The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1870-07-18
a MAD sIcsr.
How HydrophobIa Is Cured Out West.

FROM the joliet (lll.l Republican, July 81
On Sunday, June 20 George Ii. Jacobs and wife, OF
Holderman's Grove, Kendall county, In this State,
were bitten by mad dog. They owned the dog,
hence there could be no mistake about his being
rabid and they then realized their terrible position.
Having neard OF some person at or near Norris that
application OF o ''mad st0ne," Mr. Jacobs at once
started to find him for the purpose OF ascertainng
owned and kept by J. +. Evans, IN Lincoln, Logan
county, Ill: He at once took the train for Lincoln
was bitten, and the stone tried. He then
tried TO telegraph from Lincoln to his wife. at
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 despatch were explained, and pay for
the transmission rendered, yet the agent said he
would not send it, and there was no use OF his talk
ing any more about it, Mr. Jacobs had no other
alternative LETT 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 ren days after the bite| Mr.. Evans came and
made five applications. The stone is small, being
thick and perhaps one inch Wide at the place of its
greatest width, and seeming almost as porous as
emts an 0dor similar to that Of dead snake only
more rank and nauseOus. On the first and second
applications OF about twenty minutes each, Mrs.
Jacobs says she Gid 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 1t actually painful
to bear, and when taken of left the impression 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 1t
remains on the bite. Fir. 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 1t to this State forty years ago.
At his fathers death, twenty. one years ago. 1t came
into his possession, and since then he has applied 1t
to over one thousand different cases. and always
with perfect success, except In one instance-that
. OF John Bennington Of Mnonk, in Woodford county,
eleven years ago. He was frightfully manged from
his elbows to the ends OF his fingers, and no appi-
cation made until he had the disease. Then, by
OF there being so many wounds, and 1t being
long three weeks) after he was bitten, the poison
seemed to accumulate as fast as the stone could
draw 1t out. The man would be rational as long as
The stone applied to any OF the wounds, but as
soon it was removed to be ceaused he would take
IT. and so he c0ntinued--rational when the stone
was and ravlng mad when off--unti he died.
Mr. Evans cannot tell how the properties of tho
stone were discovered nor how long they have been
known and In use. IL has been in his own and his
ancestOrs family for about two hundred year9.