The Republican journal., 1871-08-31

which has prevented me from dwelling
so much on the details as his bravery de-
serves-but as was acquainted with the
chief actor, can vouch for its truth; if
somewhat less thrilling than the last
instance, it nevertheless demanded very
firm nerves, and shows the inestimable
value of presence of mind. Some years
ago. q large dog, in state Of furious
madness, was discovered running about
the streets at the West-end of London;
ofcourse the alarm and excitement spread,
and crowd of shouting men and boys
followed it. A butcher was standing at
the door of his shop, when the rabld beast
entered the street, and the man as he
stood there was right on the track. The
crowd shouted to him to get out OF the
way but in lieu of doing so, the butcher
coolly detached his steel an implement
with which every reader is familiar, in
the larger size which it takes when for
professional and not domestic use-from
his apron, and planted himself in the
centre of the pathway, Swapping vicious
", with whitened jaws, at everything
near, the dog came on, and when close
to the butcher sprang at him to seize him;
but, as he opened his savage teeth, the
man stepped forward, and holding his
weapon with a firm grip, drove the steel
right down the brute's throat, almost to
the hilt. His fingers were, of course, close
to the fatal tangs but these were harm
less now, for the dog fell dead at his feet.
have faced a line Of bayonets than have
nd n
man has been praised to the skies and re-
warded for less courageous act.
1t is very difficult, in the earlier stages,
to know whether . dog be mad or not;
but in all cases of doubt, kill the poor
thing at once; it may save much suffering,
and you from the narrowing reflection
that some human being has been bitten
through your neglect. Madness is not
always traceable to q dog having been
bitten; it sometimes comes on spontane
ously A friend of mine once owned a
tavorite terrier which had recently litter
ed five puppies, and as she was kept con-
stantly in his garden, she could not posi-
bly, have been bitten for some considerable
time. But she suddenly displayed unmis-
taxable symptoms Of madness, and ran
up and down the garden with the saliva
flying from her Jaws, and her head witch
ing from side to side, as the heads of all
mad dogs do. This arises from the con-
vulsive action of the muscles OF the throat
and neck, which invariably characterizes
hydrophobia human beings, unhappi-
ly, as well as in quadrupeds-an the imi-
tation of which makes poisoning by
strychnine so painful to endure, and so
horrilic to see. Luckily. my friend HIM
self was the first to notice her, and his
first care was to close the doors and order
no one to 90 into the garden; he had no
firearms, and was afraid to leave the
house lest she should scramble over the
low wall, or some one should inadycrtent-
ly enter the enclosure. At last he thought
OF a plan which is worthy of being known,
in the event OF any of my readers being
unfortunate enough to need such an cX-
pedient. He procured an old box with
out a Ida tea-chest would do, or any
such thing-and holding this before him.
went straight into the garden. The poor
brute ran directly towards him and had
she come quite close he would have turn
ed the box over her, and so covered her
with it; this he could have done easily
enough, for mad dogs never dodge or
maternal instinct was too strong. and she
ran back to her kennel, and began sucking
her puppies. AS the end of the chain
which was still round her neck, hung out
of the kennel, her master seized il and
fastened it to its staple, then sent for some
poison and so killed her; for she would
try TO eat, although SHE could not drink.
But here is the strangest part of the story,
and to me it seems very pathetic all her
little puppies were raving mad too, and
the foam hung in flakes about their
mouths, and their poor little heads twitch-
ed Just as the mothers had done. They
had sucked in madness with the milk, for
she had not bitten any of them. This
was, in my experience at least, new
feature in the history Of hydrophobia.
Without breaking my resolution of not
entering upon the medical questions con-
nected with hydrophobia, may allude to
the agonizing uncertainty which haunts a
person who is bitten by 4 mad dog OF
all poisons ever known the virus is the
most capricious, most unaccountable in
its action. The blood-poison. to which it
is most often compared. the bite of u ser
pent, is really more OF u contrast than n
comparison; the one is SO certain and
regular in It's effect the other so uncertain
in time, or even in any injury RESULTING at
all. None of the men bitten by Sir # +
BuXton's dog went mad. [ have known
a child's arm torn and bitten to the bone
by Il dog outrageously rabid, and the child
did not suffer more than it would have
done from any other injury Of canal en-
tent. There have been freGuent Instances
where a dog has bitten Great number Of
human beings, and one has cone mad
while the rest have escaped to be rabid
bring on the most deadly madness. The
treatment of hydrophobia is inst az mn
settled as is the action of the disease itself
A surgeon once treated a very had bitc ~,
his own hand, inflicted by a dog that at
any rate. was Infatuated. which not onlv
presented some very ugly SYMPTOMS bnt
menaced, | tancied. the worst resnlts IIe
used water only; he kept a constantly