Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-06-10
HydrOphObia.

1T is generally supposed that hydro
phobia is summer evil. The best, if not
the only, way to prevent the spreading
Of this horror is to make the people &C
quainted with the iDsidious and varied
symptoms of it, especially in its incipi-
ent stages, when it seems harmless, but
is communicable.
The real nature of hydrophobia is a
mystery to the most learned doctors. 1t
is known, however, that it can only be
communicated by bite. The poison is
in the saliva and must be mixed with the
blood of the system to be transmitted.
This is rule admitting of no exceptions.
There is no animal exempt from liability
to this disease, but the dog is, of course,
most liable to it. M. Bouley, a French
veterinary surgeon of great repute, gives
| these precautions:
Beware of dog which begins to be sick.
All sick dogs, as principle, must be sus-
pected.
Beware especially of one which is sad,
morose, and seeks for solitude; which does
not know where to rest; which goes and
comes, rambles about, snaps and barks with
out reason; whose looks are dull and gloomy,
and whose bright expression is lost.
Beware of the dog which looks about and
| attacks imaginary phantoms.
Beware of one which is suddenly too af-
fectionate, asking for your caresses by his
pitiful and repeated cravings.
And thus you will protect yourselves from
dangers to which you may be exposed in
your homes by dogs kept as family pets.
The bark Of the mad dog is thoroughly
characteristic; SO much so, indeed, that any
one familiar with it can decide with certain
ty the presence of a rabid dog when this
barking is heard. 1t is not necessary either
that the ear be long exercised to familiarity
with the sound to obtain this certainty of
diagnosis. Also: Instead of the normal and
successive banks it is hOarse, lower in tone,
prolonged, and not SO strong. After the first
bark made at full strength a series of five,
six, seven or eight others Immediately sue
coed, lowered in strength and thrown out
from the throat.
Once let the poison get into the system
and it cannot be cured. The patient
must suffer and die. But often it's abb
sorption by the blood is prevented, some
times by sucking the wound. Better to
take it into the mouth for a second than
leave it to run riot through the blood.
CauteTization, if prompt and thorough,
is an almost sure cure. To sum up all
that can he said on this point, NJ. 8Ouley
observes that in the presence of rabid
wound one must Immediately, without
losing moment, prevent the absorption
Of the virulent saliva by squeezing the
edges, by washing the wound, by suction
with the mouth and the cup, by the ap
plicatiOn of the ligature, and, as soon as
possible, by cauterization with the actual
cautery or some chemical agent.
This information deserves to be
needed, and we call attention to it in ad-
vance Of any mad-dog sensation on the
principle that " an ounce Of prevention
is worth a pound of cure. "-Chacag0
Journal.
In one of the illustrated papers of Ber-
lin there is cut of Bismarck and Won
Moltke looking from garret windows on
opposite sides of the street. The sky is
black and threatening, and in the out
lines of it's rolling clouds the faces of the
Pope, Victor Emmanuel, Emperor j oseph,
MacMahon and the King of Belgium are
discerned. All around and beneath are
the house-tops of Berlin, each gablepeak
having the figure of a German soldier,
erect, with helmet-spike and musket
bayonet pointing straight up. Bismarck
says: "Sultry air; a thunderstorm is
gathering" Won Moltke, gazing around,