HYDROPHOBIA. 113 



hand), thought that all such inquiries were 



and impious, and that it was quite svifficient that 



God had thus made the mountains. 



An order had recently been issued that all stray 

 dogs should be killed, and we saw many lying dead 

 on the road. A great number had lately gone 

 mad, and several men had been bitten and had 

 died in consequence. On several occasions hydro- 

 phobia has prevailed in this valley. It is remark- 

 able thus to find so strange and dreadful a disease 

 appearing time after time in the same isolated spot. 

 It has been remarked that certain villages in Eng- 

 land are in like manner much more subject to this 

 visitation than others. Dr. Unanue states that hy- 

 drophobia was first known in South America in 

 1803 : this statement is corroborated by Azara and 

 Ulloa having never heard of it in their time. Dr. 

 Unanue says that it broke out in Central America, 

 and slowly travelled southward. It reached Are- 

 quipa in 1807 ; and it is said that some men there, 

 who had not been bitten, were affected, as were 

 some negroes, who had eaten a bullock which had 

 died of hydrophobia. At lea forty-two people thus 

 miserably perished. The disease came on between 

 twelve and ninety days after the bite ; and in those 

 cases where it did come on, death ensued invaria- 

 bly within five days. After 1808, a long interval 

 ensued without any cases. On inquiry, I did not 

 hear of hydrophobia in Van Diemen's land, or in 

 Australia ; and Burchell says, that during the five 

 years he was at the Cape of Good Hope, he never 

 heard of an instance of it, Webster asserts that at 

 the Azores hydrophobia has never occuiTod, and 

 the same assertion has been made with respect to 

 Mauritius and St. Helena.* In so strange a dis- 



* Observa. sobre el clima de Lima, p. 67. Azara's Travels, vol. 

 i., p. 381. Uiloa's Voyage, vol. ii., p. 28. Burcheil's Travels, vol.. 

 II. 8 



