led RABIES. 



ized by the nitrate of silver escaped, while some which had the wound 

 incised, or cauterized with a hot iron were subsequently infected with 

 rabies. 



Regarding the sucking of a wound made by a suspected animal, it is of 

 interest to recall the fact that in Lyons, during the first twenty years of 

 the present century, certain women made it their business to apply suc- 

 tion to the wounds made by rabid dogs, for which they were paid ten 

 francs for the first operation, and five for each succeeding one. Of thirty- 

 eight persons bitten and subsequently subjected to this operation not one 

 contracted hydrophobia. 



It is yet an unsettled question whether or not it is wise to allow the 

 wound made by a bite to heal naturally and at once, or to keep up the 

 inflammation by applications. The latter is generally accepted as the 

 better, and for the purpose caustic can be used every few days as the need 

 is manifest, or a dressing of the resin ointment may be applied. In four 

 or five weeks the wound should be allowed to heal. 



It is estimated that in those cases where cauterization is resorted to 

 about one third of the human beings bitten by rabid animals fall victims 

 to the disease ; in cases where the operation is not performed more than 

 four-fifths of those bitten meet certain death. 



In the many pages devoted to rabies the writer has pictured with wear- 

 isome detail the symptoms and phenomena which attend both forms of 

 the disease. During the last century the public mind has been much 

 wrought and depressed by constant allusion to the malady. Communities 

 have often been terrorized by the appearance in their midst of dogs sup- 

 posed to be rabid, and many a valuable pet has met his death from the 

 hands of the poisoner, incited to the hellish deed through the cowardly 

 fear of a disease so rare the dangers from it are almost nil. 



Scientific research and advancement in knowledge of this subject has 

 been so obstructed by ignorance and superstition, transmitted from the 

 dark ages, the general public are to day as destitute of a proper under- 

 standing of hydrophobia, and are endowed with as wild fancies, absurd 

 theories, and fanatical notions as were those of a hundred years ago. 



From the British Medical Journal we quote the following on this subj ect.— 

 " Something should be done to disabuse the public mind of a groundless, 

 or greatly exaggerated terror, it would be amusing if it were not grimly 

 sad, to observe, not unfrequently, the insane evidence of a purely mimetic 

 morbid state set up by the misery and apprehension caused by the con- 

 sciousness of having been bitten by a mad dog. As a matter of sober 

 medical fact, it is by no means necessary or inevitable that the bite of a 

 dog with rabies should give a man or woman hydrophobia; and if the 

 element of fear could be eliminated, it is highly probable that the propor- 



