Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1851-02-08
HYDROPHoBIA-AN IMPORTANT DIS
COyERy,

COvERy.
The following is taken from the Charleston
Is. C.) Mercury. If it is an authentic state
men,, and M. Boisson is a person said TO be
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 so long |
is perhaps, attributable 10 its having been an
onymously communicated
''M. Busson has written TO the Paris Acade-
my Of Sciences, 10 claim as his, small trea
tse on hydrophobia, addressed TO the Acade.
my so far back as 1888, and signed with
single initial. The case referred 10 in the
treatise 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 suffering under
this disease. She had the usual symptoms,
construction of throat, inability to swallow,
abundant secretion of saliva, and foaming at
the mouth. Her neghbors said she had been
bitten by a mad dog, about forty days before.
AT her own urgent entreaties she was bled,
and died few houis after, as was supposed,
an. Busson who had his hands covered
with blood, ncauiously ceansed them with a
towel which had been used 10 wipe the mouth
of the patient, He then had an liberation
upon one of his fingers, yet thought it suffi-
cient 10 wipe off The saliva that adhered with
a little water The ninth day, after being in
his cabriolet, 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 impression of cnrrent of
air, the sight of brilliant bodies, gave him a
| painful sensation 4; his body appeared to him
so light that he felt as though he could leap
TO prodiguous height. He experienced, he
said, wish TO run and bite, not men, but AMI
mails and inanimate bodies. Finally he
drank with difficulty, and the sight of wafer
was still more distressing 10 him than the
pain in the throat. These symptoms recurred
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 judg-
ed himself afflicted with hydrophobia, and
resolved TO terminate his life by sitting him.
self in vapor bath. Having entered, one
for this purpose he caused the heat 10 be
raised to one hundred and seventy degrees
thirly-six minutes Fahrenheit, when he was
equally surprised and delighted 10 find him.
self free of complaint. He left the bathing
room WELL dined heartily and drank more
: than usual Since that iime he says he ha'
treated in the same manner more than eight,
persons bitten, in four OF whom the symptom
, had declared themselves, and in no case ha
he failed, except in that Of one child, sever
years old who died in the bath. The mod
of treatment he recommends is that the per
son bit should take certain number of vapo
baths, commonly called Russian) and shoul
induce every night violent Precipitation, b.
wrapping himself in hannels, and covern
himself with feather bed ; the prespiraio
!, is favored by drinking freely of a warm de
cocion of sarsaparlla.
ne ucldres, SO Convinced is ne ol lne ell
= easy of his mode of treatment that he wi
sufie himself 10 be innoculated with th
disease. As proof of the utility of copior
" and continual Precipitation, he relates the 70
z lowing anecdoe A relative Of the musicia
il Gre,ry was bitten by mad dog at the sam
II time with many other persons who all died
d hydrophohia. For his Tari, feeling the fir
IS symptoms of the disease, he took TO dancir
y night aud day, saying that he wished TO d
: gaily- He recovered. NJ Busson also cit
the old stories Of dancing being a remedy
. the bite of a taranrua, and draws attention
the fact that the animals in which this ma
' ness is most frequently found 10 develope
- self spontaneously, are dogs, wolves and foxe
10 which never perspire."