, 1891-11-12
H~YDROPHOBIA A FAKE.
SO SAYS SUPERINTENDENT HAN
KINsoN, OF THE A. S. P. c. T. A

Gan a man scare himself to death
after having been bitten by a dog which
isn't madY" l asked Superintendent Han
kinson, of the American Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, one
day, as he sat in his little office on TWEEN
ty-second street.
Mr.. Hankinson is a good natured
looking man with reddish hair, who is
afraid of nothing and nobody; certainly
not of ~hydrophobia quacks-
why, certainly" he said, with de-
cision. THAT man down in Asbury
Park who was bitten by a cat was
scared to death. He never had hydro
phobia. he died of nervous prostration
brought on by worry over an imaginary
danger. His friends were all plying
him and hoping he wouldn't die, and
phrophesying that he would, and he was
a man of nervous temperament, as edu-
Gated people sometimes are, and it sim
ply killed him. 1 suppose he read up in
the books about h~ydrophobia and it
turned his head. That's all there was
about it Do you remember what a
great howl there was about those New
ark boys who were bitten by a mad
dog and who were sent over to Pasteur
to be 'curedY"
why. of course; who Doesn't"
w i, it's quite easy to cure q disease
that ,ver existed. Those boys never
had hldrophobia and never would have
had it. The dogs didn't nave it. Dur
ing hat excitement we went to Newark
and found a lot of dogs shut up. We
asked to be allowed to take them away
to our stables, but the people wouldn't
have 1t. Do you know what was done
with those dogs? After the excitement
was all over they were given back to
their owners, every one of them. Not
one was killed. Not one of them had
anything worse than a fit. Why, u
men are constantly handling dogs, get
bitten again and again, but they never
dream of having hydrophobia. It's a
myth. There isn't any such thing"
A CASE Oh IMAGINATION.
Then you don't believe in the exist
ence of such a disease?' l asked, think
ing that, as MI. Hankinson probably
knows more about animals than any
other man in America, he must be good
authority.
mo, / don't. There may be such a
disease. but 1 don't believe it. l never
saw a case or knew of one positively"
How about these doctors who cure
it," l asked.
They don't cure anything. / asked a
man who makes a speciality of treating
h~ydrophobia, as he calls it, If he ever saw
one single case of ~hydrophobia to which
he could swear. He refused to answer, but
he told me this story: "A man came to
him one day in terrible distress. He had
/ haan hitfap hv N don. ha faara1 rnodnaoa.
he could not sleep at night and was
afraid he was going to die. he begged
the doctor to treat him. The doctor said
ton had passed, and it would be no good
now. If he had h~ydrophobia there was
40 way to stop it,
1.-The man went away but came back
the next day nearly frantic. He hadn't
slept a wink and begged the doctor to do
something for him. So the doctor took
the man into his operating room and
gave him a hypodermio injection Of
water-just pure Croton water. He
went away, slept for the first time in
two weeks and came back the next day
for more water, and again the next, and
was soon perfectly cured. The doctor
told me that himself, and he processes to
cure hydrophobla-
SHE WAS MAD.
Why" continued Mr.. Hankinson,
Eve had a woman in Mysteries right in
that chair you're sitting in because a dog
had bitten her. She wanted me to kill
the dog. / wouldn't do it. Then she
screamed in a terrible way. When she
stopped Isaid to her: Madam, you ought
to be ashamed of yourself. A woman of
your intelligence You've interrupted
the business of the Office and drawn a
big crowd under the window to listen to
your yelling, and all for a whim. Some
body told you you were going to go mad,
and now you think you ought to go mad
and you'll be mad if you don't go mad.
You just go home and say nothing about
1t and you'll be all right And she did it.
Another woman brought her boy in.
He had been bitten by a mad dog, and
she wanted it shot, she said. The boy
looked perfectly wen.
"Now, look here,' said l, you've been
talking a good deal to the boy about
this, haven't your And the neighbors
have too? And you've been telling him
that he's likely to have hydrophobia,
haven't your
Eyes, of course, we've talked about
it. said she.
"'Exactly,' said i. You've been TAX
ing the precise course likely to drive
him mad or make him think himself 30.
You have been trying to scare him to
death. If he were to go crazy it would
be your fault. How is it, bub,' said I,
turning to the little fellow. You don't
expect to go snad, do your
mo, he didn't think he should, he
said. BE didn't feel any different. He
was a brave little fellow. So L sent
them home, too, and that was the last l
heard Of it. The dog had had a fit, that
was all. It's a shame the way people will
shoot valuable dogs just for a fit that
might easily be cured or avoided