Observations on Hydrophobia. 113 



well known that ammonia is a valuable medicine, whether applied 

 externally or in ternally, in a variety of animal poisons. Mercury 

 from its specilic action on tlie salivary glands, tlie immediate outlet 

 of the poison in rabies, has a strong claim to general attention, 

 and has been very extensively tried in various forms, and not with- 

 out acquiring a high degree of reputation. Its powers however as 

 a specific are more than dubious. 



Diuretics have also had their votaries. Cimtharides were at 

 oae time the favourite medicine, applied topically or taken inter- 

 nally. The lichen caninus of Linnaeus obtained the honour of a 

 place in the London P liar macopceia of 1721, under the title of pulvis 

 antili/ssus, of which it constituted the active principle, and the 

 merits of the powder were extolled in the contemporary Philoso- 

 phical Transactions!.' 



Emetics have wot yet perhaps been sufficiently tried to enable 

 us to determine the relative efficacy of this class of remedies in 

 Hydrophobia. The case not long ago given by Dr. Satterley *, 

 does not enable us to draw any distinct conclusion whatever on 

 this head. Vomiting jndeed occurred, and the patient swallowed 

 cherry-brandy and water with little difficulty, but the disease seems 

 to have been spurious, and the vomiting does not appear to have 

 been excited by art. 



4. In Hydrophobia, however, the nervous system appears to 

 be that which is by far the most severely affected, and to which 

 the disease may be most distinctly referred ; hence, it is not to be 

 wondered at that antispasmodics and sedatives should have been 

 employed extensively and obtained a very general suffrage. In ef- 

 fect, whatever benefit in this disease has at any time been derived 

 from ammonia, camphor., or cold-bathing , it is more easy to resolve 

 iheir palliative or remedial powers into the principle of their being 

 active antispasmodics, than into any other mode of action. The 

 more direct antispasmodics and sedatives employed in this malady 

 have been musk, opixim, belladonna, mix vomica, and stramonium. 



Musk and opium are the antispasmodics which have been 

 chiefly depended upon. "^1 hey have sometimes been given in very 

 large doses alone, but more generally in unison with other re- 

 medies. With respect to musk, Cullen admits that Dr. Johnstone 

 has given us two facts that are very much in favour of its power, 

 and Gmelin regarded it as a specific antidote. Opium in like 

 manner, when employed alone, has been given in large doses, 

 and we have numerous cases on record, in which this, like the pre- 

 ceding medicines, is said to have operated a cure. But unfortu- 

 nately neither musk nor opium, in whatever quantity employed, 

 have been found hitherto successful in general practice. From 

 the inefficiency of opium and musk separately, they have often been 



• Medical Transactions, vol. iv. 



Vol. XVIII. I 



