a vice, lie took a razor, and without ceremony, cut away
till nearly the whole calf of his leg was taken off! So far
the young operator had experienced no difficulty, his power-
ful arm had overcome every obstacle ; but nosrhis skill and
practice failed him, and how to stop the bleeding was be-
yond his art, and his patient had nearly paid the forfeit of
his life for his temerity, before " further advice" could'be
procured. He iario*,.howevef, in a fair way of recovery.
—NeseciutleChroniele.