HYDROPHOBIA 189 



of a nervous order, sometimes mortal, sometimes curable, according as 

 they derive from disorders analogous to tentanus (lockjaw) produced by 

 a wound or from purely mental disorders." According to Dr. Caffe, 

 "Spontaneous rabiform hydrophobia is the only rabies that exists, and that 

 is a mortal rabies." Before M. Pasteur's system was invented about nine- 

 teen persons annually were officially reported to have died of hydropho- 

 bia. Now, strange as it may seem, the number of persons who annually re- 

 port themselves bitten by rabid dogs averages from 1,500 to 2,000. Rabies 

 is a rare disease, rarer today than in the past, and hydrophobia is more 

 or less a form of hysteria. Were there less talk about it, it would be bet- 

 ter for the community. A little more knowledge of our own nervous sys- 

 tem, a little less ignorance of the dog's, and we shall be far more likely 

 to escape hydrophob a entirely than to die from it or to be saved by inocu- 

 lation. 



I will now give a most important and valuable interview with the 

 famous medical expert, Prof. Edward C. Spitzka, of New York. Prof. 

 Spitzka declares the Pasteur rabies theory and treatment a humbug from 

 start to finish, and rabies to be a hoax. Ex-United States Surgeon General 

 Dr. Wm. A. Hammond indorses his decision. Such arguments as Prof. 

 Spitzka's, a most eminent authority, should convince every one who reads 

 it that he is correct: 



"Although Pasteur was undoubtedly as sincere in his work as his 

 follower, Paul Gibier, doubtless is in dispensing the ridiculous treatment," 

 said Prof. Spitzka, "I am willing to stake my reputation that there is no 

 such disease as 'hydrophobia,' or 'rabies,' in existence, and I am further 

 impressed that the Pasteur inoculations are injurious. This is not merely 

 my opinion. I have a practical explanation for every statement I make, 

 and have carefully weighed every possible opposition to my conclusions 

 for a parallel consideration. 



"I am accordingly prepared to answer any criticism. Of course, the 

 strongest retaliation I shall receive will be the broad charge that I am 

 following in the footsteps of the narrow-minded opposers of. the Wonderful 

 .Tenner smallpox vaccination cPscovery, on which the Pasteur treatment 

 hinges its practicability. As to this most enrnent charge there is no con- 

 nection between the two treatments. For while every one acknowledges 

 the existence of the dreadful smallpox, the existence of hydrophobia, or ra- 

 bies, has never been satisfactorily demonstrated. I have not myself — nor has 

 any other expert investigator — been able to distinctly diagnose a single 

 case of the so-called malady, to my knowledge. I have often witnessed 

 the symptoms, commonly termed 'rabies,' but in every instance these ex- 

 citing observations have been plainly nothing more than tetanus symptoms 

 of acute fevers and the many forms of deadly blood poisoning. 



"The water theory is too absurd and ridiculous to have any significance. 

 There is not an authority to be found for its assumption. It is yet to be 

 explained how water could possibly have such an effect, while all the 

 knowledge modern science has amassed goes to provide the belief merely an 

 antiquated superstition, to which some people still cling. 



"When Pasteur's boom was exploded, and the public went wild with en- 

 thusiasm over it, along with the great majority of scientific men, I was 

 also taken in by the contagion. At the time I was impressed that with 

 the increasing knowledge gained in the field of contagious and epidemic 

 diseases generally, much substantial advance has not been recorded in 

 the history of the mysterious rabies, but realizing that this was not due 

 to neglect of the subject, I was not surprised at the birth of the Pasteur 

 theory. 



"Owing to the terrible nature of the symptoms attributed to this 

 unfounded malady, an attractive field of research has been open to those 

 animated by an earnest desire to prevent and relieve human sufferings 

 from the time of the earliest civilization. The symptoms are described in 

 the works of Horace, Aristotle, Virgil and Plutarch, in a manner which 

 Allows that while the world has advanced in all other lines of medical 



