The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1890-09-13
CURE FOR HYDR0PH0BIA
SECRET POSSESSED BY A PENN
SYLVANIA FAMILY.
HydrOphobia Cured by a Small Pill, which
Was Discovered by IA French Monk 200
Years Ago. and is Since Handed
Down the Marchand Family.

If mad dog bites you don't go to
Paris. There Is cure for hydrophobia
right here at home. The famous Pas
teur treatment has rival, and is just
simply little Westmoreland county
pill.
The pill has an interesting story. 1t
was first made over 200 years age by a
monk in one the monasteries of France
who discovered that certain substance
would prevent rabies. | may as we'll
inform the reader at the outset that |
cannot tell him what that substance is.
That is a secret. There is only one
man now living who knows it, and he is
DR.. lanes Marchand, Of Irwin station,
on the Pennsylvania Railroad.
BROUGHT TO AMERICA.
The Marchands are a well-known
family in Allegheny anil Westmoreland
counties. They originally came from
France, and it was just before they left
there that the medicinal secret came
into their possession. One of the early
Marchands had distinguished himself
somewhat as a physician, and to him,
in the DAYS of the French Revolution,
the monk confded the formula of his
hydrophobia preventive. 1t was request
| ed that the secret remain forever in the
Marchand family Depending from father
to son, or where there were no son to
the next nearest kin.
Upon coming to America, the Mar
chands settled IN the southeastern part
of Pennsylvania. But they crossed the
Allegheny Mountains with the first
pioneers of Western Pennsylvania, and
established themselves in WestmoreIand
and Fayette counties.
n NEh.ht\N.Abl-E IA'IIlsh
The Sculs, who founded the Pitts
burg Gazette, more than century ago
the Irwins, after whom Irwin station is
named and the Larisrs, for whom
Larimer station is callei}9re all related
TO the Marcands. Marchand avenue, in
the East End, is named after DIR. John
Marchand, ,faaher 1.-THE presentphyslclan
at Irwin station. That quartet Of taml-
lies is inseparably connected with the
history of Pittsburg's adjoining county.
They still own the finest farms in West
morelard.
A remarkably large number OF pro-
fessional men came from the Mar
chand family. One branch OF it made
nothing but doctors aid lawyers and
the other branch figures in the annals
of the army and navy, few oldtimers
still remembering Commodore March
and. 1t was about 1860 when they
came to Westmoreland county. The
country was so sparsely settled then that
the practice OF the hydrophobia cure
was suspended. There were very few
dogs here then, and fewer people to
bite.
| HANDING DOWN THE SECRET.
But the secret recipe was wllled
down for two generations in accordance
with the wishes of the French monk.
AT last the population OF the country
had become SO large, and hydrophobia
was increasing proportlonately, that DR..
Lewis Nj. Marchand modestly made
known the fact that he compounded a
pill which would prevent the horrible
disease. That was along about 1880.
DIR. Lewis NJ. Marchand lived on a
farm in Fayctte county, between Union.
town and Brownsville. Hundreds of
patients came to his farm in the next
30 years. He did not keep a record
of his cases, or if he did it has not been
preserved, and it is not known what sue
cess he met with.
Thinkers OF the day contended that it
was wrong to hide such wonderful
light under bushel- They argued that
the secret preparation should be made
free and public, and asked that, as the
State had to deal with the public dan
ger of rabld animals on the street, that
it also take steps toward securing the
right to use this remedy for the public
good.
STATE TRIED TO BUY IT.
The State authorities, it is said, fin
ally proposed to DIR. Marchand that