480 . Mifcellaneous Obfervations on 
years fince; or may we, with more probability, 
attribute the diforder to fome unobferved or 
forgotten communication of the canine poifon 
with the fkin; or, finally, muft we not be 
compelled to view this cafe as a genuine inftance 
of {pontaneous Hydrophobia ? It is with diffidence 
that I incline to the laft opinion. But when I re- - 
fle& that we have no authentic teftimony of the 
canine poifon lying dormant more than twenty 
months at fartheft; that Hydrophobia, with alk 
the pathognomonic fymptoms of Rabies Canina, 
has been produced by other occafional caufes 
than the infection of a rabid animal; and alfo 
that notwithftanding a perfon fhould have been 
realiy expofed to the canine poifon, the chances 
are greatly in favour of his not being infeed 
—I am compelled to conclude, that this patient 
fell a viétim to other caufes, than the poifon of 
any rabid animal. Nor doI conceive that the 
effects detailed in this cafe are difproportionate 
to the power of the fuppofed caufes. We 
ought to confider the melancholic temperament 
of this patient, fo much predifpofed to mental 
and corporeal irritation—the weight of his af- 
flidion at the heart-rending profpect of his 
family’s diftrefs—his unremitted, but ineffec- 
tual efforts to remove thefe calamities—and the 
{canty portion of fuftenance he allotted to him- 
flr, during this almoft unexampled ftruggle of 
ftrenuous 
