The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-05-10 00:00:00

CURE FOR HYDROPHOBIA.

Our attention has been called by a correspondent to
the following account given by M. Buisson, a physi-
cian at Paris, of his experience of hydrophobia, and his
mode of cure. It is extracted from a treatise addressed
to the French Academy of Science in 1823, and ap-
peared some time since in a London paper. It is,
however, we apprehend, but little known throughout
the country; but as the statement, if true, is of in-
calculable importance, we give it insertion, in the hope
that it will meet with that attention its importance me-
rits :--

M. Buisson bad been called to visit a woman, who
for three days was said to be suffering under this dis-
ease. She had the usual symptoms—constrictioli of
the throat, inability to swallow, abundant secretion of
saliva, and foaming at the mouth. Her neighbours
said she had been bitten by a mad dog about forty
days before. At her own urgent entreaties she was
bled, and died a few hours after, as was expected.
M. Buisson, who had his hands covered with blood,
incautiously cleansed them with a towel which had
been used to wipe the mouth of the patient. He then
had an ulceration upon one of his fingers, yet thought
it sufficient to wash off the .saliva that adhered with a
little water.

The ninth day after, being in his cabriolet, he was
suddenly seized with a pain in his throat, and one still
greater in his eyes. The saliva was continually pour-
ing into his mouth ; the impression of a current of air
or the sight of brilliant bodies gave him a painful sen-
sation. His body appeared to him so light that he felt
as though he could leap to a prodigious height. He
experienced, he said, a wish to run and bite—not men,
but animals and inanimate bodies. Finally, he drank
with difficulty ; and the sight of water was still more
distressing to him than the pain in his throat.
These symptoms recurred every five minutes, and it
appeared to him as though the pain commenced in his
affected finger, and extended thence up to the shoul-
der.

From the whole of the symptoms he judged himself
affected with hydrophobia, and resolved to terminate
his life by stifling himself in a vapour bath. flaying
entered one for this purpose, he caused the heat to be
raised to 107 deg. 36 min. Fahrenheit, when he was
equally surprised and delighted to find himself free of
all complaint. He left the bathing-room well, dined
heartily, and drank more than usual. Since that time,
he says, he has treated in the same manner more than
eighty persons bitten, in four of whom the spmptoms
had declared themselves, and in no case has he failed,
except in that of one child, seven years old, who died
while in the bath.

The mode of treatment he recommends is, that the
person bit should take a certain number of vapour
baths (commonly called Russian,) and should induce
every night a violent perspiration by wrapping himself
in flannel, and covering himself with a feather bed ;
the perspiration is favoured by drinking freely of a
warm decoction of sarsaparilla.
He declares he is so convinced of the efficacy of this
mode of treatment, that he will suffer himself to be
innoculated with the disease. As a proof of the uti-
lity of copious and continued perspiration, he relates
the following► anecdote :—A relative of the musician
Gretry was bitten by a mad dog, at the same time with
many other persons, who all died of hydrophobia. For
his part, feeling the first symptoms of the disease, he
took to dancing night and day, saying, he wished to die
gaily. He recovered.
M. Buisson also cites the old stories of dancing be-
ing a remedy for the bite of a tarantula, and draws at-
tention to the fact that the animals in whom this mad-
ness is most frequently found to develope itself spon-
taneously are dogs, wolves, and foxes, which never
perspire. This latter is a very extraordinary fact.
Horses and cows have been frequently bitten by mad
dogs, and in a very few cases have any of the symp-
toms of hydrophobia been manifested.

The appeal in the celebrated cause regarding " Lady Hew-
ley's Charity," intitled " Shore v. Wilson," has been fixed
by the lord chancellor to be begun at the bar of the House
of Lords, on Monday, the 13th instant. The judges are to
attend, and the appeal is to be heard de die in diem till its
conclusion.

EXTENSIVE EMBEZZLEMENT BY A CLERIC.-011 the
12th ult., Finley Ross, a clerk and collector in the employ
of Messrs. Crompton, paper makers, Church-street, ab-
sconded, and on an examination of his accounts, a deficiency
was discovered in his payments of £6OO. On the Bth a war-
rant for his apprehension was obtained, and placed in the
hands of policeman Archibald M`Mullin, who having reason
to believe that he had proceeded by way of Liverpool to
Glasgow, pursued him thither, where on inquiry he tound
from the statements of the captain of the Maid of Morven
steamer, plying once-a-week between that port and the Isle
of Sky, that he had taken a passage to Arn:adale. On the
22d M`Mulliu followed him iu the same vessel, but landed
at Port Tree, where, having by the assistance of the pro-
curator fiscal, obtained a warrant from the sheriff, he was
prepared to continue the pursuit. He had reason to be-
lieve that Ross was living with a man named Elder, in
the Isle of Ornsay, but there was a difficulty in obtaining a
passage to this place, and at length, on Wednesday, the
officer hired a four-oared boat, and at five on the following
morning was landed near to Elder's house, where he awaited
patiently the opening of the door, and was shown by the
servant, as a stranger having urgent business with their
guest, into Ross's bed-chamber. Ross, who knew the offi-
cer, as may be supposed, manifested some little surprise that
his retreat should have been so soon discovered, and rubbed
his eyes as if doubtful whether the unwelcome visitor were
not an apparition. The officer, however, relieved his doubts.
by a familiar " Good morning, Mr. Ross," and proceeding
immediately to examine his pockets, discovered in them mo-
ney to the amount of £lll 108., which his prisoner at once
acknowledged was the property of Messrs. Crompton, his
employers. M'Mullin arrived with his prisoner in Manches-
ter on Sunday evening. Ross was placed at the bar of the
New Bailey tor examination, when it was proved that Mr.
Bethel, calenderer, of Hulme, had paid him £46 in Febru-
ary, which he received and gave a receipt for on behalf of
his employers. Another payment of £ll2 in October last
was also proved, and other parties were in court to have
proved payments made to him, but Mr. Maude said their
evidence was unnecessary. Mr. Sims, manager to Messrs.
Crompton, said the prisoner should have accounted weekly
to him for all moneys he had received on account of Messrs.
Crompton. He had examined the books, and found that
neither of the two sums in question had been paid. The
prisoner had been deficient in his accounts upwards of £6OO.
lion s saicLpoth* in defence. He was committed for trial
at Nip MaNkm3lo44stityr 67trosivit.