The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1874-06-29

A distressing case of hydrophobia t,rmi-
mated fatally at 800 East Fifty-first street
yesterday afternoon. The patient was Il
Broadway dry goods dealer, Mr.. William
Mccormick, who was well known on Beck
man Hill, in the nineteenth ward, where he
boarded in his brothers family. He had
terrible paroxyisms, and many of the most
distinguished physicians of the city, at
tracted by the medical reports of his case
called on him before his death, but none
were able to afford him relief.
He first exhibited symptoms of the ma
lady in its incipient stages on Monday last,
when he complained to his relatives of n
peculiar numbness and lassitude of the
arms and back, and more particularly
about the neck. He said that he thought it
was an attack of rheumatism. The feeling
grew on him, and he tried several simple
medicines without improving his condition.
Ga Friday he said that his throat felt
parched, and made swallowing painful. He
drank much water that day. however. On
returning to his house to dinner at six
o'clock in the evening he looked wild and
haggard. A cup of tea was offered him,
and ON raising it to drink he was taken
with a slight spasm just as it touched his
lips DR.. uadden of East Eitty-first street
was summoned at eight o'clock that even
ing, but was unable to diagnose his case OH
first looking at him. The doctor noticed
that his eyes had
WILD AND METALLIC GLARE,
and that he kept them constantly rowing
from one point to another. He talked in II
whining tone about hi thirst, and begged
for glass of water His raging thirst al,
once led the physician to suspect that his
I'll. L.. L.. .t,,l; l.,
One of the attendants at his bedside stepped
into an adjoining room for the water, and
when he heard it running he behaved very
nervously and gasped like man being
strangled. The water was put in front of
him, and the sight of it made him shudder
and trembe more violently than ever. The
glass was held close to his mouth, and he
shouted: "For Gods sake take it away ~
and he seized the glass with trembling
hands and managed by desperate effort to
carry it to his lips. lie took two swallows
and then let it drop, screaming Take it
away, take it away" After this his de-
lirium subsidized and his commissions were
less frequent. DR.. Hadden inquired
whether he had been bitten by horse, or
cat, or any other animal. Mr. Mccormick
said that he had been scratched on the
hand by little poodle dog, but that it
didn't amount to anything He said that
he was playing with the dog in a bakers
shop round the corner, about three weeks
before, and that the animal had scratched
his finger slightly with one of his teeth
The wound was so slight that there was no
blood, and it healed in day or two. He
pointed to the scar on the index finger of
his right hand, above the thumb and near
the finger joint. All that was visible was
faint redness of the skin, the mark of the
dogs tooth having disappeared. He was
positive that the poodle was not mad, but
admitted that it was taken to the pound
three or four days ago. After listening to
the story DR.. Hadden offered him some
brandy, but he had the same horror of the
stimulant that he had for the water. The
doctor prescribed for him and lett him feel
ing much easier. At midnight his spasms
returned and he moaned and frothed dread
fully. He broke down his bed on which he
lay in his convulsive attempts to get Off,
and afterward ran to the window and tried
to jump to the sidewalk. 1t required the
united strength of his two brothers and his
brother-in-law to drag him back. His
limbs were pinioned and he was placed on
another bed. In his struggles he made
several snaps of his teeth at his attendants,
Wiilt MS uhHus NtIt bSiuB litu lt
sprang at one of his brothers and tried to
bite him. A bed. sheet was held before his
face to prevent him fran
SPLITTING At THOSE AROUND HIM,
DR. Hadden returned to him at 3 a. m. =,
yesterday with DIR Tuttle. They found
him frothing at the mouth and throwing
himself about like mailman. He strug-
gled with superhuman force, and the doc
tors had TO throw a mattress over him to
keep him down. They sent to the Fifty
ninth street police station for strait
jacket, but none could be had. He raved
about the doctors, and said they would kill
him.
Three grains of morphine and one
twelfth of Il grain of atropine in solution
of one hundred drops was injected under
his skin.
THE EFFECT OF THE NARCOTICS
was apparent in few minutes. The afro
pine was the first to act. 1t worked on the
glands and stopped the frothing at the
mouth. The morphine made the patient
insensible. He remained so until 0 Il. M,
when he showed signs of consciousness.
DR. iladden, DR. Leavitt, and DIR Hammond,
late surgeon-general of the United States
army, were in attendance, DIR Hammond
confirmed DR. Hadden's opidion that the pa
tent had hydrophobia. IL, said that there
was no well authenticated case Of recovery
from hydrophobia on record. He thought
that the certificate of three or four reputa-
BILE physicians should be sufici mt to have
the body of any one dying from the disease
destroyed. He agreed with DIR Hadden
that to administer an@tsherics was all that
could be done for Mr. Mccormick, and that
it was utterly