The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-12-30

Dub d HldlOIlbl VI bilbbO ObJtCbS
claimed as remedial agents are, as before
remarked, found to be ancient coTalines.
Now we come to the most important
question in this Investigation. What
evidence have we that madstOnes really
have the virtue ascrbed to them of re-
moving virus from the. human system?
Are they really of any benefit?
The last question is very much more
easily answered than the first. In the
first question it is very difficult to get
evidence that the bite of the dog has left
any virus in the system of the person
bitten. 1t is probably very seldom that
we have positive evidence that the dog
was mad, or had real rabies. Negative
evidence is not always convincing.
Among the country folk, where the mad
stone is mostly used, volumes of evil
dence could b. obtained that would read
well, but it might not all be reliable. OF
the matter professional and scientific
men know little or nothing, from the fact
that it is thought to be dangerous to
their reputation to take especial inter-
est in such an investigation.
We know of a prominent physician
who who went eff into an adjoining
State to have maidstone applied to a
wound made by a dog thought to be
rabid. He acknowledged that his mind
felt relieved afterward. but claimed that
any benefit to be derived from a mad
stone was simply in this relief from APP
prehension.
One popularity about the fossil coral
ines in their strange adhesion. at times,
to wounds. The writer happened one
day to see noted maidstone applied to
three children, two boys and girl. They
were all bitten on the hands or arm. The
stone, after being placed in boiling
water, was applied to one of the boys,
and adhered, seeming to absorb some
thing from the wound, but after fifteen
or twenty minutes dropped off. After
being boiled again and applied to the
wound on the second dav it v-suld not
adhere but did so tO,the wouno on the
girls arm. The excited parents of these
children started home, apparently salts
fled that a great calamity had been
averted. We could only wish we knew
that it were true. These children, who
seemed not nearly so much interested in
the matter as the parents, had been Bit
ten tive days before and had travelled
over a score of miles. They did not sui
fer any bad effects from the occasion af-
forward, although it was currently be-
lieved that COW bitten by the same dog
had died of hydrophobia.
Another noted maidstone is tertiary
coral. This has, during the last half
century, by repeated bOilings in vinegar,
winter, and other liquids, been reduced
until it is mere fragment. Recently
the ownsr-an old, gray-headed farmer
in JERSEY county, Illinuls,-WaS given
new and perfect one. His perfect faith
in the new, like his faith in the old, never
wavers for moment. The old mans
faith is simply founded on the fact that
no one to whom the stones have been APP
piled have suffered from hydrophobia.
This is simply negative evidence.
The writer has, without entire salts
faction however, endeavored to convince
himself that the action of the stone in
adhering to the wound was purely me-
chanical one, after the manner of a cup
ping glass, and that each coralite or
polyp cell became a sort of valve and ex-
erted from a vacuum created.
He has not quite satisfactorily en-
deavOred to attribute the action of the
stone to the peculiar construction of the
polyp cell itself. 1t is well known to
naturalists that all coral making pOlype
have remarkable powers of abSoI btion
and secretion. Enormous masses of
coral are butt up in the sea, the polype
in some strange manner absorbing the
stony matter from the sea water. The
little animals build their houses about
their bodies, never leaving their abode
even for food; this is absorbed also.
The peculiar radiation of the cells forms
sort of cillia, and although stationary,
may have acted as such.