Bradford opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1874-1881, 1877-03-31
Some Strange Features Of Hydrophobla.

A dog perfectly healthy, or at least
free from rabies, says DIR. Hammond,
may produce the disease by his bite
through his saliva, rs have already
stated. You remember the case Of Nc
Cormick. In that case the dog was OK
hibited to the Neurological Society more
than month after he bit Mccormick,
and as hydrophobia runs its course in
seven or eight days, and rs the dog in.
variably dies, he either could not have
had it or he could not have been the
dog in question. Remember, it tax & n
wound to produce death. You might
swallow the saliva and it would not kill
you unless you had, perhaps, m abra-
sion on your lip. The saliva is only
poisonous when communicated through
wound. You get lockjaw, or tetanus,
from simple wound, and hydrophobia
seems to be tetanus plus group of other
symptoms.
We can recognize the origin and symp-
toms of hydrophobia US we can those Of
scarlet fever Or measles. To this day no
one has discovered the primal origin of
scarlet fever. We know that we cannot
cure hydrophobia. Remember that there
never has been cure on record. 1t is
necessary not to confound the preven.
ton with the cure. There are great
many people who claim to have invented
cures for hydrophobia, but they mean
cures after the bite and before the pois-
on has been developed. This is an easy
matter, but no cure has MS yet been effect
ell after the poison (Which lies dormant
in the system few weeks, and some-
times even several months, and even
several years. has been developed. In
the early part Of last fall distinguished
officer of the army came to me, who had
been bitten by dog, manifestly hydro
phobic. I cauterized the wound with
red hot iron, and I regard him as per-
fectly safe.
There is evidence also that the disease
can be communicated by the man to the
dog; so, you see that there is such
thing as retributive vengeance. Expert
ments have been made by inoculating
the lower animals with the saliva 81 q
hydrophobic man, and it has given them
the disease. I saw communication in
one of the morning papers the other day
stating that the wolf is not subject to
rabies. This is great error. 1t is the
most dangerous of all animals in this re-
spect, for he flies at the throat, which is
not protected by any clothing. Cats,
horses, goats, pigs, all mammalia and all
birds are subject to the disease. As to
wolves, in the Pyrennees they often,
from starvation or other causes, become
subject to rabies and communicate the
poison to men.
DIR. Hammond, speaking of the symp-
toms of birds who have been bitten by
mad dogs. referred to the following pas
sage in his work Oh nervous diseases /:
"When the disease has manifested it.
self the birds appear to be influenced
by the same nervous excitability and
shown in other animals.
They seem to labor under similar mental
they perform all kinds of
'renzied movements; avoid the light if
hey can find shelter; their voice is
husky, and at times they also appear to
% moved by the same mischievous i'm
pulse to bite which generally marks the
course of the malady in the lower ami
nails, and forms one of its characteristic
eatures. A struggling gait, and ulti-
nately paralysis, indicate the approach
If DEATH"