410 HYDEOPHOBIA. 



horrify susceptibilities by any farther record of cases, by any 

 farther lingering upon symptoms no less terrible than they 

 are hopeless. There is a certain fascination about horrors, of 

 whatever kind, to some minds. One sort of human tempera- 

 ment will best minister to its horror-loving element of exist- 

 ence by gazing 011 public hangings. Physical horrors some 

 people like best. Roman ladies, I doubt not, watched the 

 quick movements of the retiarius, as, netting his adversary, 

 he plunged his trident deep between his ribs, with all the 

 interest with which I have seen Spanish ladies gaze upon a 

 horse turned inside out by tords horns, and trampling upon 

 his own inside ! Every variety of human temperament needs 

 a pabulum of some sort of terror now and then, by way of 

 mental condiment or spicery. There may be persons who 

 could satisfy their cravings with recitals of hydrophobic 

 symptoms. 



ket all such read the pages of Hufeland, Dr. Bardsley, 

 Monsieur Perquin, &c. and they will see enough. My object 

 was not to furnish horrors to satiety, but just enough to illus- 

 trate a disease that is well worthy to be studied by all human 

 beings who live, or may live, in any country not devoid of 

 dogs. The practical conclusions to which we arrive are : 



That the pathology of hydrophobia is not known ; that 

 the spontaneity or non- spontaneity of it is still undetermined ; 

 that the opinion referring it to the operation of extreme 

 heat, and associating it with the dog-days, is a myth ; that 

 the surgical prophylaxis of the disease is no less hopeful than 

 the medical prophylaxis and treatment of it when established 

 is hopeless; that the evidences of the disease in dogs are 

 clear; the chances of injury through unprovoked attacks of 

 dogs slight; finally, that the poison cannot be communi- 

 cated by mere contact with the unbroken skin abrasion there 

 must be ; but this conceded, the salivary contact of licking is 

 not less dangerous than the puncture of an actual bite. 



