South-eastern Independent. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1871-1871, 1871-09-29

covered running about the streets at the
West End of London. Of course the
alarm and excitement spread, and 6
crowd of men and boys followed it. A
/ butcher was standing at the door of his
} shop when the rabid beast entered the
street, and the man as he stood there was
right in 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 do
mestc Use-from his apron, and planted
himself in the center of the pathway
Swapping viciously, 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, hold
ing his weapon with firm grip, drove
the steel right down the brutes throat al
most to the hilt His fingers were, of
course, close to the fatal fangs; but these
were harmless now, for the dog fell dead
at his feet. There are many men who
would rather have faced line of bayonets
than have done such decd as this; and
many man has been praised to the skies
and rewarded for less courageous act.
without breaking my resolution of not
entering upon the medical questions con-
nected with hydrophobia, may allude to
the agonizing uncertainty which haunts
person who is bitten by mad dog. Of
all poisons ever known the virus is the |
most capriciOus, most unaccountable in its |
actions. The blood-poison, to which it is |
most often compared-the bite of a SER
pent-is really more of contrast than a
comparison; the one is so certain and
regular in its effect, the other so uncertain
IN time, or even in any injury resulting at
all. None of the men bitten by Sir II. F.
BuXton's dog ever went mad. l have
known child arm torn and bitten to the
bone by dog outrageously rabid, and the
child did not suffer any more than it
would have done from any other injury of
equal extent. There have been frequent
of where dog has bitten great
number of human beings, and one has
gone mad while the rest have escaped; on
the other hand, l have also known very
slight puncture from dog not suspected
70 be rabld, bring on the most deadly mad
ness. The treatment of hydrophobia is
ust as unsettled as the disease itself. A
surgeon once treated very bad bite on
1ls own hand, inflicted By a dog that, at .
my rate, was infuriated, which not only !
resented some very ugly symptoms, but
fancied, the worst results. He !
lsed water only; he kept a constantly |
aturated pad of linen on the bite and he L
'ot quite well. But the value of such ev. 5
dence as this is diminished by its being
impossible to say whether hydrophobia 5
7ould have set in if the wound had been '
1T to itself.
As rule, mad dog will not go out of !
s way to bite you. 1t is rarely so fero- -
lous as in the second of my instances, but a
pursues straight course, swapping at |,
very living object which it meets. A :!
lend of mine once passed, on a lonely u
ountry road, within few feet of a dog 81
hich struck him as having something y
range in its aspect and movements: fifty q
lrds further on he encountered two men y! !.
ith guns, who asked him if he had seen = :!
dog, and on being answered that he had, u
ID where, told him to thank God for his 81
cape, for that very brute was raving mad, a.
Id had bitten at ! east dozen animals aI
ID two or three men and children that ie
orning. Ny informant almost tainted
th the shock which this intelligence III
mmunlcated, and wss greatly relieved to ~
ar the report of gun directly after p ou
ard, telling that the career OF the mad Lii' nI
g was ended. spoke, az the commence @ Gu
snt of this brief article, of the effect !el N
oduced by the clearance of the street u:
I'M dogs by the police; most of my read nll y
J will remember how that one man in ~
e force, especially, had his hands cover pc
all over with wounds from bites, and in no no
esser degree this was common among oI
3 men; yet-and this adds to the per- an
king nature of the subject-not one of gel
2 force suffered from hydrophobia; nor, mt mt
'elieve, has any attendant at that most Ou
eful institution, the Home for Lost and ss s
irving Dogs, ever been attacked. 1t is M !9I
lily like the immunity doctors enjoy, as I ,ns
ule, from contagion in fevers and other Ioo
and is altogether out of my Iea
wer to explain Finally, will observe a a
It l never knew the madness of dog to ~
clearly traceable to a want of water. 81 sLn
VS. to this privation. but so far asI have ceI
an opportunity OF noticing, thirst alone ao(
yer causes the disease Harner's Keeklu sou