Case of Hydropholia cured in India ly Bleeding. 421 



the remedy frou) such instances of failure, in consequence 

 of the circumstance having very nearly happened to myself 

 onlv three days before the occurrence of the case of Amier. 

 On Saturday evening, the second of May 1812, a native 

 of Arracan employed in Calcutta as a<:ook was brought 

 to the hos|)ital labouring under symptoms of hydrophobia. 

 I went to him that moment, with the full determination of 

 putting in practice the plan that had succeeded in the hands 

 of Mr. Tymon; but I found that the unfortunate sufferer 

 had been ill, according to the account of his friends, for 

 5Q hours. His pulse was imperceptible, his skin cold, 

 and his features sunk. I therefore got him to swallow 100 

 drops of laudanum, which he effected, as frequently hap- 

 pens, with srcater ease than is usual in an earlier stage of 

 the disease ; and T ordered an enema with 300 drops. The 

 patient was dead in half an hour. Now what I wish to 

 impress upon the mind of the reader is — that if, in this 

 case, thedisease had been soinewhat less advanced, the pulse 

 still perceptible, and the strength less sunk, I should cer- 

 tainly have bled the patient ; — which at such a period could 

 scarcely have prevented death : it would more probably 

 have appeared to have accelerated that event ; and, if so, 

 might consequently have had the eflVct of preventing my 

 pushing the bleeding in the case of Ainier to the extent 

 necessary to the cure. I must therefore here insist, that 

 numerous failures in an advanced stage of the disease will 

 form no just ground for the rejection of a remedy which 

 has been so incontestably proved to have cured the disease 

 when used at an earlier period. As well might the practi- 

 tioner reject bleeding in the commencement of penpneu- 

 niony or enteritis in a robust athletic patient, because in 

 each disease there is a period afier which the detraction of 

 blood, so far from curing, would serve only to hasten the 

 fatal event. 



Nothing, however, can fix the real value of the remedy 

 but experience. It is highly desirable that this may be 

 speedily obtained ; and as the disease does and must very 

 frequently occur in this country, whether we possess the 

 means of curing it or not, we cannot doubt that but a very 

 short time will elapse without further trials of this remedy; 

 and it niav be presumed that the medical practitioners, who 

 are so widel\ distributed throughout India, will fairly and 

 circumslantially communicate to the public the result oi 

 their experience, whether attended with success or not. 



It may be necessary to observe, however, that merely 



opening a vein and drawing a considerable quantity o. 



D d 3 blood 



