New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1886-02-03
HYDROPHOBlA.
Some Popular Beliefs Which Are Not
Only Erroneous, But Dangerous.

Some Popular Beliefs Which Are Not
Only Erroneous, But Dangerous.
Zone would Think said veterinary
surgeon. the other day, who is a great
admirer of fine dogs, ..that this recent
seni-epidemic of hydrophobia over in
New Jersey, occurring as it doesin the
winter. would have a tendency to disa-
buse people of some Of the dog-day
nonsense which causes so much need
less torture to dogs in midsummer
But | suppose it will have no more
effect this year than it has in years
past. There is, probably, no disease
about which so manyss people are so OBJ
stinately superstitious and ignorant
as they are about hydrophobia. The
very name of the malady is misleading
and erroneous. Mad dogs do not fear
or hate water, as the term hydrophobia
implies; on the. contrary, an early
symptom of the disease is craving for
water, an intense thirst; and the animal
will plunge his nose deep down into the
liquid when drink is given to him. 1t
us only in the last stages of the disease
that the terrible spasms of the pharynx
occur when the attempt is made to
swallow liquids. This mistake is an
especially dangerous one, for the reason
that people who are laboring under it
believe that if dog showing suspicious
symptoms can drink he is all right,
whereas he may be right on the verge
OF that form of the madness in which
he snaps at everything within reach
and inf1icts his most deadly poison.
'sBut to come back to what [ started
to say first, the most widespread error
about hydrophobia is that it is preva-
lent in the hot months. A surprising
number of people hold it as an article of
faith that the dog days are so called be-
cause that season is particularly dan
gerous to dogs. At all events the belief
is almost universal that July and Au-
gust are the months in which to look
out for mad dogs. AS matter of fact,
statistics show that there is less hydro
phobia in those two months than in any
IN the year, and that cases of hydropho-
bia in winter-early in the winter and
late in the winter, that is. in November
and December and in February and
March-are rather more than twice as
frequent as they are in July. You have
only to read the papers every year to
verify this. The numerous reports of
cases with which the papers are at this
moment filled verify it. A distinguished
veterinary surgeon in England kept
record of hydrophobia cases for series
of years, and the result was that he dis
covered that, in England at least, Feb
ruary was the most dangerous month.
A record kept in France during series
of ten years showed an average of 20
cases in January, q in March, and rs
in April while in July there were only
IL. From this series of observations
the inference was drawn that the dis
ease was much more prevalent in the
rainy than in the dry months. This hot
| weather error, like the error about aver
sion to water being a symptom of the
disease, is also source of danger.
People lock up, muzzle, and drown dogs
during the months when it is safest to
let them run at large, and let them run
at large just when they are most liable
to the disease and most dangerous.
"Bn hydrophobia is after all so rare
disease that there is no necessity Of
half tie fuss that is made over it. Dur
ing the sz- .ssars from 1866 to 1871 there
were in New York City only twenty-five
cases; or an average of 81 per annum
among the million and quarter of peo-
| pie here. This is greater number Of
cases than was shown by long record
kept in Paris, where during a series of
forty years only ninety-four cases oc-
Cured, or an average of p per year.
Unless it is true, and am some
what skeptical, that Pasteur has con-
quered the disease, there has never
| DSOA hAVVA q S0oV VI Aully
hydrophobia that has been cured. An
attack of hydrophobia, unless Pasteur
is right, means nothing less than a
horrible death, and although the dis
ease is so rare, it is very desirable that
the dangerous superstition and ignor-
ance concerning it, which are, unfor-
tunately, SO general, should be re-
moved. People should above all
things rid themselves of the false no.
tons that prevail as to the preliminary
symptoms of the disease. The symp-
toms of hydrophobia in a dog are rest
lessness, constant shifting about, and
hunting for secluded places to lie down.
Then he has hallucinations. BE will
stop and prick up his ears at imaginary
noises and dart at imaginary objects.