184 HYDROPHOBIA 



and saved the pooi* fellow. I am deeply in earnest in my views oil this" 

 much-mooted suhject, and I believe that thousands of people would be alive 

 today that have died from hydrophobia if they would look at the matter 

 os I do and act accordingly. Many poor dogs have fits hi summer, due to 

 many causes, but they could nearly all have been cured ii properly treated 

 in time, and as all important diseases are treated in this book, if you will 

 follow its teachings your dog will live until the time comes for him to pass 

 in his checks and go to "dog heaven" with the rest of the good canines 

 gone before. 



A hard question for you or any doctor to answer is, "Why have I 

 not gone mad" when it is a fact not to be denied that I have been bitten 

 bitten by so-called mad dogs? I am willing to be convinced that I am wrong, 

 if it can be done. While I may be taking up too much space on this subject, 

 yet it is an important one. I will next give two interviews that were pub- 

 lished in March, 1896, in a St. Louis paper that may interest and benefit 

 some: 



"Prof. Al. G. Eberhart, who came to St. Louis last v/eek to assume 

 active charge of the preparations for the bench show, is a man who has spent 

 the better part of his life raising and caring for dogs, and his opinion upon 

 this subject is that of an authority. Prof. Eberhart says: 



" '1 nave been bitten by dogs over a hundred times in my life and carry 

 scars now that I've had for twenty-five years. Some of these so-called mad 

 dogs have bitten me, but yet I am not mad. I have been bitten by dogs 

 that veterinary surgeons and regular physicians have pronounced and diag- 

 nosed as having rabies, but I didn't go mad because I've yet to see a genuine 

 mad dog. Had I been nervous and easily scared I would very likely have 

 been buried long ago. Some ten years ago a young lady in New York City 

 was bitten by her pet dog, and, not wanting to have it killed, it was sent 

 to Harry Jennings, the dog fancier. The dog bit him several times. The 

 young lady died in three weeks from alleged hydrophobia, and Harry 

 Jennings is alive yet. The young lady died from fright. This I know to 

 be a fact. Find me a doctor that can tell what hydrophobia is, then I'll 

 try to believe there is such a disease. If the doctor can't tell you what 

 the disease is, he surely can't cure it. When a dog bites you, if it is on 

 any part of your body where you can get your mouth to it as soon as bitten, 

 suck the wound, thus quickly abstracting the poison if any there, spit it out 

 and forget that you were bitten by a dog, for depend on it this ends the 

 matter there and then. You have gotten rid of the poison before it was 

 distributed through the system. If on any part of the body you can't get 

 at, get a friend to do it for you. Another method that is good is to at once 

 wash the wound with water. Then apply the actual cautery, a piece of iron 

 heated to white heat, not to the flesh, but hold it about half an inch from 

 it. The intense heat causes but little pain and will destroy the bacilli of 

 rabies to the depth of one-quarter of an inch. If carbolic or nitric acid or 

 nitrate of silver is used, not five minutes should elapse, as unless properly 

 performed inside of ten minutes it is not only useless but positively injur- 

 ious as the poison of rabies will have been distributed throughout the sys- 

 tem in this time.' " 



The following appeared editorially in the St. Louis Republic of Febru- 

 ary 24, 1896: "The interview with Prof. Al. G. Eberhart, Superintendent of 

 the St. Louis bench show, which was printed in the Sunday Post-Dispatch, 

 in which Prof. Eberhart made the assertion that he had never seen a 

 genuine case of hydrophobia, and that he believed that cases that resulted 

 in what was diagnosed as rabies from the effects of dog bites were the 

 result of imagination, has created much talk and considerable comment. 



"Prof. Eberhart was called upon Saturday by a Post-Dispatch re- 

 porter, and asked if he could make his position as a disbeliever in the ex- 

 istence of the disease plainer than those reasons given in the short letter 

 in last Sunday's Post-Dispatch. 



" 'Yes,' said the Professor, 'I believe that I can. When I said that 

 I had never seen a genuine case of hydrophobia I meant it. I have seen 

 many dogs that were thought to be mad, but have never yet seen one that 



