The Sun.
London, England, 1808-10-04 00:00:00

CANINE MADNESS.

-I At no period within our recolle&ion has that
; dreadful disease, thehydrophobia, been no prevalent
this country, as-during the last twelve months,
and, tt gives us pain to obser‘e, 'that instances of it
aneerhnost daily q.ectring in ditfeient parts of the
kingdom. •On the subject of this horrible malady,
much has, been written, but. to very little purpese;,
many remedies and nost-ruins beeii recommeeded
speeifieseagainst its depioreble etlcas. Row fair
hiciees the hopes which they hold forth have almost,
invariably proved the poignant regrets of the relatives,
of numbedess yiaims; snatched prematurely from
their families, and from the world, sufficiently at-
test. It is therefore, with so much. the more satis-
faaion that we call' the attention of medical men, to
a discovL-ify announced in Ft sem inteeesting•
lure of Valvgiu, to which we think too tnucb pub-
licity cannot ,be.given.
The inhabitants of the distri& of Hoejaede Cas--
talla, in the southern part of the province, possess
an excellent remedy against the bite of -the-,viper,
composed of the .sea-hollyi (erogia'm carq,pestre),
viper's! bugloss. ,(echium vulgare),:Anad7won /alys-
sum spinosuni).; and Cretan balm (Melissa Creticu)*
in the following.manner
'rite plants are taken when they are beginning to
Tun t 9 seed, and dried in the shavc till all their hue
midi!), is evaporated. On this each is separately
pounded, the pel,vder.is passed through a hair sieve,
nnxed in equal parts, and put away in well-corked
bottles. It is, to be observed, that none of the roots
must be employed, except those of the sea-holly,
which possess very great strength.
respect to the use of this remedy, it is in-
elispensably necessary that it should be administered
immediately after the infliction of the wound. The
common, dose:fer a.,rrian is one scruple, for a dog a
drachm; and
.the vehicle used for both is wine or
No particular dieteneed be observed, only
the powder must
.be taken ,morning and evening for
nine days successively.
From time immemorial, the inhabitants of the
'above-mentioned distria have made pse of this paw-
der, as a specific for the bite of Vipers, with.uniVer7
sal success ; till, at length the celebrated Cavanilles
resolved, to try its effects against the bite of made
dogs. He lost no•time in communicating his ideas
to the physicians and medical men in the province,
and had tiro satisfaCtion to see- that his philanthropic
views were Prodnaive of the happiest results.
Thus, for instance, at the farm e e los Puchols, in
the district of the little town of Sierra den-Garceran,
a man of sixty, named Miguel Puig, and a boy of
twelve years old, named Vito.Sorella, were, in'Ja-
nnary,- 1796, bitten, the one on the hand, the other
on the cheek,- in such a manner, that both lost a
considerable quantity of blood. The physician of
theplace, Don Bias Sales, -was not sent for till three
days after the -accident ;. he nevertheless resolved to
try the powder; e which produced, etfeas that sur-
passed his' expeaatipii,
faa, the two palients perfealy recovered of
the bites,, without
.manifesting the slightest symps.
:toms of hydrophobia, and till the present time (in
1802), durinVan interval of silt years, nor the least
alteration has-been-observed in their health. -T,lte
aanal maftness of the dog seems to have been fully
proved, , for _several goats and sheep, which were
like Wise bitten by him, died in 40 days, with all
;the Signs of the most complete hydrophobia.
In 1799, at the village of Tornesa, in the distria
'of the Same town, a man of 56, named Francisco
Basel, his daughter; 'Manuela Baset, 'aged twenty-
three, and another man, named Joaquin Eauro, were
bitten, the two former on the ,hand, and-the .latter
on the middle finger. Baset and his dalghter itn-
rnediately applied to Don Thomas Saban r, the Sin--
geen of their vilbige, 4io furnished them with:pow-
det stifficielir toe hine days. On the contrary, Fauro,
who lived at another village, looked upon his ,koutid
as a mere trifle, and rook. no farther notice of it.

What was .the ',consequence ?- Baset and his
daughter were petit-Z:11y cured; and have fot; these
three yeary eipetienCed not theileast alteration in
their health; whereas the unfortunate Faurd died
sixty days after the accident, with all-the sy►nptonis
of the most confirmed hydrophobia.,

Another rnad-log in Swap den Garceran;' had
bitten several ..otherdogs, pigs; The powder
was administered to some..of`ttiem'for eleVen succes-
sive days, and till the present day, during the space
of -nearly two years,• no ill consequeneeS whatever
have been observed. All the aninials to whom the
powder was .not given, died raving mad in tskenty-
fiVe-days.

One dog, to which it was found impossible. to ad-
minister more than four doses, did 'not.go mad but
fell into a kind of lethargy;. and refused to eat till
at length he died on the sixtieth day, but without
any of the symptoms of actual hydrophobia.-
• -
So much lot the experiments with a remedy,
which, as far as I kndw, has never been ittauded
among the Six or' seVen medicines for preVenting
the cansequences.. of he bite of • mad dogs. 'lt
seems, -however;' to much the more deserving
.
of the attention zet/i& physicians of every country;
since its .efficady againSt the venom of the Viper is
fully confirmed by the ai)orience of ages. •.(! •
* Undet this danie the plant is described by gorneiSotanists;
and amon4 the rest by Laniark ; but Cavanilles proves, Stem
the structure of the catix, and other circumstances, that ix it
properly the 4Veptla marryGlia. Sec.Anlraler de Citiicias LV.4I
rales, Bvo. Madrid, 1800. No. V. p. 192.

Yesterday morning early, six of the felons under
sentence of transportation, in' his Majesty7s prison
of Newgate, attempted to make their escape; but
through the vigilance of Mr. 'Newman; and
turnkeys, they were all properly secured: - Otieof
the prisoners br=oke his back by:a fall he received,
and is not likely to" recover.

Yesterday Morning, three women following the,
68th Regiment of Toot, Were throWn from a bag-
gage cart, by the fallingof the'shaft horse, in Riad:-
friars-road.' The child of one of them had his arm
broke, and the-women were muchhinised. .
The Woolwich Ghost, the nightly appearance of
which in the Church-yard has lately cafsed so much
general consternation among the inhabitants of that.
place, has toidlly vanished, in Consequence of file:
vigilance of the Magistrates, who ordered the Church-,
yard tO be locked, and the Bellman to proclaim, that
every person who came to view this fat citUl pheno,
toetion; would be dealt with according to law.