Case of Hydrophohia cured in India hj Bleeding. 359 



k) count his pulse with exactness; it was, however, very 

 unequil, both in strenath and frequency; at times scarcely 

 perceptible, and then rising again under the finger ; some- 

 limes moderately slow and regular tor a few pulsations, and 

 iniiiiediatelv after, so quick as not to be counted ; but con- 

 veying, upon the whole, an idea of a greatly oppressed and 

 impeded circulation. His skin was not hot ; and though 

 his head was in incessant motion, accompanied with such 

 savage expression and contortion of countenance as might 

 easily have alarmed those unaccustomed to such appear- 

 ances, he made no attempt to bite ; which is far from being 

 a frequent symptom of the disease, and, when it does oc- 

 cur, must be considered merely as an act of impatience at 

 being held — and no more than the peculiar noise above no- 

 ticed, as indicating any thing of the canine nature imparted 

 by the bite, an opinion which has been sometimes fancifully 

 but absurdly entertained. 



When questioned concerning his own feelings, or the 

 cause of his illness, he was incapable of making any reply ; 

 being prevented, it is probable, either by the hurried state 

 of his respiration, or bv his mind being too deeply absorbed 

 m the contemplation of horrible ideas, to admit of his at- 

 tending to the queries addressed to him. 



I desired water to be offered to him ; at the mention of 

 which he started with increased horror and agitation, and 

 endeavoured to disengage himself from those that held him. 

 When one of the attendants approached with a cup of wa- 

 ter, he looked ac it wishfully, and after some efforts, with 

 apparent reluctance, stretched out his hand to take hold of 

 it; but before he could reach the cup, his hand was sud- 

 denly drawn back by a convulsive motion : at the same in- 

 stant he turned away his head, and writhed himself round 

 on the bed in an agony of terror and despair, wholly in- 

 conceivable by any person who has not been a witness of 

 the horrors of this most dreadful, and hitherto, it may be 

 added, most irremediable of human maladies. 



Such was the state of the patient at the moment .of his 

 admission, and for the few minutes that necessarily elapsed 

 while these appearances were passing under my observa- 

 tion. 



Of the nature of the complaint there could not exist a 

 shadow of doubt ; and having so recently read in the 

 Madras papers a case of hydrophobia successfully treated 

 by Mr. 'Cymon, of His Majesty's ^Sd dragoons, by bleed- 

 ing, mercury, and opium, I determined on the immediate 

 adoption of ihc same plan. 



Z 4 I there- 



