424 Case of tiijdropholia cured in India ly ^Sleeding* 



who then with great reputation filled the practical chaif 

 of the most celebrated school of medicine in Europe, can- 

 didly retracted an opinion which he had learned from 

 Boerhaave, and which had directed the measures he took. 

 He declared in his public lectures, that " he was convinced 

 now, that the hydrophobia is a spasmodic and not a high 

 inflammatory disease ; that though bleeding may be use- 

 ful in preventing furiousness, neither that nor the proper 

 antiphlogistic method is to be depended upon as the pro- 

 per cure of hydrophobia; that in such cases, after bleeding 

 once or twice, he would order sal succi/ii, musk, op'mm, and 

 perhaps blisters." Thus, at once sending abroad into all 

 parts of the world the opinion that larae bleeding was use- 

 less in hydrophobia, and inculcating the use of antispasmo- 

 dics only. 



Dr. Cullen says scarcely any thing on hydrophobia, 

 further than that his chief reliance would be on mercury. 

 Macbride asserts that " Doctor Nugent was the first that 

 pointed out the true nature of hydrophobia — which before 

 his time was generally considered as an inflammatory dis- 

 ease. Dr. Nugcnt's patient was largelij blooded, and took 

 moreover large quantities of musk and cinnabar as well as 

 opium ; and toward the close of the cure opium was given 

 along with camphor, musk, and assafoetida. But the opium 

 is what we are chiefly to rely on." Thus again withdrawing 

 the attention of the practitioner from the large abstractionof 

 blood, to which the cure in this case was most probably to 

 be ascribed. 



It is needless to multiply quotations to prove, that nearly 

 the same opinion of the disease, and the remedies most ap- 

 plicable to it. have prevailed with little variation u[) to this 

 day, with the sintile exception perhaps of Dr. Rush, who 

 in consequence of his peculiar notions about inflammation, 

 but which do not seem to be countenanced bv the appear- 

 ance of the blood drawn frcu)! hydrophobic patients, again 

 inculcated the necessity oF blood-letting. 



Finding therefore so many authorities against bleeding 

 in hydr(n>hobia — and not a single cure ascribed to it, ex- 

 cept tho^e mentioned in a vaaiie uay by Boerhaave — it is by 

 no means surprising, that it should lor inore than half a 

 ccntiiiv scared'' even have' been thought of as a remedy in 

 this di'*a>e. I am a\\Hre that it has sometimes been used 

 as an auxiliary, when the pulse has been full and the 

 strength great, in order to render I he patient more nia- 

 nsiieaijle. But as it has till lately never been employed as 

 the remedy of sole dependence, nor applied in the manner 



necessary 



