HYDROPHOBIA FROM SKUNK-BITE. 229 



"5. The mode of death is by asthenia ia both forms of rabies; but in B. 

 canina the frightful strug-gles of nature to eliminate the poison are more 

 prolonged than in R. mephitica ; and in the latter they may, on occasion, be 

 still further abridged by the use of morphine, which has no narcotic effect 

 upon the former, even in the largest doses and injected into the veins ! 



"I have thus endeavored to describe, and also to explain, these strange 

 and painful phenomena. I must leave the reader to form his own decision, 

 only hoping that some one may be induced to follow this pioneer work in a 

 new path, by further and more able investigations of his own. 



''Kansas City, Mo., Feb. 24th, 1874." 



[From the New York Medical Record, vol. x. no. 227, pp. 177-160, Mar. 13, 1875.] 

 ''On Hydropliobia. — By John G. Janeway, M. D., Assistant Surgeon, U. S. A. 



"A writer* in the American Journal of Science and Art, May, 1874, states 

 that ' it is evidently the opinion of Dr. Janeway that the malady produced 

 by the mephitic virus is simply hydrophobia. Should he be correct, then 

 all that is established by these facts would be this, viz.: that henceforth the 

 varieties mephitis must be classed with those animals that spontaneously 

 generate poison in the glands of the mouth and communicate it by salivary 

 iuoculation.'[t] The personal observation of fifteen fatal cases of hydropho- 

 bia, produced by the bite of rabid animals, skunks, wolves, and. hogs,]: and 

 the reliable statements of a number of other cases, has fully confirmed me 

 in the opinion above stated, that the malady produced by mephitic virus is 

 simply hydrophobia. 



*' The following five cases are taken from the fifteen fatal cases that have 

 fallen under my observation : 



"Case I. Bite of Skunk.— Was called to visit Wm. P., aged nineteen, a 

 herder, whom I was told by the messenger had been acting strangely all the 

 morning. I found him lying on a bed in a sod-house, dressed, with several 

 of his companions around him. Face flushed, pulse very rapid, the heat of 

 skin intense and dry, eyes brilliant and pupils dilated rather more than 

 natural, extremely restless and frequently catching at his throat ; upon 

 questioning, replied that his throat was turning into bone. Had not felt 

 well for two or three daj's ; did not know what was the matter with him. 

 Upon pouring out some water from a pail near by, to administer morphia to 

 him, he went suddenly into convulsions. 



" Suspecting hydrophobia immediately, as soon as he regained conscious- 

 ness I learned that he had been bitten by a skunk, just before daybreak, 

 seventeen days before, in the little finger of the left hand ; that the wound 

 was small and soon healed ; that for two days preceding my seeing him his 



* " Rev. Horace C. Hovey, M. A." 



t [There is some typographical confusion in the quotation-marks at the 

 opening of Dr. Janeway's article ; and Dr. .Janeway does not quote Mr. 

 Hovey's literally, leaving it liable to be misunderstood whose opinion is be- 

 ing quoted. I have slightly altered the text in this place, to reproduce the 

 quotation literally from the original. — E. C] 

 . X '' Skunks 10, wolves 3, hogs 2." 



