Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-05-21

Henry NJ Cullinan. the physician who, had
been in close attendance upon Mr.. Marsh
since first he went home with the knowl-
edge that death was coming to him. said
that the patient had been able to follow
step by step the course of the disease
through knowledge acquired in a full
course in medicine. Like a man sitting in
the condemned cell and listening to the
striking of the clock that brings the
dawn nearer. Mr.. Marsh had diagnosed
the advance of the disease that had him
in its hold in the intermittent periods OF
consciousness.
One of the cruelties of rabies is that be-
tween the times when its victims are
twisted with the stiffening of their mus
cles the mental faculties are remarkably
clear. According to the testimony of the
three physicians who were at Mr.. Marsh
bedside yesterday the patient showed un-
usual mental strength, and in the periods
of consciousness he inquired calmly of
his symptoms and commented upon the
advance of the disorder knowingly and
with almost a detached interest.
4. Coma Comes at Last.
True hydrophobia-and as the medical
men explained yesterday. pseudo-rabies
induced by self-hypnotism is very rare
is almost as certain in the periods of its
development and final elimination as the
march Of the clock. When Mr.. Marsh
left the Pasteur Institute Monday lie
knew that he must die, and he ha- been
told that seventy-tWo hours was almost
the definite limit to his life. From that
time the patient marked the passage of
those seventy-two hours. He did not
know the approach of the end by several
hours. for with the final paralysis came
a mercifu1 coma.
When Mr.. Marsh went back to his
house Monday and told his family that
ne had to die. he was already we'll adj
vanced in the second stage of rabies.
The Intermittent commissions of the
larynx which had first led him to seek
medical advice were more I-onounced
the characteristic difficulty of swallowing
had grown acute and the same sense of
unrest and excitabiity that drives dog
stricken with the malady to wander
without purpose in the streets had made
itself evident
DR.. Cullinan called DR.. William L..
f. H. Fiske of 155 Lafayette avenue.
Brooklyn, in consultation. To the ply
sicians the patient spoke nationally and
without fear.
when the commissions get too hard"
he said, make things easier with
opiates.
Opiates Administered.
Tuesday night and all day yesterday
until the end DR.. Cullinan, who never left
the mar DeU, eHGedNoTeO TO make
| things easier He administered constant
doses of morphia and hyoscyamine
Chloroform he dared not use The law
which forbids a physician committing
merciful murder made the alienation OF
the stricken mans tortures only partly
possible
For part of the time yesterday Mr..
Marsh was unconscious. either through
the rigors of the commissions or the eff
feet of the cpiates. What his conscious
moments must have been only ply
stefan can tell.
| water may throw the rabies patient into
| a racking spasm. even though he be
burning with thirst, and when so little
a thing as the striking of a sunbeam on
looking glass or puff of draught from
beneath the door is sufficient to strain
every muscle in the body the final hours
of suffering are made terrible.
While the physicians and two trained
| nurses remained in the sickroom upstairs
Mr.. Marshs family. three sons and two
daughters. who were waiting for death
to come. had to endure the gratutous
advice and prying curiosity of several
persons who offered 1t either in person
or through the mails and telegraph offices
A woman called at the house early in the
| morning to say that she was Christian
Scientist and that she could speedily re-
lieve Mr.. Marsh of the temporary hallu-
cination he had. She was shaken off only
man. Others gathered in front of the
house all day long and feasted their NOR
bid craving for evidences of suffering on
| the sight of the closed blinds of the sick
room.
A letter came to the house directed to
Mr.. Marsh. 1t read:
Cheer up. You must not die. You
have no right to die
kilograms came from Chicago. San
Francisco and places nearer home. all
containing some recommendation of a
patent nostrum or other remedy for ra
bies.
DIR. F1ske, who was called in consulta :
ton. spoke of the unusual aspects of Mr.
Marsh's case. He said:
Cause of Infection.
The only way we can account for the
infection Mr.. Marsh received was that it
was through small sore spot on his
thigh. At the time that he dressed the
would be found on the side of his dog he
had small spot of eczema and since
there was no abrasion on his hands at
that time he is certain that the infection
must have been transferred through his
finger nails when he scratched the sore
spot on his thigh.
Although Mr.. Marsh once had a COM
plete medical course and must have been
cognizant of the dangers of rabies infec-
ton. he thought nothing of the incident
at the time and in fact did not know what
was the matter with him when he called
DR.. Culltnan In to consult him about the
spasmodic contraction of his throat. BY
| that time he had passed fully through