Hydrophobia m 



then apply Peroxyde of Hydrogen to the bite. Allow it to remain on for 

 a minute or so, then remove the foamy matter produced thereby by squeez- 

 ing onto it some water from a sponge or cloth. Then keep the wound 

 clean by applying the Peroxyde three or four times a day and using often 

 the antiseptic solution given under heading of "Bites." 



(Since writing this article, tincture of iron is the latest treatment, 

 now used by doctors for bites, instead of cauterizing the wounds, and then, 

 the "Unguentine Salve" for healing). 



Now, should you be bitten by a dog, if you are a sensible person, not 

 nervous or easily scared, have not read too many highly colored and sensa- 

 tional "mad dog" items in the newspapers (which kill more people than 

 dogs do), and keep your sober senses about you, don't believe or pay any 

 attention to what your supposed friends say, when they tell you "how 

 sorry they are," and bestow on you a look of pity, but go about your busi- 

 ness as usual; forget the affair, and you will never go mad. If you believe 

 all you read and hear as to going mad, lose your nerve and senses and get 

 scared, it's the easiest thing in the world to "go mad" and die. 



If this is not logic, why have I not gone mad years ago? I was bitten 

 a couple of years ago by a Yorkshire terrier brought to me that was suf- 

 fering from what a very good veterinary surgeon in Cincinnati had diagnos- 

 ed as dumb rabies in this dog. I could not take the dog to treat, as I 

 was just starting .on a trip, so sent the animal to a veterinary surgen, who 

 took him to treat. This dog, after biting me, also bit him, and the dog 

 died in twenty-four hours. The doctor held a post-mortem examination and 

 told me it was a case of dumb rabies; but the doctor and I are both living. 



Find me a doctor who can cure hydrophobia, and then I will be glad 

 to have him explain to me what the disease is. If he can do this, then I'll 

 try to believe there is such a thing as hydrophobia. If he can't cure it, he 

 doesn't know what it is, for there is in this enlightened age a cure for every 

 disease; but you must first know what ycu are trying to cure, or you won't 

 cure it. 



Every summer the papers are full of mad dog victims; but our best 

 authorities who do believe in hydrophobia will tell you that summer, or 

 in hot weather, is not the season of the year that dogs go mad. You read 

 of the person dying in great agony; that he bites and barks, etc., etc. So 

 he apparently does, I will admit, as I know of some authenticated cases like 

 this, but the "barking and biting" could easily be explained if the atten- 

 dants and friends who saw it were not all themselves scared and off their 

 base and had let imagination make them so — all due to the scare that comes 

 to so many from the awful word "hydrophobia" and the many vivid and 

 overdrawn accounts they have read in the papers gotten up by a very bright 

 reporter who had to furnish something sensational for his paper. It's just 

 like the cry of "fire" to so many people, who often lose their lives by not 

 retaining their senses about them and in most cases of this kind taking 

 their time and getting safely out of the burning building, instead of either 

 jumping out of a high window to be dashed to pieces on the pavement below 

 or getting .crushed to death in the mad rush of the others. 



In case you are bitten by a dog, see to it that the dog is not killed, 

 but that he is confined and well taken care of for a few weeks, at least 

 until you can see and know for yourself that he was not mad, and then 

 you can drop the matter. What an insane idea it is to kill the dog after he 

 has bitten you, for then you will never know whether he was mad or not, 

 and the constant dread and fear will always be with you, and probably — 

 if you are of a nervous disposition — may yet cause you to "go mad" and 

 die. I have often been called in to put a poor dog out of the way that was 

 supposed to be mad (and I chloroformed it according to orders from its 

 owner), thinking to myself at the time that it was better for the dog than 

 to live and be cared for by an idiot who did not know near as much as 

 the poor dog, who was in serious trouble, of course, but due to some natural 

 cause and not to so-called hydrophobia. Sometimes, however, out of pity 

 for the dog, when I saw he had a chance to live if properly treated, I have 

 asked to be allowed to take the dog to my kennels, and I went to work 



