The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-08-12

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 n.y.
drophobia and that those "cured" were
never affected with that terrible NAL
ady. Be that as it may-and when
doctors disagree who shall decided
there is certain painful interest about
the subject at once repellant and fasci-
mating. Said I to a prominent physician
The other day:
"You really think, then, that there is
such disease as hydrophobia? 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, sI
believe there is such disease as hydro
phobia. also believe there is such
thing as a gunshot wound, although I
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. I am not saying that Pas
tours system is failure, though have
my4opinion about that, but he can only
claim to prevent it, and makes no pre-
tensions to curing it, as I understand
the matter. Now it by no means fol-
lows that 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, 1855.
= came across the book the other day
~ was tempted to make copious ex-
tracts S.from his chapter on "Hydro-
nhoby.'" 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 a 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 its first Occasions and its last Scenes.
the Weather, from the several Degrees of In
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-
tected, but phlegmatic or dropsical People
slower), and lastly from the different Diet and
Application of Medicines.
When 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; WEAKNESS.
Heaviness, SlownesS succeeds IN the w hole
System of the Muscles; his Sleeps are dis
turbed, uneasy; all of Frights, Commissions
and Catchings in the Tendons; he is contin-
ually restless, signs, looks detected 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
are all the foregoing Symptoms increased,
and there follows besides a prodiglous Mar
rowness and Pressure about the Heart and
Chest; Breathing is difficult and accompanied
with Signs; 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
wen upon the Sight of transparent Things, or
Aehecting like Looking glasses; he loses his
appetite entirely, yet he can swallow anything
hat is very dry and solid. The touch OF any