Morning journal and courier., 1886-08-25
THE HYDROPHoBIA SKUNK
And Major DicksOn's Maidstone, W1tl
 Which His Bite is Treated.

From the Kansas City Times
 While most people look upon the so-called maidstone merely a curious little porous substance resembling a pebble, and regard the remarkable accounts of the cures it has wrought cunningly devised fables, there are those who most earnestly avow @ belief in it's miraculous powers and who are ready to back up their views with any number of instances where they declare the proof is in- dubitable that a maidstone, and it only, saved human being from all the horrors and unspeakabie agony of death from hy- drophobia-the most horrible form in which the king of terrors can possibly appear. Madstones are not plentiful, and if the world of science could be induced 10 put it's seal of endorsement upon the little pebbles they would be worth many times their weight in first-water diamonds, for there are no more than four in the United States which have become recognized as entitled to the name of genuine madstones. Of the four American madstones which have become noted two are owned in Indiana and two in Missouri. One of the latter is
 possessed by a Kansas City man, and it's
 owner, Major J. NJ. Dickson, says it has been
 in his family one hundred and seventy years, and was originally brought by his ancestors from Ireland. Where it first came from, or of what substance it is, the owner cannot
 tell, but he is inclined to think it is petrified vegetable matter. The stone is about the size and shape of ordinary marble which has been split in two, but instead of being smooth it is filled with pores, and under a strong microscope resembles a sponge. The owner has named it the mascot, and he states that he has treated six hundred cases of hydrophobia with it in the course of his life, and that in only one case, where the victim was in the last convulsons, it failed to effect cure. The stone is applied to the wound, which is left open, and 1t is claimed that it will adhere until the virus is entirely drawn out of the system. Often the porous stone fills and falls off, when it is washed and dried and placed to the wound again. Since the mascot has been in Kansas City it has been applied in hundreds of cases
 where persons had been bitten by rabid dogs, horses, eats and even wolves and skunks The so-ealled hydrophobia skunk is a variety of animal of which few people have any der mite knowledge In fact so littls Is known of the animal that nine naturalsts out of ten will tell you it's existence is myth, and doubtless many popular opinions concernine it are of nature similar to the exaggerated ideas of the Texas tarantulas terrible bite. Three years ago MT. P. Kehoe, the superin- tendent of St. Mary's mission, Kansas, came
 to this city on an errand which he thought
 meant either life or death to him. A dog
 belonging to MT. Kehoe bitten by pe-
 ouliar species of skunk, and shortly after
 ward began to display symptoms Of hhydro- phobia. The dog bit calf and the calf dis
 played the same n,.pptoms In treating the
 dog some of the froth fell from the animals mouth on a sore on the superintendent's s
 hand, and fearing serious results he came to Kansas City to have the mascot applied. Be-
 fore he arrived the hand had swollen to all
 most twice it's natural size, but when the
 maidstone was applied the swelling went
 down and MT. Kehoe soon recovered his
 health and has felt no i'll effects since then
 This was the first time the owner of the
 mascot had heard of such a case, and he
 began to look into the question of hydro phobia skunks. He succeeded in getting lots of information about the mad skunk, some of which is fact and some fiction
 perhaps. He gives the following descrip-
 tion of the animal as result of his inves-
 tigations:
 "The venomous thing creeps upon it's victim unawares while he is stretched asleep by his campfire, or lying in ham, mock, or even in the fancied security of the primitive cabin on the plains. It is a fearless little animal and wages WAT against every living creature. Its point of attack is the mouth or the nostIi la of sleeping per- son. It bites and then runs away"
 In little cage at the Pacific House in this
 city are two little dried and stuffed speci- mems of the mad skunk variety. They are about the size of the average Kansas City rat It is the opinion of Major Dickson that the hydrophobia skunk is the source, nine times out of ten, of every case of hydropho- hia which has come under his care. Some very curious cases of hydrophobia have been treated in this city, which go to show that generally not more than six cases out of ten are produced by the bite of dogs.