Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1850-12-05
Hydrophobia.


M. Buisson has written to the Paris Academy
of Science, to claim as his, small treatise on
hydrophobia, addressed to the Academy SO far
back as 1885, and signed with single initial
The case referred to in that treatise was his
own. The particulars, and the mode OF cure
adopted, were as follows:-'
He had been called to visit woman, who, Tor
.bree davs. was said to be suffering under this
disease. She had the usual ymPtoms-constrlc-
ton of the throa, inability to swallow, aoun-
dnut secretion of saliva, and foaming ct the
mouth. Her neighbors said that she had been
bitten by mad dog about forty days before
At her own urgent entruaties, she was bled, and
died in few hours after as was expected.
NJ. Buisson. who had his hands covered with
blood, incautously cleansed them with a towel
which had been used to wipe the mouth of the
patient. He then had an liberation upon one of
his fingers, yet thought it sufficient to wipe off
the saliva that adhered, with little water
! he ninth day after, being in his cabroet, he
was suddenly seized with pain in his throat,
and one, still greater, in his eyes. The saliva
was continually pouring into his mouth the i'm
preston Of current Of air. the sight of brilliant
bodies, gave him pq'nili sensation; his body
appeared 10 him 80 light that he felt as though
he could leap to prodigious height. He ex-
periencel. he said, wish to run and bite, not
men, but ANIMALS and inanlmate 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 III the affected finger, ant
extended thence to the shoulder.
! From the whole of the symptoms, he Judged
himself afflicted with hydrophoba, and resolved
to terminate his life by sitting himself in vapo
BATH Having entered one for his purpose, he
caused the heat to be raised to l07 deg, 36 sec
Fahr, when he was equally surprised and de.
lighted to find himself free Of all complaint. He
left the bathing room well, dined heartily, ant
drank more than usual. Since that time, he says
ne has Uedteu III Ine same manner more tnaI
eighty persons bitten, in four of whom the symp
toms had declared themselves: and in no cast
has he failed, except in that of one child sever
years old, who died in the bath. The mode o
treatment he recommends is, that the person bi
should take certain number of vapor bath
Commonly called Russian,) and should induc,
every night violent perspiraton, by wrapping
himself in AunnelS, and covering himself with
feather-bed the perspiraon is favored by drink
ing freely Of a warm decocIon of sarsaparillu
He deIares, so convinced is he of the efficac
of his mode of treatment that he will suffe
himself to be inocuated with the disease. AS
proof of the utility of copious and continual per
spratiou, he relates the following anecdote 81
relative of the muscian Gentry was bitten by
mad dog, ut the same time with many other pei
sons, who all died of hydropAobia. For his par
feeling the first symptoms of the disease, he too
to dancing night and day, saying that he wshe
to dancing night and day, saying that he wish
to die gaily. He recovered. Nj. Buisson ais
cites the old stories of dancing being remed
for the bite of tartantula and draws attentio
10 the fact, that the animal in whom this mad
ness is most frequently found to develop itse
spontaneously, ATE, dogs, wolves, and foxel
which never perspire.