1824.] 
As in various diseases, dogs ‘are dis- 
posed to each other, that circumstance 
is not characteristic. So also, “ cha- 
racteristic howls ;’? aversion from water ; 
the disposition to bite; “lapping eager- 
ly ;? the lapping of their own urine; 
“putting the face into water, and not 
swallowing; a bark mixed with a howl; 
no how! at all; a natural bark without 
a howl; a departure from his usual ha- 
bits; picking up straws, rags,’ &c. ; 
conceiving antipathies to other animals, 
especially cats, are with regard to ani- 
mals, none of the signs diagnostic of 
rabies. “If there beany signs by which 
the rabies contagiosa is capable of being 
ascertained’ in’ man, the same pathog- 
nomies also exist under, certain modi- 
fications, in brute animals.”* Dr. Parry 
found a close coincidence betwixt 
the characterizing symptoms and mor- 
bid appearances of rabies contagiosa, 
as described im. man and animals. 
When pigs and other animals are bitten 
about the ears by dogs, they are ren- 
dered liable to tetanic and phrenetic 
affections, with general or local convul- 
sions, which symptoms are generally as- 
eribed to hydrophobia. Dr. Parry cites 
many instances of false conclusions on 
this head. 
Among the plans which at different 
times have been recommended, and 
“have duped mankind,’ may be 
reckoned, 
Bleeding from the arm, jugulars, tem- 
poral artery, and’ by leeches, purging, 
emollient glysters, scarification and blister- 
ing of the ¢iéatrices, blisters to the throat 
and other’ parts, oil by the mouth, 
glysters by unction and by bathing, cai- 
japut-oil, warm and cold bathing; the 
latter, so far as to produce a temporary sus- 
pension of the senses; galvanism, elec- 
tricity, vinegar, ammonia, pure and sub- 
carbonated ; cinchona, snake-root, ipe- 
cacuanha, camphor, musk, assafcetida, to- 
bacco externally, and in glysters; helle- 
bore, opium to an astonishing extent, mer- 
cury in all forms, antimony, copper, zinc, 
iron, and arsenic. Several of these seem 
to have aggravated the disease, or com- 
bined with it their own specific noxious 
effects ; but no one has gone any way to- 
wards producing a cure. 
There is nothing in the vague rela- 
tions which water bears to the rabies, 
that can induce any expectation on phi- 
losophical principles of its success by 
* “The resemblance of the chief charac- 
teristic symptom in man and dogs is, there- 
fore, perhaps as great as the nature and con- 
struction of the two animals will admit.”— 
eit, p. 199. 
Observations on Hydrophobia. 
315 
injection into the veins after bleeding. 
Of its reported effects in one case, 
there are none which would not follow 
large bleeding, or that may not either 
sometimes occur on a certain stage of 
hydrophobia, or of general conyulsions, 
spontaneously, 
Among the vaunted prophylactics of 
hydrophobia, none have gained any cre- 
dit with professional men, except exci- 
sion. Nevertheless I consider the re- 
puted preventive powers of bathing in 
salt-water to be entitled to more con- 
sideration than medical mén have felt 
inclined to. bestow. The practice has 
existed from time immemorial, on the 
banks of the Severn, and the casual ob- 
servation of many years suggests to me 
no one instance of hydrophobia having 
occurred to any person who had had 
recourse to bathing after being bitten. 
Moreover, the information of very old 
persons, as far as I have entered into 
the investigation, does not tend at all to 
imyalidate the popular confidence in this 
mode of defence against hydrophobia. 
Dr. Jenner, who was born and died 
on the banks of the Severn, favoured 
the popular opinion. The late Mr. 
Charles B. Trye is said to have been 
credulous of the preventive powers of 
bathing. 
On the banks of this river there are 
many dipping posts, usually signified by 
a board with “ Men and animals is dipt 
here.’ The mode is rather rude; a 
girdle with a rope is passed about the 
middle, and the patient is ducked till 
the vital functions are almost suspend- 
ed. It would be needless to hint what 
impressions are necessarily made on the 
nervous system, what forcible re-actions 
of the heart and internal system are 
excited. Nor is this method limited 
to cases of hydrophobia; it is prac- 
tised in several forms of scrofula, 
glandular enlargements, swelling of 
joints, local suppurations, &c., as also 
in many cutaneous diseases, accom- 
panied with redundancies on the sur- 
face, as, for example, the varieties of 
lepra and psoriosis. The period occu- 
pied in a course of bathing lasts during 
seven spring tides. The place usually 
chosen is a dyke, into which the Severn 
flows at high water. Several instances 
have been related to me of the success 
of this extraordinary and lengthened 
process of bathing, and of the vehement 
re-actions excited by an agency sosudden 
andpowerful. Probablythe same principle 
would be applied on a more extensive 
scale with much advantage in diseases of 
252 the 
