Arizona republican., 1892-09-01

ment of rabies, and attention is di- rected to the noted Frenchman's work in Paris and to the measure of sue cess achieved by his pupil, Dr. Gibier. who has charge of the New York branch institute. As usual, the claim is made that those who die had hy- drophobia and that those "cured" were never affected with that terrible nal ady. Be that as it may-and when doctors disagree who shall decide?- there is certain painful interest about the subject at once repellant and fasci- hating. Said to prominent physician the other day:
 You really think, then, that there is such disease as hydrophobia? I know several men who have handled dogs all their lives who say there is no such thing. They have been bitten, some of them hundreds of times, and have never suffered from the bites"
 A look of profound disgust preceded the doctors answer. "Yes," said he, "I believe there is such disease as hydro phobia. l also believe there is such a thing as a gunshot wound, although l am acquainted with number of men who have been shot at repeatedly with out being hit. More than that, hydro phobia is incurable, so far as human sci ence goes. l am not saying that Pas teur's system is a failure, though I have my opinion about that, but he can only claim to prevent it, and makes no pre- tensions to curing it, as l understand the matter. Now it by no means fol- lows that a human being will necessarily have hydrophobia even after being bit ten by rabid animal. Many dogs bite human beings every year. Of the per- sons bitten few incur hydrophobia. Every one of these dies"
 One of the medical works of bygone times, which in its day was relied upon by the faculty as an expression of the highest medical knowledge, was ''Boer- haave's Aphorisms: Concerning the Knowledge and Cure of Disease" Lon don, 1755.
 l came across the book the other day and was tempted to make copious ex- tracts from his chapter on "Hydro- phoby." Dr. Boerhaave first describes the disease as it appears in the dog, and follows this with vivid description of the ease with which it may be commu- nicated to human being and of the horrible effect of the poison. He says:
 For some People are immediately affected with the Symptoms of this Disease, some not till twenty Years after they were bit, and some are more or less disordered all the while, between it's first Occasions and its last Scenes.
 This Difference depends from the Heat of the Weather, from the several Degrees of h. lection in the Animal that did bite, the Con stitution of the Person who received the Hurt (for choleric Men are sooner and quicker af- fected, but phlegmatic or dropsical People slower), and lastly from the different Diet and Application of Medicines.
 When a Man in perfect Health is infected with this Poison after different Distances of Time he begins to be disordered much after the following manner: The Place pains him where he first of all received the Injury, then follow wandering, uncertain Pains in other, but chiefly the nearest, Parts; Weariness Heaviness, Slowness succeeds in the Whole System of the Muscles; his Sleeps are dis turbed, uneasy; all of Frights, Convulsions and Catchings in the Tendons; he is contin- ually restless, sighs, looks dejected and affects to be alone; and it is much after this manner that this Disease begins and finishes its first Stage. If you bleed him then. the Blood doth not carry the Face of any Defect. Then arc all the foregoing Symptoms increased, and there follows besides prodigious Mar rowness and Pressure about the Heart and Chest; Breathing is difficult and accompanied with Sighs; he frequently shakes all over; his Hairs stand on end, and trembles all over at the Sight of Water, of any sort of Liquors, or even upon the Sight of transparent Things, or redectlng like Looking glasses; he loses his Appetite entirely, yet he can swallow anything that is very dry and solid. The touch of any