New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1886-06-13


DR.. Spitzka's illustrated lecture before the
Society of Medical Jurisprudence and State
Medicine, on hydrOphobia, brought forward
several interesting questions. The lecturers
observations upon the influence of fear in smu-
lating the symptoms of hydrophobia, and e7en
inducing the disease itself. were so sound that
they deserve to be widely circulated. The
TRIBUNE has from the beginning of the hydro
phobIa scare cautioned the public against this
danger, and urged the detention and careful
examination of all dogs suspected of rabies.
The effect of the imagination in all such periods
of general apprehension is indeed so great that
it becomes an important factor in whatever
conclusions are adopted in regard to the true
nature of the alleged epidemic or disease.
Pasteur's experiments, as sc have repeatedly
pointed out, arc necessarily inconclusive be-
cause his data have been loose and defective,
and because in the nature OF the case 1t Is I'M
possible to determine how much of the curative
effects produced have been due to the influence
CT expectant attention.
DR.. Spitzka's experiments in incubation with
various substances 90 far to prove that the
symptoms of rabies may be produced in dogs by
injection of almost any foreign substance into
the brain. What is actually produced in all
cases, the doctor asserts. Is n form OF menin-
gifts. He goes so far, if we understand him. as
to question the existence of distinct disease
known as hydrOphobia. Perhaps the medical
profession generally is not prepared to proceed
to this length. 1t is certainly not demonstrate
that al cases of alleged hydrophObia resulting
in death are due, wholly or in part, to imagina-
ton. All cases in which dogs have bitten other
animals, and the latter have developed rabies,
will have to be excepted from the application OF
this theory, as also probably many human cases
the patients in which were children Indeed it
seems scarcely possible to deny seriously the
existence of a special form OF meningitis,
which results solely from the bite of dog in
rabid condition and If the existence OF such
disease Is admitted il perhaps matters little
whether it is called hydrOphObia or something
else DR.. Spizka has shown that this disease
can be artifcialy simulated, but his demonstra-
ton is by no means complete. To render it so
he would have to prove that the bite of an ami
nal inoculated with soap or calls cud or any OF
the other matters used by him was capable of
producing rabies. Until that question is settled
tn completeness of the stimulation cannot with
reason be assumed.
These experiments, indeed. may be to some
extent misleading. They are certainly so If
they are regarded as warranting the conclusion
that all cases of alleged hydrophoba are spuri-
Gus. There is probably no cerebral affection
which cannot be simulated or duplicated by
artificial means, but it does not follow that
these diseases are not produced naturally. SO
far as the world is concerned, moreover, it is
of no consequence what name is given to the
disease which sometimes brings to a frightful
death persons who have been bitten by mad
dogs, or persons who only think they have been
bitten by mad dogs. The fact that in both
kinds of cases people actually die is the most
important one and next in Importance is the
fact that death is as liable to result from fear as
from actual infection. The most fcrvent scien-
tfc students are often exposed to error through
their tendency to make partial conclusions
COY er the whole ground. DR.. Spitzka seems to
us to be leaning that way. He has shown that
Pasteurs induction is crude and defective, bat
he has not proved that there is no such disease
as hydrOphObia, nor is there any ground for be-
evidence adduced by him of the important part
played by dominant ideas in propagating the
disease is however most seasOnably introduced,
and his researches into the whole subject are
well calculated to check the growth OF blind
confidence IN a really improved hypothesis as
well as to enforce the need of caution and de-
liberation where hydrophobia is suspected.