Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-06-06
IHydrOphObia.


fatal case in New York city last Saturday,
| says the Tribune, remind US of a number OF
popular errors respecting this terrible dis
| ease, which it may be worth while to try TO
correct. In the first place the very name
of the malady, so far at least asit refers to
dogs, is not merely entirely in appropriate,
| but is the cause of a very dangerous misap-
prehension. The word means fear of wa
| ter,and4 it is commonly supposed, that a
dread of water is the great distinguishing
symptom of canine madness, and that a
dog who will drink must be safe. Nothing
can be further from the truth. The indet
Unable and terrible dread of water which
characterizes the later stages of hydropho-
bia In man, is not noticed in the dog in one
case out of fifty; on the contrary, one, of
! the principal symptoms is burning and
nnquenchable thirst. Why there should
be such remarkable difference between
the manifestations OF the disease in man
and in the brute, no one knows; but it is
important that the difference should be
borne in mind. .is5tLfr Sill kTI8d 70
: Another great mistake is, in attributing
hydropbobia to the heat of the t.sdog days"
suppose that the warm summermenthsr re-
ceive that popular name because it is in
| them that dogs run mad. But in point OF
fact, July and August are just the period
when hydrophobia is least common; and
whatever may be the cause of the malady,
| the cause. In the burning regions ofEqua-
torial Africa, where all the villages are
overrun with dogs Mr.. Du Chailiu remarks
that hydrophobia is unknown even by re-
port. 1t is unknown in Cyprus and Egypt;
] it used to be unknown in Jamaica; and it
has never been seen in the Island of Made
ria, where ours of every description abound,
| tormented by diseases, insects, thirst and
| famine. The cruel experiment has even
| been tried of claiming dogs to wall under
O burning sun until they died of thirst, but
they showed no symptoms of rabies. Care
| full records of canine madness are kept at
1 the veterinary schools OF Alfort, Lyons and
Toulouse, in France, and from these it ap-
pears that the majority of cases occur not
| in the hottest but In the aCetteSt months
There are twice and three times as many in
April, November and December, as in June.
July and August. Probably no accurate
register has ever been kept III this country,
but we have no doubt that the disease is
more prevalent in the wet spring months
i than at any other time of the year.
Bearing this in mind, our readers can
appreciate the folly and brutality of our
dog law, which condemns to indiscrimin-
ate slaughter every dog found running
loose during the very period when, if there
is any truth in statistics, his running loose
is attended with least danger. We dare
say that very few OF the animals which are
killed in the streets under the supposition
that they are mad, really have hydropho
bia, the popular idea of what constitutes a
mad dog being far from accurate. The
i1symptoms, however, are unmistakable to
an experienced eye., The dog usually be-
gins by being sullen and restless. He be-
trays extraordinary anxiety about trivial
Tor imaginary objects. He is subject to
strange hallucinations, sometimes of a
i pleasant, but oftener of a fearful nature.
H His appetite is deprayed; he refuses his
is fOr inC hat
is filthy and horrible. His limbs fail him !;
II he has a sudden and violent itching of the
ear; he paws the corners of his mouth; he
/ seems insensible to pain, so much so that a
4 mad dog has been known to seize and
hold with his mouth a red-hot poker, and
\ another to gnaw his tail off close to the base.
The voice changes in very remarka-
Il Bile manner. There is a foaming at the
4 mouth, but it is always less than is observed
I in epilepsy and nausea, and never lasts
long. The stories of mad dogs covered
l5with foam are fabulous. Dogs recovering
i from or attacked by fit are sometimes
/ seen in this state; but fits have no relation
whatever to madness. Then we have the
violent thirst which we have already men
| toned. Unless the animal is naturally fe-
4 rocious. he shows no disposition to bite un-
til he reaches the last and most violent
l.stage of the disease, and indeed not al
Isways then. On the contrary, his affection
for his master seems TO be increased, and
he is necessarily attempting to lick the
hands and face of the person he loves.
This is propensity which must be care
fully guarded against. IG is not the bite
of mad dog which is poisonous, but his
saliva, which may be introduced into the
system through the mueus membrane of
the lips, or any little abrasion of the skin,
as well as through wound made by the
animals teeth.
In man, dread OF water isan invariable
symptom. The terror increases with the
attempt to swallow, and sometimes the
mere sound of liquid falling in vessel, or
the sight, or even the mention of it. will
produce the same effect. A draught of cold
air, or the sight of a mirror has also been
known to produce paroXysm.i And it is
quite certain that these distressing symp-
toms are not the result OF imagination, for
they have been noticed in young children
and idiots who could never have heard OF
hydrophobia, nor, of course, have had any
preconceived notions about it. At the
same time there is a violent thirst. The
patient is annoyed by the secretion of a
thick viscid saliva, and tries to tree himself
from it by blowing and splitting. There il
a painful stiffness in the back of the neck
the Nbreathing is hurried; delirium OF
mania often, but not always, comes on
and death ensues commonly on the second
or third day. There is no authenticated
case of cure on record. Death alone put:
an end to the suffering.
The newspapers recently have giver
elaborate accounts of a supposed case o
hydrophobia in Hamilton county, Indiana
in which the patient, young woman, il
said to have been cured by bromide of po
tassium. But from the published report:
4 it is by'no means clear that the disease wat
hydrophobia at all. The young woman
had been bitten-by mad dog about, tw'
months before. The attack began with
| mo far zfG N.
very severe symptoms until the third day
when she suddenly began grinding he
teeth, AMI then fell on the floor, foaming a
the mouth, gnashing her jaws, and horribl
cOnvulsed. She bit furiously at every on
who came near her. A second spasm cam
on soon afterward, during which she is de
scribed as swapping, snarling and yelp
ing" like a cur dog. She bit her hands ter
ribly, and bit pieces out of the bed clothes
The paroxy SINS lasted five or six days, afte
which the disease yielded to treatment, an
in, ten days or fortnight the patient wa
pronounced GONZALES cent. - H"
Now these symptoms are much more lik
hysteria than madness. The foaming &
: the mouth, the fit, the self-laceration al
not characteristic of hydrophobia, but the
are exactly what often happens in hysterit
That disease moreover is known to imitat
hyGrophobia sometimes so closely as to d.
ceive the most wary physician. The bark
ing and snarliDg like cur must have bee
the effect of Imagination either in the ps
, tient or. the observer who records th
case. Such thing does not occur i
: madness from the bite of dog, thoug
it is popularity supposed that it does, tt
: error originating probably from the spa!
modic efforts which the sufferer makes
) clear his throat of saliva. But it is quit
I conceivable that hysteric woman, know
1 ing that she had been bitten, might hay
4 tancied that she had the disease, and hay
= nrndnced unintentionallY the barking ii