HYDROPHOBIA 233 



Babies and all its horrors perhaps will be the con- 

 sequence. Take this as a warning: never allow a 

 dog, however reassuring its demeanor may be, to 

 lick you on a place where the skin is broken. No 

 one can affirm with certainty that the atrocious 

 malady is not already developing in the animal, and 

 you might fall a victim to your excess of confidence. 



"Hydrophobia shows itself in man usually in 

 from thirty to forty days after the bite. It begins 

 with headache, deep depression, continued uneasi- 

 ness, troubled sleep, and bad dreams; then come 

 convulsions and delirium. The face expresses great 

 terror; the lips turn blue and are covered with foam; 

 the throat contracts so as to render swallowing im- 

 possible. The sight of liquids inspires the patient 

 with insurmountable aversion, and a drop of water 

 placed in the mouth would produce frightful stran- 

 gulation. Then come fits of madness during which 

 the patient struggles furiously to bite and rend the 

 one who is taking care of him. The disease has 

 changed him to a wild beast. At last death comes 

 and puts an end to this horrible agony. " 



"Then there is no remedy for hydrophobia .?" 

 asked Jules. 



"Medicine as yet knows absolutely none. All it 

 can do is to let the sufferer die banishing forever 

 the execrable notions that formerly prevailed, and 

 perhaps still do at present. To get rid of the 

 incurable and dangerous patient it was necessary, 

 they said, to smother him between two mattresses. 

 Whoever should to-day commit such a. barbarous act 



