The Conservative. (M'connelsville, Ohio) 1866-1871, 1870-08-05
A Mad Stone-HOw HydrOphObia j,

AuEtus
From the Joliet Ill.) Republican, July @.
On Sunday, June 26, George II. Jacobs
and wife, of Holderman's Grove, Kendall
county, IN this state; were bitten by mad
dog. They owned the dog, chained him,
and he died ON the following Tuesday;
hence there could be no mistake about his
being rabid, and they then realized their
terrible position. Having heard OF some
person at or near Morris that had long be-
fore been bitten and was cured by the ap-
plication of "mAd stone, MIR. Jacobs at
once started to find him for the purpose OF
ascertaining the location of the stone, DC.
He found that it was owned and kept by j..
p. Evans, in Lincoln, Logan county, Ill.
He at once took the train for Lincoln, ar
irving there on Thursday morning after he
was bitten, and the stone was tried. He
then tried to telegraph from Lincoln TO
his wife, at Morris, 10 como TO
him. The agent informed him that
Morris was on an opposition line and
that they would not receive messages that
were to be sent over that line. The nature
and object of the dispatch were explained,
and pay for the transmission rendered, yet
the agent said he would not send it, and
there was no use of his talking any more
about it. Mr.. Jacobs had no other alternG-
tive left him but to go home after his wife,
which he did, after making Arrangements
with Mr. Evans to meet him here IN Joliet
with the stone. On Monday Mr.. Jacobs
came, and on Tuesday evening last (ter
days after the bite) Mr.. Evans came apd
made Ave applications. The stone is
small, being about one inch and hall
long, nearly one inch thick and perhaps
one inch wide at the place of its greatest
width, and seeming almost as porous as
honeycomb. When removed from the
wound it emits an odor similar to that OF
dead snake, only more rank and naHse-
GUS. On the first and second applications,
of about twenty minutes each, Mrs. Jacobs
saws she did not feel any sensation other
than she would have felt had any other
hard substance been placed on her hand,
but the third application of the stone drew
so hard that it was actually painful to
bear. and when taken off left the impress
sion of the pores of the stone on her
fingers. When the stone is taken from
the wound it is placed in water for
about the same length of time that it
remains on the bite. Mr.. Evans says that
the stone was brought from Wales, by his
great grandfather to Virginia, and by his
grandfather to Kentucky, and his father
brought it to this state forty years ago.
At his fathers death, twenty-one years ago,
it came into his possession, and since then
he has applied it to over one thousand diff
ferent cases, and always with perfect sue
cess, except In one instance that ofJohn
Bennington, of Minonk, in Woodford Co.,
eleven years ago. He was frightfully
mangled, from his elbows to the ends of
his fingers, and no application was made
until he had the disease. Then, by reason
OF their being SO many wounds, and it
being so long, (three weeks) after he was
bitten, the poison seemed to accumulate
as fast as the stone could draw it out The
man would be rational as long rs the stone
was applied to any of his wounds, but as
soon as it was removed to be cleansea, he
would take fit, and so he continued-ra-
tional when the stone was on, and raving
mad when of, until he died. Mr.. Evans
cannot tell how the properties of the stone
were discovered, nor how long they have
been known and in use. 1t has been in his
own and his ancestors family for about
two hundred years.