The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1886-02-05
IMAGINATION OR RABIES?
NYm CRINKLR RECALLS SOME
CURIOUS EFFECTS OF DOG
BITES.
How He OVcrcame His own Fears
and saved n Valuable BessthThe
Death or the GIned Ada Clare
Caused by FeHr-DOctors in the
Dark.

hNdrppnODlA Is one OF the most terrible,
the most mysterious and the rarest of
diseases that afTiict humanity Not one
doctor in a hundred ever saw a we'll
authenticated case Of IL.
| am at this moment writing this arti-
Gle with hand lacerated by the bite OF a
strange dog. / encountered him one
Sunday morning two weeks ago in front
of my residence. ! am a lover OF dogs.
This was a briudled lull terrier held by a
chain. l patted him on the head. He
wagged his tail, jumped up affectionately
upon me. ! slapped him playfully on his
side and in an instant he fastened his
fangsin my right hand. One of them struck
an artery and cut it. l bought the dog.
1t cost me S15. / domiciled him. For
tOrty-eight hours L had one OF those sub
teCtiye struggles which teach man how
absolutely he is at the mercy Of his imagi-
nation. / went up TO DR. Hamilton. He
looked at my hand. and asked at once,
"Where is the dog?' "Iv'e got him."
replied. 'Is he all rights" Sound as
dollar" .'Then don't give the thing
another thought. II / cauterize the
wound yOu are liable to have n secondary
hemOrrhage, and then you win be disabled
for a fortnight" That was all the medi
cal treatment l received. But ! found
myself that night dwelling upon the incl
dent. All the dread possibilities were re-
knowledge and my feelings felt prick
ing and burning sensations run up my
arm. fell into an uneasy doZe. / heard
the snarl and saw the CLEAN OF fangs In
the phantasmagOria of q nervous sleep.
[ woke up in the morning unrefreshed
and with duh consciousness that some
thing was impending. After a bath and
walk in the sun my resisting power began
to assert itself I saw that at this rate l
,Tr,4a .F 1frau oil he
toms of rabies
sincerely believe at this moment that
could have brought on the symptoms Of
tetanus IL l had only placed myself under
my own Imagination. II that dog had
shown any symptoms Of sickness I should
have been case FOR PRsteur. But he
proved to be as straight as q triyet
made friends with him I found that he
had broken NIB. I must have struck
that when 1 slapped him on the side.
Now consider moment II I had
killed that dog when he bit ne, as II Was
very easy to do, all the science, all the in
telligence and all the reason Of the world
could not have saved me from nv own
fears. And that is the result with almost
every case Of dog bite The first step on
the part of stupidity is 10 Kill the dog.
Then he is declared 10 DC mad, and then
sets in the chain Of subjective and fsQciful
IeSuAiA StltIGt ana HluiOn EADETlEafC6
agree thst unless the dog has rabies there
Is no danger of the victim OF his bite hav-
ing hydrophobiR. Well, my own ex-
perience tells me that one dog in about
five thousand that are killed as mad
really has rabies. Dog men are bitten
every day. Your ordinary dogfighter is
covered with scars. There isn't a sports
man who hasn't had the mark of tooth
on him.
The dog Is subject to epilepsy and
nervous attacks that are common enough.
But il poor animal should get fit in
the streets OF New York the CRY Of mad dog
is his doOm-and the doom Of everybody
the bites. Could he be saved from the
ignorant malice OF the mob, something
might be determined. We should at least
know if imagination can bring Oh the
symptoms in the man while the dog Is
healthy.
Everybody remembers the gifted Ada
Glare. who was bitten IN the face by pet
dog. She dIed I'm the most horrible parox-
ysms of hydrophobia. I saw her lust be
fore she died. She was a woman of men
tai accomplishments and strong imagi-
native temperament. Science stood help
less at her bedside, unable TO save her, and
powerlcss to aSsuagc her agOuies with the
most powerful drug know TO the pharma-
copRia.
Mr.. Butler, l think It was, in Burling
slip, who obtained the dog. At all events
amonth after Ada Clare's death received
a note from weil-knOwn dog fancier to
come and see the dog. The animal at that
time appeared to be in perfect health.
have always believed that Ada Glare was
the victim of her own Imagination.
Per contra, l saw a case Of undoubted
hydrophobla I'm Wisconsin that was dag
nOsed as tetanus- II was that of a child
six years old that was bitten by a Spitz
dog that died two hours after in a rabid
psroxysm- The parents were ignorant
Germans. knew nothing of hydrOphobia
whatever, and the wound was mere pin
prick in the thnmb
But a month later the child was taken
sick, and died, as l say, with all the
symptoms of hydrophohia The French
doctors, with characteristic French viva
city have put afioat more theories OF hydro
phobia than all the rest of the world.
Their speculations have not, It is true
verified anything, but they have stimulated
inquiry. Some years ago they shut up
forty dogs and left them without water
until they died, in order TO see If the
deprivation would induce rabies, bat il
didn't. They they tried an enforced con-
tinence, and mere tLcy got little light
for several of the dogs developed incipient
epilepsy.
The theory was then propounded that
hdrophobia was n sexual disease, found
only In the male dog, and was due 20
enforced confluence. VI. Pasteur does
not take any stock in this theory. He has
pursued his investigations ON the line OF
gerlninant or zyinotic InONulaflon, and
not on the line Of energetic iecundation-
But even iasteur does not claim that
the bite OF a dog that is rot rabid ought to
cause hydrophobia, and his first question
when a case OF dog bite is brought 10 him
is: Where is the dog
The answer 10 that questio always Is
''Oh. killed, of course Pasteur and all
the rest of them are cropping in the dark
after that.
1t sounds somewhat absurd to say that
the life Of dog that is supposed to be
mad ought to be saved. But when the
case il understood the absurlity vauishes.
In the first place he r;lbid dog does no;
start ont rs the popular fear paints him
upon an indiscriminate biting career
The dog, whether mad or healthy, bites
and snaps only when irritatcd II 4 the
hunted dog that bites ~ everything, and
the assumption that he is mad sets the
crowd upon him. Then, wrought up to 8
pitch OF frenzy he ties and tears all with
in his reach. II i possible to produce
this kind of hydrcphobia in any hi9hly
organized dog New York World.
: JournaIisttc Joke.
The Sod House is the name Of paper
published at CimeTron, Kan, and Chicago
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