CORRESP ONDENCE. 



509 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



HYDROPHOBIA AN ACTUAL, NOT ALWAYS 

 AN IMAGINARY DISEASE. 



To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly : 

 ~VTO doubt it is true that many persons 

 -L^l have become ill, after being bitten by 

 dogs, under a strong apprehension of hydro- 

 phobia. But, while scientific medical men 

 ought to be, and mostly are, ready always to 

 study " anew," that is, in view of all new 

 facts, their oldest and most firmly-held opin- 

 ions, yet some things have been clearly ascer- 

 tained on this subject not as matters of 

 opinion, but as facts : First, that dogs (and, 

 less often, some other animals) are subject 

 to attacks of rabies, having a period of incu- 

 bation, after being bitten, averaging, accord- 

 ing to Youatt, five or six weeks. Also, 

 every author of standing on the practice of 

 medicine or surgery recognizes the fact 

 that about one in ten of those human be- 

 ings, of any and all ages, who are bitten by 

 rabid dogs, will be, mostly within a month 

 or six weeks, affected with symptoms entire- 

 ly peculiar, ending in death in a few days, 

 notwithstanding all the methods of treat- 

 ment yet devised and used. 



But the cases occurring in children are 

 certainly the most convincing. Twenty 

 years ago, I saw such a case, the whole his- 

 tory of which was known to me, in a boy 

 eight years of age. My friend Dr. Lodge, 

 of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, in- 

 forms me that, a few years since, he had 

 charge of the case of a child of Jive years 

 of age, some account of which occurs in 

 Gross's standard work on surgery. 



The importance of a right popular ap- 

 prehension of the truth on this subject is 

 considerable. Not only is it necessary that 

 every clearly rabid animal should be killed 

 promptly, and every suspected one fastened 

 up and watched in security, but also that 

 due measures of prevention should be resorted 

 to at once, when any one is bitten. These 

 measures (generally known) are, either the 

 removal of the part, when practicable, or 

 thorough cauterization. Should the idea be- 

 come common that there is no such disease 



as hydrophobia in the human subject, as 

 appears to be intimated in the article in 

 your interesting " Miscellany," in The Popu- 

 lar Science Monthly for June, all such 

 precautions are likely to be neglected, at 

 the imminent risk of many lives, which, by 

 means of such measures (if they be resorted 

 to immediately), can be protected from this 

 truly terrible malady. 



Very respectfully, 



Henry Hartshorne. 



THE TRANSFUSION OF BLOOD. 

 To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly : 



The perusal of the article with the 

 above title, in the April number of your 

 magazine, brings to my mind two or three 

 paragraphs from " Pepys's Diary " bearing 

 on that subject, which may be interesting 

 to your readers. Under date of November 

 21, U61, we find : " With Creed to a Tav- 

 ern, where Dean Wilkins and others : and 

 good discourse ; among the rest, of a man 

 that is a little frantic (that hath been a kind 

 of minister, Dr. Wilkins saying that he hath 

 read for him in his church), that is poor 

 and a debauched man, that the college have 

 hired for 20s. to have some of the blood 

 of a sheep let into his body ; and it is to be 

 done on Saturday next. They purpose to 

 let in about twelve ounces ; which, they 

 compute, is what will be let in in a minute's 

 time by a watch." November 30th, we 

 have the sequel : " I was pleased to see the 

 person who had his blood taken out. He 

 speaks well, and did this day give the 

 (Royal) Society a relation thereof in Latin, 

 saying that he finds himself much better 

 since, and as a new man ; but he is cracked 

 a little in his head, though he speaks very 

 reasonably, and very well. He had but 

 20s. for his suffering it, and is to have the 

 same again tried upon him ; the first sound 

 man that ever had it tried on him in Eng- 

 land, and but one that we hear of in 

 France." November 14, 1616, 1 find : " Dr. 

 Croone told me that, at the meeting at 



