The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-04-28
REALITY OF HYDROPROBIA.
OPINIONS OF fl PHYSICIAN WHO : INoCULATED HIMSELF
With the Supposed Germs of Rabies for the Purpose Of Proving That the Disease Was Only a Nervous Trouble.

for the Purpose of Proving That the
 Disease Was Only a Nervous Trouble.
 The late Dr. Irving c. Rosse was scientist who made many distinguished journeys into scientific matters, es- pecially into the subject of nervous and mental diseases. Hydrophobia engag- ed his attention for a long period, and so convinced was he that case of so- called hydrophobia had never been proven that he inoculated himself with the virus of supposedly mad dog, suf- fering no ill-effects therefrom.
 pr. Rosse died two years ago, leaving a number of unpublished articles upon scientific subjects. The following is one upon rabies, and in it he clearly sets forth his disbelief in hydrophobia:
 Among other things that have looked for without success are the North Pole, the sea serpent, shark bite and a case of hydrophobia. At this season of the year the newspapers give us more or less information on these subjects Of sensational character, which, re- grettable to say, is not consistent with either biological or medical fact. This is markedly so in regard to that imaginary disease, hydrophobia, which there is the strongest reason to believe exists more in a persons mind than in dogs bite. In fact, may go far as to say that the existence of genuine hydrophobia in man is not proved. Yet there are people outside the walls of a 1unatic asylum-presumably knowing the difference between right and wrong and capable to conduct business with ordinary care and properiety or to make 8 valid will-who believe in the spurious epidemic of the sick dog and share the public alarm and anxiety caused by the reckless account given to the public.
 I am aware that it is an unenviable position to controvert long, established delusion or to appear on the minor ity side of question; but if thinking men had never set their faces false be- lief, many of our intelligent and re- spectable citizens of Massachusetts would still testify in capital cases as to existence and dangerous effect of the s'evil eye" and to having seen witches riding on broomsticks through the air.
 As matter of fact, there is no better evidence to-day to support the specific theory of hydrophobia than there was to support the belief in witchcraft hun dred years ago. * ..E
 When the question of the trans mission of rabies from animals to man is subjected to the scrutiny of science, or even to the plain common-sense methods pursued in a court of justice during medico-legal trial, the genu- E ineness of traditional hydrophobia is left so much in doubt that it would be a perversion of language to call it pro- blematical. -1
 Some years since, when I was a stu dent of Dr. Spitzka, of New York, my attention was first called to false hy- drophobia. This gentleman, in a paper read before the Medical Jurisprudence society, took very tenable grounds against the imaginary disease, and supported himself by an array of facts that should inculcate a more healthy public sentiment in regard to canine pathology.
 The chief reason for disbelief in the existence of hydrophobia is the faulty nature of the evidence. The alleged eases, when thoroughly sifted, resolve themselves into some distinct, recog- nizable disease, generally hysterical or nervous, in which terror and expectant attention are the main factors.
 Many cases may be cited in which persons bitten by supposed rabid ani- lna1s have manifested violent synp- toms of hydrophobia, which have in- stantly, disappeared on producing the animal in good health. A few years since during a mad-deg scare, a man in Illinois was bitten by a supposedly rabid dog, which was promptly killed. Months afterward the patient was chloroformed by physician and pro- nounced hydrophobic. Another physi- clan being called in discovered the case to be one of severe intermittent fever, which yielded to appropriate treatment
 Post mortem examinations often dis pei alarming announcements of hydro phobia outbreaks. In New York 6 horse died with some curious nervous symptoms, following the reported bite of dog. A competent medical man recognized the ordinary symptoms of Eerebro-spinal meningitis. A genuine case of .hydrophobia" in a Spitz dog was made the subject of post nor- tenn, which revealed the prime cause of death to be a sharp chicken bone, which had perforated the intestines On the other hand, the characteristics s1esions of hydrophobia are found in perfectly healthy dogs. More or less foreign material has lately been found in the stomachs of scores of dogs killed for experiment., such large and strange assortment as strings, feathers, straw, cotton, shoe-leather, and even a pocket knife, being among the findings.
 With the recent advance in the study of nervous diseases it is known that this lower order of animals is subject to many of the same diseases that in- fliet man. Many of the mental disturb ances supposed to be peculiar to rabies can be produced in dogs artificially. I am not aware that any one has yet is- plated the microbe of hydroprobia, but we do know that there is no symptoms E of hydrophobia that may not be pro- duced in dogs inoculated with decayed fluids, the spinal cord of a calf or with soap.
 In Germany we hear but little of hy- drophobia, many years going by since a case was reported in Berlin. In Asia < Minor and Constantinople the land of