New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-01-09
HydrOpliObia..
From the Washington Republic.


We find the following among the miscellaneous
selections OF the Charleston Is. c Mercury Hit
is an authentic statement, and Nj. Buisson is q
person worthy OF credence, the information which
it dscloses is Of grave Importance, not only to the
medical faculty, bat to the whole human family.
That the Academy of Sciences should have treat
ed it with disregard so long is, perhaps, attribute
bic to its having been anonymously communicated
M. Buisson has written 10 the Paris Academy
of Sciences, to claim as his a small treatise on
hydrophobia, addressed to the Academy so far
back as 1885, and signed with single initial
The case referred to in tina. ire atise was his own
The particulars and the mode of cure adopted
were as follows; He had been called to visit
woman who, for three days. was said to be suf-
fering under this disease. She had the usual
symy TOMS construction OF the throat, inability to
swallow, abundant secretion of saliva, and foam
ing at the mouth Her neighbors said she had
been bitten by mad dog, about forty days before.
At her own urgent entreatles she was oled, and
died q few hours after, as was expected. NJ.
Buisson, who had his hands covered with blood,
incautiously ceansed them with 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. The ninth day after,
being in bis cabrioet he was suddenly seized
with pain in his throat, and one still greater in
his ey es The saliva was continually pouring into
his mouth the impression of current OF air, and
the sight of brilliant bodies gave him painful
sensation; his body appeared TO him so light that
he felt as though he could leap to a prodigious
hight. He experienced, he said, a wish TO run
and bite, not men, but animals and inaDimate
bodies Finally, he drank with difficulty, and the
sight OF water was still more distressing to him
than the pain in the throat. These symptoms
required every five minutes, and it appeared to
him as though the pain commenced in the affected
finger, and extended thence to the shoulder
From the whole of the symptoms, he judged
himself afflicted with hydrophobia, and resolved
to terminate his life by sitting himself in q vapor
BATH Having entered one for this purpose, he
caused the heat to be raised to one hundred and
seventy degrees thirty six minutes 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 symptoms
had declared themselves; and in no case has he
failed, except in case of one 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 induce every night q
violent perspiration, by wrapping himself In aan-
nels and covering himself with a feather bed;
the perspiraton is favored by drinking freely ola
warm decoction Of sarsaparila. He declares, SO
convinced is he of the efficacy Of his mode Of
treatment that he will suffer himself 10 be inocu-
lated with the disease. AS proof OF the utility Of
copious and continual perspiration, he relates the
following anecdote:-A relative Of the musician
Gretry was bitten by mad dog at the same time
with many other persons, who all died Of hydro
phobia For his part, feeling the first symptoms
Of the disease he took to dancing night and day,
saying that he wished to die gaily. He recovered.
NJ. Buisson also cites the old stories of dancing
being a 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."