The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1851-01-18
From the Washington Republic.
HvdrODh Obla.

We find the following among the miscellaneous
selections of the Charleston Is. c. Mercury. Ifit
ia an authentic stat msnt, and NJ Buisson is per-
son worthy Of credence, the information which it
discloses is Of grave Importance, not only to the
medical faculty, but to the whole human family
That the Academy Of Sciences should have treated
it with disregard long, is, perhaps, attributable
TO its having been anonymously communicated:
EN-. Buisson has written to the Paris Academy
of Sciences, to claim as bis small treatise on hy
drophobia, addressed to the Academy so far back
referred to in that treatise was his own. The par.
ticulars and the mode Of cure adopted were as fol.
lows: He had been called to visit woman who.
for three days, was said to be suffering under this
disease. She had the usual symptoms, constric.
,on of the throat, inability TO swallow, abundant
secretion Of saliva, and foaming at the mouth.
Her neighbors said she had been bitten by mad
dog about forty days before. At her own urgent
entreaties she was bled, and died a few hours
after, az was expected. M. Bnisson, who had his
hands covered with blood, incauiiously cleansed
them with towel which had been used to wjps
the mouth of the patient He then had an ucera.
ton upon one of his fingers, yet though, it sufIi.
cient to wipe off the sail, a that adhered with a
little water. The ninth day after, being in his
cabrolet, he was suddenly seized with a main in
his throat, and one still greater in his eyes The
saliva was continually pouring into his mouth.
the impression OF current Of air, and tie sight Of
brilliant bodies, gave him painful sensation his
body appeared to him so light that he felt as though
he could leap to prodigious height He expe-
rienced, he said, wish to 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 tbe
throat.
"1'hese symptoms required every five minutes
and 1t appeared to him as though the pain com.
menced in the affected finger, and extended thence
to the shoulder. From the whole Of the symp.
toms, he judged himself afflicted with hydrophoba.
and resolved to terminate his life by sitting himself
in vapor bath. Having entered one for this pur.
pose, he caused the heat to be raised to one hun.
dred and seventy degrees thirty-six minutes Fab
renheit, when he was equally surprised and
delighted to find himself free of all complaint He
left the bathing room well, dned heartily and
drank more than usual. Since that time he saws
he has treated in the same manner more than
eighty persons bitten, in four of whom the symp-
toms had declared themselves and in no case has
he failed, except in case Of child seven years
old, who died in the bath. The mode of treatment
he recommends is, that the person bit should take
a certain number of vapor baths Commonly called
Russian) and should ind uce every night violent per-
spiraton, by wrapping himself in fannels, and GOV.
ering himself with leather bed; the perspration
favored by drinking freely Of warm decoction of
sarsaparila.- He declares, SO convinced is he of
the efficacy OF his mode OF treatment, that he will
suffer himself to be inoculated with the disease.
AS proof of the utility Of copious and continual per-
spiration, he relates the following anecdote: A
relative of the musician Gretry was bitten by a
mad dog at the same time with many other per-
sons, who all died of hydrophobia. For his part,
feeling the first symptoms OF the disease he took
dancing night and day, saying that he wished to
die gaily. He recovered M Busson also cites
the old stories of dancing being remedy for the
bite Of tarantula and draws attention to the fact
that the animals in which this madness is most
frequently found to develop itself spontaneously are
dogs, wolves, and foxes, which never perspire"