Star.
London, England, 1827-07-17 00:00:00

COLOMBIA AND PERU.

CARACAS, M•r 241.
General Bolivar is will here, waiting the decision of
the Congress, which had met at Tunga on the 2d May,
to accommodate one of the Deputies who was ill, and

complied with the law, which required the Congress to
open in the presence of a • fixed number of Representa-
tives. The Congiess had then returned to Bogota for
the dispatch of business. All parties unanimously agree
that General Bolivar can alone restore tranquillity and
happiness to this disordered Republic ; but even his
personal authority and influence would not be sufficient.
unless he is invested with extraordinary powers, which
may enable him to settle conflicting interests, and, above
all, prevent the system of vengeance, u hick could not
be indulged without ensuring the total destruction of
the country, and occasioning interminable hatreds.
The Congress will summon the Great National As-
sembly authorised by the Code of the Constitution, in
order that public opinion may be there collected and
freely expressed on the subject of all its different reforms,
so loudly called for by the departments. General Bo-
livar's regard for, I may say dread of, public opinion,
not only in Booth America, but in Europe, and in Eng.
land, the country of his admiration and highest esteem,
makes him, perhaps, tco scrupulous in adopting those
effective plans and measures, which he himself confesses
are requisite for the salvation of Colombia. But the
' events which have occurred in Peru, the menaced attack
on the Southern States by the mutineers from Lima,
and the general voice of his fellow-citizens, have deter-
mined him to place himself at the head of affairs, under
the sanction of Congress, and reestablish order until the
Great National Council can be convened, to regulate
the fate of the country. By this decision, so patriotically
taken, Colombia may be considered as already restored
to peace and prosperity.
General Bolivar's strict execution of the laws bad
been, indeed, attended everywhere with the happie
effect, and at Caracas an imposing example was made,
which shewed the people, that, for the first time, they
were living under laws administered equally for the
benefit and protection of all classes. A young man, of
the name of V--, of the very first family of Caracas,
committed an atrocious assassination on the person of
a young Frenchman, for the purpose of robbing him.
The crime was increased by a violation of all the lases'
.of hospitality. Tried, convicted, sentenced to die, the

clothes, the clothes will wipe off the poison. The Abbe
Fontana cut out the part bitten. Caustic has been tried
in a variety of instances, but it does not do good. This
occasioned Jesse Foot to triumph over Mr. Hunter t De
asked, have you not seen the account of Fontana's tap,-
tiniest? It is only the tusk which penetrates the flesh,
the trefoil like teeth in the front of the dog's mouth do
not penetrate, they only graze or scratch the past. It
is curious that during my apprenticeship there were 82
people in the hospital with it, and then again for year.
it did not recur. It attacks those muscles in particular
which are under the influence of the mind. There was
an intelligent boy in the hospital who had been bitten,
and to whose wound caustic had been applied ; the
wound healed very well ; but a day or two afterwards,
he said, he felt some pain in his arm, and I perceived
two red lines extending up the arm. I did not appear
to notice this mach, lest I should alarm him, but the
next morning I went early to the hospital, as if for the
purpose of making a visit expressly to another patient,
in an adjoining bed; and as I was going away, I seemed
to recollect him, as it were by accident, and I casually
asked him how he was? he said, he had passed rather
a restless night, and complained of heals and fever t I
asked him it he would like to have a little toast and
water ?he said yes, he should. 1 procured him some,
and the moment he attempted to put it to his lips, he
started back from it with convulsive horror ; in about
nine hours after he died, as others do, with all the worst
symptoms of this dreadful malady. I have very little
reliance on the power of caustics; I am certain the only
safe remedy is that of excision; a bit of skewer wood,
shaped like the tooth which has penetrated, should
be put into the wound, and all the part surrounding
it should be taken away with the knife, taking
care to go deep enough. This should be done
as speedily as possible after the bite has been
inflicted, for fear of absorption of the virus. Al-
though caustic destroys whatever it touches, it dues
non seem to arhwer in hydrophobia. I was once
breaking some lunar caustic to make a wash, and two
or three little bits flew into my eye. I was much amused
at this, fur on examining my eye by a mirror, I per-
hived two or three little black specks sin the cornea, so
that I may literally say, Mach was the white of my eye.
It is the opinion of some, that Dr. Cullen has done
wrong in employing the term hydrophobia, as a generic
name, ander which canine madness is included, for the
dread of water is not universal, and is a symptom oc.
curving only late in the disease. The disease does not
commonly make its attack till a considerable time after
the bite. In some instances it has commenced in seven
or eight days from the accident ; but generally the pa-
tient continues in health for twenty, thirty, or forty
days, or even much longer. The bite, if not prevented,
will, in general, be healed long before that time, fre-
quently with the greatest ease, though sometimes it
resists all kinds of healing applications, and forms a
running sore, which discharges a quantity of matter fur
many days. There is no cure for this disease when once
the symptoms shew themselves. A variety of remedies
have from time to time been advertised by quack..—
The " 01 mskirk Medicine," at one time was much in
vogue—.it had its day, but it did not cure the disease,
nor, as far as I know, did it mitigate any of its symp-
toms. With regard to the affection of the mind itself
in this disease, it does not appear that the'patients
deprived of ream; some have merely, by the din
resolution, conquered the dread of water, though
never-could conquer the convulsive motions whicl
contact of liquids occasioned ; while this resoluti'
been of no avail; for the convulsions and other
toms increasing, have almost always destroyed the
happy sufferers.

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