MEriHTIS MEPHITICA. 



the face, entering- my gaping mouth and one of my eyes. Nearly 

 suffocated by the overpowering stench, and screaming with pain, I 

 rushed into the house, where, in the efforts to wash the fluid from 

 my eye, my head was crowded into a pail of water, and I was well 

 nigh drowned. I had read that a single drop of the secretion was 

 sufficient to produce total blindness, and consequently expected 

 nothing less than to lose the sight in this eye. The resulting inflam- 

 mation, however, subsided in about a week, leaving no ill effect* 



6tJi. Skunk Bites and Hydrophobia. 



Under this head I take the liberty to reproduce an article that I 

 wrote for Forest and Stream in July, 1880 : 



" Ever since the Rev. Horace G. Hovey, M. A., took it upon 

 himself to notify the civilized world (through the medium of the 

 American Journal of Science and Arts for May, 1874, pp. 477-483) 

 of the terrible consequences attending the bite of our common 

 Skunk {Mephitis niephitica], the columns of your valuable paper, to- 

 gether with those of various other publications, have been much of 

 the time pregnant with more or less extended remarks upon the 

 subject. 



" The Rev. Mr. Hovey announced that the bite of the Skunk was 

 usually fatal, and produces in the human subject a peculiar kind of 

 hydrophobia, which he named Rabies Mephitica. In the Nav York 

 Medical Record for March 13, 1875, Dr. John S. Janeway, U. S. A., 

 proves that the disease is nothing more nor less than ordinary 

 hydrophobia as derived from the dog, cat, or other rabid animal. 



" Dr. Elliott Coues deems the subject of sufficient importance to 

 reproduce both articles (Rev. Hovey's and Dr. Janeway 's), but 



* Since penning the above I have again had the misfortune to get a charge of this fluid into one 

 of my eyes. It was due to carelessness on my part, and occurred August 10, 1882, while removing 

 the scent glands from a young Skunk. The contents of one of the sacs was suddenly and unex- 

 pectedly discharged, striking me full in the right eye. For a time the pain was intense, but I 

 immediately and thoroughly washed out the fluid by pumping water into the open eye, and the 

 conjunctiva! congestion that ensued subsided in a few hours. But in this case the fluid was not 

 nearly so strong and irritating as that from the adult animal. 



