250 HYDROPHOBIA. 



There exists a curious parallel to this propensity for exertion in the celebrated Tarantula- 

 dancing which was so famous in Naples during the sixteenth century. Those persons who 

 were affected with this curious disease, which was for many years thought to be the effect of 

 the bite of the Tarantula spider, were impelled to leap and dance continually in a kind of 

 frenzy, until they sank from sheer fatigue. In many cases the dancing would continue for 

 three or four days, and seemed to be cured best by the profuse perspiration which poured from 

 the wearied frames of the dancers. In a similar manner the effects of a serpent's tooth may be 

 driven from the system. When a person has suffered from the bite of a cobra, or other venom- 

 ous snake, the most effectual treatment is to prevent him from falling into the lethargy which 

 is produced by the poisonous infusion, and to keep him in constant and violent motion. 



It is a remarkable fact that the Tarantismus, as this disease is termed, used in many cases 

 to recur at regular annual intervals, as has already been related of the wounds caused by the 

 lion's bite, and is the case with the healed wound which has been inflicted by the teeth of a 

 rabid Dog. So subtle is this influence, and so thoroughly does it pervade the system, that 

 where anger has risen in the mind of a person who has been bitten by a mad Dog, and by 

 taking precaution has felt no evil results, the old sores have become flushed and swollen, and 

 throbbed in unison with the angry feelings that occupied their mind. 



How the nature of the Dog can be so utterly changed as to charge its bite with deadly 

 venom, or how it is that the moist saliva of the rabid animal should communicate the disease 

 to other beings, is at present but a mystery. There seems to be an actual infusion of the Dog 

 nature into the animal which is bitten by a rabid Dog, or by one of the creatures which has 

 been inoculated by the bite of one of these terrible beings. It is evident that the virus is resi- 

 dent in the saliva, because the malady has been communicated' by the mere touch of the Dog's 

 tongue upon a wound without the infliction of a bite from its teeth. Yet it is equally evident 

 that the poisonous property belongs not to the saliva, but to the influence which is conducted 

 by its means. In some strange fashion the spirit of the angry Dog seems to be infused into 

 the victim of its bite, and it is well known that even where an angry Dog has in the heat of its 

 passion inflicted a wound the result has been very similar to Hydrophobia, though the animal 

 was not affected with that disease. Ordinarily, the bite of a Dog, such as the playful bite of 

 a puppy, though sufficiently painful, carries no danger with it, but if the animal has only been 

 touched with this malady its bite is but too frequently fatal. This death-dealing influence has 

 been proved to remain in the saliva for f our-and-twenty hours after the animal' s death. Per- 

 haps there may be something of electricity in the fatal influence, which requires a fluid con- 

 ductor, for if the teeth of the animal have been wiped dry by passing through the clothing of 

 its intended victim no evil results follow. 



Not every one that is bitten by a rabid Dog is a sufferer from Hydrophobia, for it is need- 

 ful that the constitution should be in a fit state to receive the poison, for its influence to pro- 

 duce any effect. We may notice a similar phenomenon among those who are vaccinated. 

 Some persons appear to be almost proof against the vaccine virus, while others feel its effects 

 so powerfully that they are thrown into a temporary fever, and the limb on which the vaccina- 

 tion is performed, swells to such a degree as to be extremely painful to the patient, and some- 

 times even alarming to the operator. In others, again, no visible effect is produced until they 

 have undergone the operation two or three times, and then the disease develops itself fully 

 and with great rapidity. 



A rather remarkable circumstance connected with this subject took place within the last 

 few years. A rabid Dog contrived to bite a large number of victims, including other Dogs, 

 sheep, oxen, and human beings ; a surgeon attended the human sufferers, and treated the 

 wounds by the severe application of nitrate of silver. All were treated in the same manner, 

 but although the greater number escaped without further injury, several died from Hydropho- 

 bia ; and all those in whom the disease made itself manifest were light-haired persons, while 

 those who escaped had dark hair. 



The mode of treatment in such dire necessity is fortunately very simple, and can be 

 applied by any one who is possessed of sufficient nerve and presence of mind. A piece of nitrate 

 of silver, or lunar caustic, as it is popularly called, should be cut to a point like a common 



