Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1886-07-21
9ai1Y@ eagle
FIGHTING OFF HYDRoPHoBIA.

The Saving Effect of Will Power Employed
against That Dreadful Disease, ,
I heard General Beale give an inter
esting account of his once fighting off an
attack of hydrophohia.
1t is the first ease have ever heard oil
a mans being able by mere will power
to throw off this formidable and terrible
disease. The General apparently be:
lieyes that hydrophobia is but creation
to cert in extent OF the imagina ion.
When he was young man he was
Surveyor General in Southern California
d ring his residence there, through the
purchase of and. he laid the foundation
for his present fortune. His fayorite
sport at that time was the hunting of
wolves
The hun ers would go out armed with
lances and follow framed dogs. The
dogs would run down the wolves. I'M
mediately following the attack one wolf
would always leave the dogs and come
to attack the hunter.
The General said one day when a wolf
came towards tie lance, with which he
could easily keep off d destroy any
wolf making an ordinary attack, broke.
AS his lance broke he started to kick the
wolf under the jaw. His foot missed its
aim. and instead was caught in the
VOLTS mouth.
The wolf bit clear through his mecca
sin and wound, d him severely. So grim
was the grip OF the wolf that he did not
even release his fold when killed. The
muscles supporting his jaws had to be
cut before his teeth could be relaxed
from his terrible grip.
When the General returned to camp,
hn at
he was met by cheerful companion
who told him that the bite of an enraged
wolf was certain to produce hydiopho-
bia. The wolf was undoubtedly i'm a
condition to communicate the rabies, as
he had been worried to a great extent by
the dogs before he attacked the General.
General Beale says that he did not
have any opportunity o. cauteriZing the
wounds, and had attached no particular
Importance to the bite until he had re-
turned to camp.
There was hardly a day passed but
what his companion referred to cases of
hydrophobia resulting from wolf bites.
The result OF this continued talk upon
the subject was to produce a great de-
preston in General Beales mind.
Within short time he began to feel
symptoms of an approaching attack Of
hydrophobia. He had the most extra
ordinary aversion to water. 1t was with
difficulty that he could swallow. A
swelling came in his throat which threat
ened 10 close whenever he sought to
drink. 1t was only by an extraordinary
effort Of the will that he could force him.
self to swallow.
One day the General said to himself
that unless he combated this growing
feeling he felt certain he would have an
attack of hydrophobia. SO one morning
he walked deliberately to spring and
thrust his head into the water. He said
as he approached his head to the water
he felt the most intense desire to jump
and scream and run away from it. But
he held himself right there and moved
his head up and down i'm the water until
he conquered this impulse and aversion.
He followed up this practice until he
felt the swelling in his throat going
down and his aversion to water lessen
ing. He fell that he was getting control
and this encouraged him. In short
time all symptoms of the disease had
disappeared.
The General was firmly convinced that
if he had for one moment relaxed his
will power during that trying time he
would have passed directly into fit OF
the wildest kind of hydrophobia.
He has never suffered from the bite OF
the wolf since that time, although it oc-
e; cured S over over twenty-five years ago.