DISEASES OP THE OX AND SHEEP. 258 



they acquired in the temples as secrets transmitted from father to 

 son. Aristotle, in the fourth century before our era, asserted that 

 human beings were exempt from attack. Celsus, three centuries 

 after Aristotle, maintained that the bites of all animals were 

 dangerous, owing to the presence of a virus. He recommended 

 caustics, burning, cupping, and also that the wounds of those 

 who have been bitten by rabid dogs should be sucked. He 

 recognised, too, that it is most essential to the safety of the 

 person who does this that there should be no sores or abrasions on 

 the lips or in the mouth. He goes on to say that: — " The only 

 remedy is to throw the patient unexpectedly into a pond, and if 

 he has not a knowledge of swimming to allow him to sink, in 

 order that he may drink, and to raise and again depress him, so 

 that, though unwillingly, he may be satiated with water; for 

 thus at the same time both the thirst and the dread of water is 

 removed." 



This formidable treatment has been continued up to a recent 

 period, and Van Helmont gives a curious illustration of its 

 application and success in his day : — " I saw a ship passing by 

 it, and therein an old man, naked, bound with cords, having a 

 weight on his feet; under his armpits he was encompassed 

 with a girdle, wherewith he was bound to the sail-yard. I 

 asked what they meant by that spectacle. One of the mariners 

 said that the old man was an hydrophobid, or had the disease 

 causing the fear of water, and had lately been bitten by a mad 



dog. I asked did they intend his death ? ' Nay, rather,* 



said the mariner, ' he shall presently return whole ; and such 

 is the blessing of the sea, that such a kind of madness it will 

 presently cure.' I offered them some money to take me along 

 with them, as a companion and witness. , two men with- 

 drawing the end of the sail-yard, lifted up the top thereof, and bore 

 the old man on high ; but thence they let him down headlong 

 into the sea, and he was under the water about the space of a 

 miserere, whom afterwards they twice more plunged, about the 

 space of an angelical salutation. But then they placed him 

 on a smooth vessel, with his back upwards, covered with a short 

 cloak. I did think that he was dead ; but the mariners derided 

 my fear, for, his bonds being loosed, he began to cast up all the 

 brine which he had breathed in, and presently he revived. He 

 was a cooper of Ghent, who, being thenceforth freed from his 



