Connecticut western news., 1884-09-03
MEN AND MULES RUN MAD.
AN EPIDEMIC OF HYDROPHOBIA ON
 AN ALABAMA PLANTATION.
Thirty-two Negroes Sick from Eating Pig thnt had been Bitten by Mad DoE-The
 Planters Wild Race to Escape R Mad Mule.

A dispatch from Eufaula, Ala, dated Aug. 2Sth ssys:-The people in this neighborhood are in state of tremen- dous excitement over the wholesale spread of hydrophobia on the plantation of Punch Doughtie. Dr. F. B. Johnson has just returned from Mir. Doughtie's plantation where he had been sum- moned. He found thirty-two persons suffering with disease which he at once pronounced hydrophobis in mild form. All the sufferers are negroes. Three of them are desperately sick, one being in the throes of delirium, and so low that the doctor says he is liable to die at any moment.
 More than three weeks ago hog bit ten by a dog died on Mir. Doughties plantation and was given to the negroes to be converted into soap grease. In- stead of utilizing it for this purpose, thirty-two negroes on the place and in the neighborhood ate the flesh of the hog.
 Mir. Doughtie says that on July 9, one of his dogs went mad and bit a mule and several hogs. On Aug. 13, the first hog died, and was eaten by the negroes. Two more died on Aug IS, one on Aug. 9, and one on Aug. 27, and all were eaten except the last, when the partak- CTS of the poisoned flesh became sick. The mule exhibited signs of madness on the nineteenth day after being bitten. Eleven days after the hog was eaten, ten of tue negroes were taken sick. Two days ago another dog was discovered to be mad, and was killed after having bit ten mule. Another dog on the lot is now housed, and will be experimented with for cure. The dog that bit the mule and hogs disappeared, and the whole neighborhood is in terror lest he went among the cattle and hogs throughout the belt before dying.
 A dozen out of the thirty-two eaters of the affected hogs are seriously sick, and the developments among the others are awaited with the greatest interest. Dr. Johnson, an able physician, says that it Is terrible case, and that he fears the worst. He says that it would not surprise him if the greater number of the thirty-two persons died.
 A few days ago MT. Doughtie rode out, at the request of a field hand, to inspect the condition of one of his mules, which was acting strangely. On reach ing the pasture where dozen mules were, the animal MT. Doughtie was riding neighed, which attracted the at- tention of the other animals, and the sick one particularly, which immediately rushed on the mule and rider, and seized the saddle of the animal with his teeth. MT. Doughtie dismounted and succeeded in loosening the mad mules hold, but no sooner was this done than the infuri- riated beast turned upon his owner, who fled for his life, pursued by the mule. There was desparate race of a quarter of a mile through undergrowth, and Mir. Doughtie only saved himself by dodging around saplings. A small stretch of clearing intervened between the woods, and the house, and the terrified man took hfe-and-death chance on making it. Before leaving the woods the mule had bitten out piece of Mir. Doughtie's coat, and while maneuvring around the tree, the animal bit himself savagely in several places, tearing out mouthful of flesh each time. The race for the house was a close one, and just as Mir. Dough- tie reached the top of the fence the mule overlook him on a dead run, but instead of reaching his victim, struck his head against a fence post in wild rush and was knocked senseless. The mule was afterward killed by Mir. Doughtie.
 It is now reported that the whole here of mules are affected. Many of them have leaped the fences and will doubtless, spread the disease among other animals in the neighborhood. The community is at a loss how to arrest the ] disease