The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-02-01
A MANS BITE.
THE AWFUL SUFFERING 1T EN-
TAILED ON THE VICTIM.
Racked With the Torturing Spasms
and Commissions that Attend
Hydrophobia-How a
Cure was Effected

dog in million is vicious, turns up his
nose to water and perhaps is tortured into
a delirious state, it is nonsense to con-
demn all the other dogs in the world. A
real rabid dog is as rare as the genuine
hydrophobia is in man. While thousands
recover from dog-bites without anything
worse than temporary inconvenience, yet
it is an established fact that the bite of
man, which is not thought to be dan
gerous, Is more to be dreaded than the
bite of q dog without rabies. Taken
case for case, the dog-bite will heal more
rapidly, and there will be fewer consti-
tutional disturbances. The bite of
human being is very troublesome. The
recovery from such wound is always of
lingering nature, and seems to 60 along
on its own responsibility, without regard
to the remedies used. Death sometimes
follows from human bites given while
the owner of the teeth was in an intense
passion, O condition resembling some
stages of rabies in the dog.
The miscroscope, advanced chemical
experiments and the intelligence of in
vestigators have discovered many things
that few years ago were thought to be
unknownable, but with all tho increase
in knowledge and the facilities for in
vestigation the hydrophobic poison re-
mains as much mystery as ever. The
effect of inoculation has been carefully
studied to determine, if possible, the re-
semblance of the symptoms to those
which follow the use OF well-known poi
sons, but the hydrophobic poison stands
alone. 1t has symptoms common to all
poisons, and few others which belong
to it alone, but it is as mysterious and
unknown in its nature as in its action.
The effect of the bite of a human being is
well shown in the case of Augustus
Spencer, admitted to Bellevue Hospital
as patient. Spencer is machinist and
got into row with a fellow workman
about girl who showed preference for
Spencer. During the melee Spencer was
thrown down, and his assailant, who had
wrought himself into a passion, bit off
the end of his nose and fastened his teeth
30 firmly in the neck that the jaws had
to be pricd open with an iron bar.
Spencer suffered severe pain from the
bites-much greater than is usual in more
extensive lacerations. The wound in
the neck was directly over the carotid
artery, and if the teeth had been O trife
longer it would have been severed.
Spencer went to neighboring drug store,
where the wounds were cauterized aud
dressed. He was confined to his house
for several days, aud then went back to
his work. The neck wound appeared to
be healing we'll until about two weeks
after the injury, when it became the seat
of an active inflammation. The neck
swelled and the wound had livid
appearance. The nose did not seem to
be as much affected. There was sensa-
ton of numbness in the neck, which
soon included the whole head, and gave
the impression to Spencer that his head
was off his shoulders. lie became ap-
prehensive, and got an idea that some
thing terrible was going to happen, and
he would have to suffer greatly. His face
wore the look of utter despair that is
common to people suffering from melau-
cholia. He was unable to sleep for any
length of time, and when he would fall
into doze he would wake suddenly,
gasping with terror at some horrible
dream. He complained all the time of
terrible twisting pain in the nape of the
neck. He suffered from nausea all the
time, and frequently vomited green,
offensive fluid. Though he had these and
many similar symptoms, the nature ofhis
malady was not suspected until spasm
in the throat followed an attempt to
drink water. Repeated trials with diff
ferent fluids produced the seme eject,
with the exception that the spasms were
more intense aud covered longer period.
In few hours after the spasms began
Spencer was in such nervous condition
that the slightest motion anywhere in
the room would produce convulsions in
the facial. thoracic and abdominal mus
clcs. A icnd from the internal regions
could not look worse than he did when
his face was distorted. All these condi
tions pointed to hydrophobia, and us
there was no history of dog bite in the
case, it could only come from the bite Of
the man, and this was remarkable, in
deed. His sufferings dethroned his
reason and made him raving maniac,
and he was taken to the Hospital, biting,
swapping, bowling and splitting like
mad dog. His face was alternately red
and white, and his eyes seemed to
be bursting from his head. He
was constantly calling for some one to
kill him, and his strength was so great
that he could only be controlled by put
ting him in a strait: Jacket. The spasms
lasted about fifteen minutes, and each
one was followed by greater collapse,
and it was only question of little
while when the patient would die If not
relieved. Iachesis, hyoscyamus and
stramonirm were given in large does, be-
side chloral mud opium, without having
any perceptihle effect.
DR.. Robb, one of the consulting
physicians of Bellevue, heard of the case
and FASTENED to the hospital. 1t was just
the chance he had long been looking
for. He is an expert on hydrophobia,
and believes that he can cure any case,
no matter how far it has advanced. The
patient was on the edge of death, but
DR.. Robb had him put in an ambulance
and driven rapidly to Turkish bath
establishment few blocks away. He
had a spasm on the road, and came out
of the horrible paroxysms more dead than
alive. Before he was in another spasm
he was in O temperature almost hot
enough to boil the flesh. He did not
sweat. He was given hypodermic in
lection of ammonia diluted, and it set all
the vital organs going at lively rate.
The pores few open and the sweat poured |
out in little streams. A spasm came and |
it was 80 terrible that it did not seem
possible that the patient would survive