272 RABIES CANINA^ 



nate issue on record have a veil of obscurity thrown over them 

 that damps our confidence, and we have only hope remain- 

 ing* that time may yet aiford us a remedy * for this dreadful 

 scourg-e. The extent to which this inquiry has already been 

 carried, will prevent a circumstantial detail of the various 

 medicinal ag-ents which have been used in rabies. I shall only 

 cursorily notice them, and reserve myself for those that, for- 

 tunately for man and brute, are found efficacious as prevent- 

 ives ag"ainst such attack. 



The most antient remedy on record for the rabid malady, 

 after it had actually appeared, was cold bathiiig, and which 

 it was usual to apply to the extent of a temporary drown- 

 ing- ; but, although it is handed down that it occasionally 



therefore, a sympathy with the bitten part, or a secondary inflamma- 

 tion, is found so generally in the majority of human and brute rabid 

 cases, are we not warranted, by analogj'^, in concluding it an insepara- 

 ble pathognomonick symptom common to all ? Likewise, from its usually 

 preceding all other symptoms many hours, and even days, are we not 

 warranted in considering the bitten part as the source from whence the 

 future constitutional disease is derived ? 



" Homo optime sanus contagio hoc infectus post varium tempus inci- 

 *' pit hoc ordine fere gegrotare : dolet locus, eiii impressa contagii labes pri- 

 ^^ ma fecit.'^ — Boerhaave, Aphorism 1138. Van Swieten's Commentary 

 has, also, " Plurima observationes confirmant primum signum venani 

 " actuosi redditi observari in ipse loco demorso, et prcecipue in cicatrice 

 " vulneris jam consolidati." In another part, Van Swieten has also, 

 " Omnia base observata docent aliquam mutationem in loco demorso 

 *' imprimis in cicatricibus vulneris praecedere solere ilium statum, ubi 

 " latins hactenus contagium incipit actuosum fieri. Unde videtur ad- 

 " modum probabile illud venenum susceptum in loco demorso haesisse 

 *'tamdiu." — Comment, torn, iii, p. 551. An observant author of repute 

 says, " The bitten part, after some time, begins to be painful j the ci- 

 *' catrix becomes hard and elevated, a peculiar tingling sensation is felt 

 " in the part, and pains begin to shoot from it towards the throat." — 

 Thomas' Pract. p. 358. 



* " Nee desperandum tamen ob exempla jam in aliis venenis constan- 

 " tia, de inveniendo hujus singularis veneni antidoto singiilari.^' — Boer- 

 haave, Aphorism 1146, 



