APPENUIX. D. 345 



anhnnl, I was next advised with about the wounded owner or 

 attendant. It often occurred also, that, when the case was sub- 

 mitted to any other surgeon, my attendance was Ukewise re- 

 quested ; by which means I have seen, comparatively, nearly as 

 much of human as of brute practice, in the preventive treatment 

 of rabies. I have myself operated on upwards of fifty persons, 

 who liad been unquestionably bitten by rabid dogs, and on a 

 few bitten by cats, every one of whom did well ; which state- 

 ments I make principally to enforce depend ance on the practi- 

 cal truths which have preceded, and on those directions which 

 are to follow. 



"Although the removal of the bitten part may be undertaken 

 at any time short of the attack, yet as it is always uncertain at 

 what time this secondaiy inflammation may take place, so it is 

 prudent to perform the excision, or cauterization, as soon as is 

 convenient; but it is frequently a matter of great importance 

 to the peace of those unfortunately wounded to know, that, 

 when any accidental cause has delayed the operation, it may be 

 as safely done at the end of several days as it would at the first 

 moment of the accident. I have myself repeatedly removed the 

 bitten parts many days, and not unfrequently weeks even, after 

 the original wound had been perfectly healed up ; yet the ope- 

 ration has always proved completely successful. Of the methods 

 resorted to for the extirpation of the bitten parts, the actual 

 cautery, the potential cautery, and excision, are employed, and 

 have each of them their advocates. 



" The actual cautery was employed by the ancients, who 

 bm'ned the parts with heated iron, sometimes with brass, silver, 

 or gold. Some of the moderns have also favored its use ; and 

 as it is a remedy immediately at hand, it is not an ineligible 

 one, particularly where the unnecessary dread of after conse- 

 quences, from mimediate absorption, is fixed in the mind, and 

 also where other assistance is not at hand. When, likewise the 

 wound is of a determinate form, and superfi -ial in exton , the 

 actual cautery is a ready and convenient m.^thod, particularly 

 with regard to horses, cows, and other large animals, who are 



