The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1875-07-06
Hydrophobia Mania.
fNeW York Herald.1

They used to put down in the surgical
almanacS, at the period when in the
course of nature cherries should be ripe
and cherry trees loaded, 'About this
time look for boys with broken arms.
Our city surgeons commonly have as
much practice ingunshot wounds after
Fourth of July as falls to the share of
the army doctors after moderate battle;
and the warm weather alwaysgivcs fair
share of practice in the athletic exercise
Of resuscitating half drowned humanity.
Although death has, as POLITICALLY OBJ
served, all seasons for his own, he adopts
a different style for each, and comes in
shapes appropriate to the time. 1t
would appear from late experience that
We are now to have our warm weather
scare of hydrophobia as regularly as We
used to have scare of cholera for the
same season. Hydrophobia We may
have and do have, and it is not per-
ceptible how we can avoid an oc-
casional case, until society at
large makes war on dogs and extermin-
ates the Species; and then cats and foxes
and wolves will remain to do what they
may as substitutes for the friend of man.
And so long as there is hydrophobia it
will have the spurious and in certain as
poets most ridiculous double kydropho-
bic mania, the delusion in which men
Brighten themselves to death with the
fancy that they have been bitten by
rabid animals, case Of which has al
| ready come this summer as several came
last summer. That there is disease in
these cases is prob.ble enough, but not
hydrophobia. There is evidently disor-
lercd brain, tending to mania in all
probability, and the character of the
mania is determined by bite received,
which would be otherwise harmless, and
the apprehensions in regard to it, upon
which the victim broods day and MI ht.
People should not permit themselves to
accept on any terms a notion 50 contrary
to ages of experience as that hydropho-
bia can be given by the bite of dog not
evidently rabid.
THE CASE REFERRED TO.
The death from hydrophobia which &C.
Cured in Brooklyn last week is in some
respects noteworthy. The victim was
large, robust man, of temperate habits.
The dog that bit him showed no symp-
toms Of disease, and is still alive, appar-
emily in perfect health. The wound was
inflicted accidentally, when the man and
dog were at play; it healed kindly, and
no marks were left. The patient, how
ever, continued anxious and morbid. He
consulted a physician, and was assured
that there was no danger. Still he
lived in constant dread of hydro
phobia, passing sleepless nights,
and often subjecting himself
to various tests in fear Of discovering
traces of disease. Finally, OH the 18th Of
June, eight weeks after the bite, the
first symptoms of hydrophobia we're
manifested. Spasms supervened and the
patient died in agony. The case is anon
alous, but not without parallel. just
about year ago one Mccormick died in
New York city under much the same
circumstances. All that seems to be es-
tablished in regard to hydrophobia does
not conflict with the developments just no.
ticed. The prime condition of the dis
ease is, that the animal communicating
the virus should be excited, which has
been the case with all healthy dogs whose
bites have proved fatal.