The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-12-03
FEAR OF HYDROPHOBIA.
Fatal Results May Often be Correctly
Ascribed to 1t.

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Ascribed to 1t.
The death of John r. Beart at 5,12l
Wabash avenue on Sunday illustrates
point that has been dWelt upon for
years by physicians and surgeons. Mr..
Beart in August had had struggle
with a bull dog, and was bitten in three
places. The struggle in itself was of a
character to produce nervous exhaust
ion, to say nothing of the mutilation of
the dog. Upon examination 1T was
! shown that the dog was not afflicted
with rabies. Mr.. Beart recovered from
the immediate effects of the struggle
| and returned to work. But a week ago
he was taken i'll, and grew steadily
worse to the end. Those in attendance
believe that he died of fear of hydro
phobia.
There is no dispute as to the main
facts in the case. The dog that attack
ed Mr.. Beart did not have any disease.
Mr. Beart had no symptoms of hydro
phobia, but he lived for months in hor-
ror of the most dreaded of diseases,
and this resulted in conditions that
caused death.
If the dog that made the attack on
Mr.. Beart had been killed, as is usual
in such cases, the case would undoubt-
eddy have been catalogued in the hydro
phobia list. AS the case stands it gives
strength to the theory that a great
many of the so-called cases of rabies
are produced solely by fear
Without discussion any Of the theo-
ries as to rabies advanced in recent
yers, it may be safely asserted that the
disease itself is extremely rare. In
forty years in Paris there We're reported
only ninety-four cases of hydrophobia.
In the whole of France, with popqla-
ton of 36000,000, there We're reported in
six years 107 cases. Investigation
showed that not more than five per
cent. of persons bitten by rabid dogs
became hydrophobic. In the city of
New York there We're reported in six
years twenty-five cases of hydrophobia.
The number of deaths is not reported.
Those who have made close investi-
cation have arrived at the conclusion
that where any heavy clothing cover
the part bitten there is no danger, even
from the most rabid dog. But the be-
lief that the bite of a hydrophobic dog
is necessarily fatal and that death
comes in a horrible way is so common
that man bitten by any dog gives his
imagination free rain and suffers such
mental torture as to make his prey
to other forms of disease.
Dogs are subject to so many diseases
regarding which the majority of people
have absolutely no information that
even the mos harmless animals are re-
garded with suspicion Even dog that
has lost it's master on the street often
becomes so excited that the pedestrians
call on policemen to shoot It,
Certain diseases common to the dog |
family are manifested in commissions |
of fits, and by the ignorant a dog so
afflicted is pronounced mad and treated !
accordingly. A dog trained to high |
spirit and pugnacity sometimes turns
from conflict with another dog to bite
the man who interferes. That dog is
forthwith pronounced mad and the
wound is cauterized, whereas if the bite
were by a cat or a horse no attention
would be paid to it and no harm would
be felt.
The dog is more closely associated
W III men, "bIlleIl anu tlluuItll llltH
any other domestic animal 1t is
trained to watchfulness, to resistance,
to attack and defense, and at the same
lime it is expected to observe many of
he amenities of life disregarded by
men and women. If a dog mopes with
4 distemper, or exhibits any symptoms
If any common disease, it is treated as
| mad dog, and often in a way to push
he poor brute to the extremity of fury.
Thousands of people in the country
districts are bitten by dogs every year,
md no thought is given to the matter.
Those engaged in training dogs are bit
en- frequently, and they think no more
# the slight hurts than the nostler who
S nipped by horse thinks of his bruis-
s orWoun7s. In the city bite by any {
log becomes the subject of such anxi- :
ty as 0 induce absolute fear.
The truth is that the bite of a dog is
10 more harmful than the bite or l
cratch Of cat or the bite of a horse
nut the people of this day have inherit '
ed from superstitious ages such hor- s
or of the word hydrophobia that the {
og which is at once the pet of child
en- and the terror of burglars in its
ealth usually finds no commissera tion
r even human consideration in its i'll +
Inter Ocean. I
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