230 NORTH AMERICAX MUSTELID.E. 



finger aud arm bail felt nnmb. I'pon exauiiniiig the finger, slight redness 

 was observed at the place bitten, tongue slightly furred and soinewliat 

 swollen, no so-called * characteristic pustules' were to be seen. Thirst in- 

 tense and begged for water, but the sound of dipping the water from the 

 pail threw him immediately into still more terrible convulsions, frequent 

 sighing, and catching his breath. Administer hypodermic injections of 

 morphia without avail. Upon the arrival of chloroform, which I had sent 

 for, its administration gave partial relief for a short time. His endeavors 

 to free himself of the tenacious mucus w^ere terrible, when the incautious 

 npsettingof a pail of water again threw him into convulsions, opisthotonous 

 in character, followed by attempts at Inting those holding him, and when 

 consciousness was regained, asking pardon for so doing. Hyperji^sthesia 

 existed in a very marked degree in this case. Death came to his relief in 

 about eighteen hours from the time of his first convulsion. 



" Case II. Bite of Skunk.— An emigrant from Wisconsin, camped on the 

 north fork of Big Creek, about seven miles from Hays, applied to me in the 

 fall of 1872 for dressing for his baud, which had been bitten between the 

 thumb and index finger of his left hand, the night previously, by a skunk. 

 Cauterized the wound well, and directed him to repeat the cauterization 

 twice a day. Saw" nothing of him for twelve days, w^hen I was sent for, and 

 upon arriving at his camp found hira in convulsions, which were repeated 

 rapidly. Face flushed, eyes brilliant, pupils rather contracted, skin hot and 

 dry, pulse small and rapid, 120, no so-called ' characteristic pustules ' under 

 the tongue. When not in convulsions, mind clear and fully aware of the 

 fate that awaited him. From his wife I learned that after the third day of 

 using the caustic the wound healed and gave him no further trouble ; that 

 for three days he had been complaining of some fulness in the head, and a 

 general ' malaise,' neither sick nor well ; that the convulsions came on 

 about seven hours previous to my seeing him, suddenly, upon attempting to 

 take a drink from a spring close to their camp; that he would go into con- 

 vulsions whenever water or tea was offered him, and that the faintest 

 breath of air would cause him the greatest anguish, so that she had to put 

 a blanket up before the door. Death fo llowed in twenty-one h ours after 

 seizure. 



" Case III. Bite of Skunk.— A hunter, in the latter part of October, 1872, 

 applied to me to be treated for a bite through the right ala of the nose. 

 He had been attacked by a skunk while in camp on the Smoky Hill river 

 two nights previous. Having learned, previous to my seeing him, that 

 skunk-bites would produce hydrophobia, he had imbibed freely, and was 

 decidedly under the influence of liquor when I saw him, evidently nervous 

 about himself, but trying to conceal the fact. 



"A stick of nitrate of silver was passed repeatedly through the wound. 

 Actual cautery was proposed, but he would not consent to its use. After, 

 being under treatment two days he left and went to Missouri, to have the 

 mad-stone applied ; returning from there, he followed his occupation. 

 Twenty-one days after he was bitten he was taken with convulsions, and 

 died abo ut an hour after I got to his ranch, nearly thirty hours after the 

 seizure. From "one of his companions I learned that after his return from 

 Missouri he was cheerful and in apparent health up to the day before his 

 seizure, when he complained of pain in his nose and face, headache, chilly. 



