The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1878-02-07
Some Further Notes on Hydro
nhOhia

very earnestly on tHr -iLC4GN OF Inc
so-called MAIDSTONE IN CASES of hydro
ptIobia. Ii l. commonly asserted that
these one If placed upon the wound
CAUSED by the bite OF "A rabid animal,
Will adhere Ia II until all the poison
has been extracted by some mysterious
action Of the mineral. OF course. If II
were oo-Iclusively proved that any
stone could thus prevent hydrophobia.
it, value woGii he simply inestiInabiy
great. But the claims advanced for
tie maidstone are rejected generally.
and we believe unanimously, by the
medical profession. Nevertheless. our
correspondents statements are most
explicit as to his own favorable eA-
perience i WAS bitten som tive
years since BY . dog. he says. and a
year ago last winter | was taken with
hydrophobia. 1 was cured OF IL BY a
maidstone owned By Mr.. Evans OF
Paris Linn county. Iowa. He has
cured over one hundred and fifty hu-
man beings IA well a. cattle and horses
that have been bitten by alad dogs.
and also many persons who have been
bitten by poisonous snakes. He has
cured people when they We're in spasms
and had to be tied and blinded"
Now we have here q distinct asser-
ton of the curative power of the mad
stone in at least one case of hydro
phobia. 1t Is made. with evident SIN
cerity, by IL patient himself. Ills
other statements are obviously hear
say, but this one must be founded on
what he believes to be his own personal
knowledge. He ascribes even greater
virtue to the maidstone than has or
dinarily been claimed for it. If he is
correct in his facts, IL will not only
prevent but cure.
Are we really to believe this: Every
physician will at once answer No. And
if asked why not, the intelligent medi-
cal mar will ask in turn for evidences
that the case really was n of HYDRO
phobia. 1t is a disease with which
even physicians are by no means
familiar. Sir Thomas Watson, who
has been called the NestOr of English
medicine, has seen but four cases of
it, and he himself SAYS that many med
ical men pass through life without
witnessing the disease at all. The an
mails of medicine leave no doubt that
spurious symptoms of hydrophobia are
sometimes produced by fright. 1t is
probably only in cases OF this kind that
the supposed cures nave been effected.
With the exception of the two cases in
curdre was administered, and which
are admitted to have been extremely
doubtful, we nave yet to learn OF a
single instance of alleged cure where
a competent physician pronounced the
disease to be unquestlonably hydro
phobia.
SO much for the curative properties
of the maidstone. The popular faith
in its preventive efficacy, however, is
very great in some parts of this
try. Educated persons usually deem
the notion a popular superstition, but
it cannot be overcome merely by call
ing it 50. Accordingly, we must ask
those who entertain it. to remember
that the bite of a mad dog does not
cause hydrOphobia in more thar about
one, half the entire number of persons
bitten 50 that although a particular
method of preventing the disease may
have been etficacious to that end, we
cannot be sure that the patient would
not equally nave escaped without
taking any p~recautiOn at all On the
other hand the confidence which ply
sicians have come to have / n eau
terization arises from the almost in
variable immunity of those who speed
lily resort to it, while others, bitten by
the same dog on the same day, but
neglecting it, so often die of hydro
phobia. Until the probable preventive
value of the maidstone is similarly at
tested, it may safely be denied. The
somewhat exceptional prevalence of
rabies in the valley Of the Connecticut
makes this subject one of practical i'm
portance at the present time, and we
urge those who may be bitten by a
suspected animal to have course to
excelsior or ca~uterlZatlOn as the SureSt
precautionary treatment known to
medical science.
1t is strange thai this method has
not bee more frequently applied to
dogs themself. \ few wears in
England, the entire Durham county
hounds, numbering forty-One couples.
were destroyed in consequence of an
outbreak of rabies. 1t is probable tina
some of those valuable animals could
nave been saved by following Youatt's
instructions. At least we Judge so
from the experience of Mr.. II. G..
Barley. the English railway engineer,
whose narratives of life and adventure
in Bulgaria have been so favorablv re-
ceived. He saws it is q great mistake
to suppose that dogs never go mad in
Turkey. On the contrary, they 90
mad in considerable numbers. and he
lost several valuable dogs of his own.
through the attacks of rabid animals.
He saved many others. however. by
the treatment which he thus describes:
Whenever | have seer one of my
dogs bitten. | have carefully marked
the part, and, as quickly as possible,
have shaved the hair from il, lanced
the wound or wounds. and then burned
them with cauStic. Twice over | have
had two dogs bitten at the same time.
one of which | treated thus, and left
the other to take its chance and each
time the dog | burned with caustic has
not gone mad and the other has and
| feel sure that in man or beast if the
wounds We're all at once cauterized 70
the bottom, hydrophobia would rarely
s~upervene."
Although physicians seem agreed as
to the inevitably fatal termination of