American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-02-24
HydrOphObia.

Ir is some time since we have noted any
of the customary paragraphs relating to
cases of hydrophohia from dog-bites,
five, ten, twenty, or even forty years old.
We have long suspected that this was Il
vulgar error. More than n year ago we
examined the record of a case of hydro
phobia in the Philadelphia NedicM Times
of this city. 1t was reported by one of
our most eminent physicians. He ascribed
the case unhesitatingly to dog bite. But
rs we said in our notice of it there was
singular want of proof that the patient
had ever been bitten by a dog, or any
other animal. No indication of it by any
scar or wound could be found on his per
son. We have long hoped that our medi-
cal practitioners would do something to
rescue this disease from the domain of
popular superstition and accepted tradi
ton We find in a Western journal an
account of a lecture delivered by DR..
James #. Whitaker, of Cincinnati, on n
case of hydrophobia arising in that city,
in which it seems that there was no proof
or even pretense, that the cause was Il
do@-bite. We ourselves believe that the
cases ascribed to ancient dog-bites might
as well be ascribed to ancient mosquito
bites, or any other circumstance that long
preceded the attack. The faculties of our
experts, sharpened by recent exercise in
the Wharton case, may be usefully en-
ploved in considering the cases of
| hydrophobia, in which the memory of the
/ patient fails to recall that he was ever
bitten by any animal Science, too,
| might busy itself with finding some anal
/ ogy or reason for the alleged tenacity of a
/ virus that is said to increase instead of
| diminish in violence in the lapse of
months and years. The observations on
/ the case in Cincinnati are as follows:
! I.f I'll ..1, hot of he
body of BradfordD raised the question
whether hydrophobia may ever arise de
n0ro in the human body that is, whether
the disease may be generated in the hui
man body without any outside communi-
cation. The body of Bradford presented
! to close scrutiny Of the entire surface no
| scar of former wound except one, that
! his brother declared came from the cut
| of an axe wears ago. True, the scar may
have disappeared. Such cases are abun-
eantly recorded. But Bradford, in his
lucid intervals, when questioned on the
| subject, remembered no such incident rs
having been bitten by a dog. On that
point he was quite positive and consistent
throughout, though his mind was never
clear enough since his reception into the
hospital to have rendered his statements
very reliable.
"Dr. Whitaker said he was supported
by the most eminent and recent author
ity in declaring that a great many cases
of hydrophobia are not due to infection
by contract and absorption of a specific
virus. DR.. Luke illustrations of the
influence of the mind upon the body il
health and disease, with especial refer
ence to the Imagination, Jan. l, 1871, p
339, journal Mental Science, loo. cit ha:
shown that, in many cases, hydrophobi;
in man is the result of mere imagination
or emotion. They are due to mental anX
iety, grief or terror, associated with o
acting upon morbid fancy. For
on the one hand, fatal cases have occurred
in man without the bite of an animal a
all the mere belief that a bite has beel
receivd from rabid animal has sufficet
to induce violent hydrophobja while, Oh
the other hand the bites of dogs reputed
ly mad have been frequently followed b.
no symptoms whatever. Trossea men
tions having met with number of case
Stimulating this disease, but really arisin
from mental impressions. The mos
marked instance is that reported by Scriy
en- Year Book sgd. Soc. from Journ
Ment. Sc. loc. cit.), where, symptom
presented, which, although not refers
BILE to the bite of a dog, closely resemble
hydrophobia, and the individual was oni
saved from death by prompt laryngatom
with penknife. In an article on mad
ness in animals from which these citi
J tons from the Jo,,2nal Of Nntal .Scienc
: are made the author, Lindsay, start
with the following: 'Hydrophobia i
man is frequently, if not generally, tn
J result of terror ignorance, prejudice, o
superstition acting on a morbid imagina
ton and nervous temperament '-Ihi
| n1sflJfI1 .iqe