El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-07-22


brought up suggestions of mania, or
meningitis, or extreme hysteria, but the
distinctive symptom was his dread of
water. acquired by experience of its eff
fects in producing those horrible spasms
l-of the muscles of deglutition; a horri-
bic sight never to be forgotten once
seen nor by any means confused with
any other disease or symptom. These
/ clonic throat spasms continued for five
minutes after death; it was weird
/ thing to see the throat muscles of a
dead person working as If alive No
wonder the ancient Aristotle 326 years
B. c., called it hydrophobia. pr fear of
water.
The saliva became more tenacious so
| as to hang from the mouth in ropes and
! the tongue dry and brown. Vomiting
became more frequent and ehe ejecta
! greenish brown, with blood streaks The
patient would spit at his hospital at
/ tendants and try TO claw the thick sa-
+ Iva from his own mouth. With these
infected nails he scratched his fathers
arms, but by this means infection has
/ never occurred. When the throat was
quite dry he emitted cries that simu-
/ lated the barks of dog. This stage of
( excitement lasted from the nineteenth
! to the morning Of the twenty first, SO
/ hours.
The Final Stages.
! I gave the patient an hypodermic of
| Il grain Morphine, Atropine gr. 1-2oO
! and followed il with a large dose of
! choral hydrate one hour, but got not
/ the slightest effect on the naniacaI
/ attacks which continued UP to within
I one-half hour of death, when the par
! alytic stage ensued and this stage was
/ promptly followed by coma and death.
/ The maniacal stage was followed so
quickly by the paralytic stage and this
/ hardly possible that the spinal cord was
not much involved earlier in the case
1 but paralysis delayed for some reason.
/ Death usually occurs in "a to IS hours
after diagnosis is possible.
I Death occurring in coma in this case
I was a blessing, for the suffering in the
middle stage of the disease was ex-
IRENE, not so much from pain as from
! extreme mental horror of choking and
because of the terrible nerve tensIo~
I which one could plainly see was wreck
! ing the child's brain and whole nervous
system.
We thought it necessary to strap our
patient to the bed to prevent him from
/ injuring himself, but l believe / should
not restrain another patient so, but
simply keep him strapped by one wrist
or not at all, for restraint seems 10 in
| tensify the mania and Struggles thus
exhausting your patient more than his
! own efforts Also l would advise not to-
| lose time with the milder .hypnotics.
but 10 resort at once TO morphine early
in the disease so as. if possible, TO get
effects before mania became pronounc-
ed In such a case mine l doubt if
rectal Authorization is practicable or
necessary, as the end comes SO quickly.
Stray MongreIs.
Recently there has been much discus
sion Of DhuzZling dogs and censure of,
pet dogs but I would call your atten-
ton toTthe fact that stray mongrels
have in each of my cases been the cause
of the menace to man. Also there have
occurred two other deaths from this
disease in Ell Paso- However, in my
other case that was bitten, stray dog
first came into the yard and bit the
, puppy The pet puppy, when it had de-
Veloped rabies, also came near biting
, another man who thought 1t choking on
bone and tried TO remove il while the
puppy was experiencing a spasm of the
/ throat muscles This is a dangerous
mistake often made by the owners of
dogs developing rabies
No Doubt About MaIady.
The medical man in FL Paso who re-
Gently denied the existence Of such
disease as hydrophobia, although the
dread of this disease has always been
one of the native fears of the human
mind, reminds me of the Irishman who
on seeing his first dromedary, looked
at its hump. at its long. ungainly legs
at its overhanging lip. into its mouth. at
his queer teeth and tongue and coolly
remarked, NO such animal as that ex-
lists" This physician has evidently new
er seen human suffer as did my little
patient with such typical symptoms and
he does not know that mania never
kills in As hours, nor does fright nor
hTSt0rla fO
such a classical and uniform routine if
at alI.
Every government recognizes this
disease today and has its own Pasteur
institute for the prevention of this in
durable disease in persons bitten by
rabid animals. Hydrophobia is a term
limited TO the disease as seen in man,
while rabies is applied to animals. Ger
tainly the disease does exist and is rec
ogniZed by all the intelligence of the
world and likewise ii is known to all
well informed persons that for twenty
five years since Pasteur's studies of the
disease that we have an almost certain
preventive of the development of the
disease in those bitten.
MndStones Worthless
Yet we read in the papers that in FL
Paso there are people so benighted as
to depend upon the superstition of a
maidstone to the absolute disregard of
the wonderful fmmuniza ton treatment
of Pasteur.
In itself a maidstone is ridiculous, for
no enlightened person who believes In
the circulation Of the blood, would be-
heve it could draw .pOisons from the
whole volume of blood when a maidstone
only draws 10 drops.
Record of the Countries.
Australia is the only country on the
globe where hydrophobia does not ex-
iSt, and there it is due to the rigid en-
forcement Of quarantine. England is
practically free at the present time, ow-
ing to rigidly enforced muzzling laws
In England in 1887 there We're PIT
cases; in 1888, $50. and in 1889, 312 The
increase caused alarm and muzzling was
enforced, as a result of which in 1890,
129 cases were seen; 1891, 10 cases; in
1892, SS cases. There was much oppo-
sition to muzzling Eand the ordinance
was relaxed. In 1898 the number of
cases raised to 90; in 1894 to 24S, and
in 1895 to 672 Owing to the general
alarm muzzling was again enforced, re-
xsr,cr ct in IL