^78 RABIES CANINA, 



virtues, and its known tendency to check the spasmodic con- 

 traction of epilepsy raised hopes that it might act favour- 

 ably in the violent contractions of rabies ; but, although it 

 has not hitherto stemmed the fatal torrent, yet, from its ob- 

 vious action on the disease, and from its alledged properties 

 of counteracting the bites of other venomous animals, the 

 propriety of a full trial of it, as a prophylactick, appears evi- 

 dent. A favourable account of its virtues, when internally 

 administered, may be gained from Mr. Ireland's Memoir, 

 Med. Chirurg. Trans., p. 393, and likewise from a quota- 

 tion given in the Lo7id. Med. Rev., March and April 1/93. 

 Of its external employment I shall have occasion to speak 



hereafter. 



Dr. Mead's fjulvis antilyssus has wholly lost its reputa- 

 tion, although, during his practice, he expressed a wish that 

 he knew, as certain, a remedy for any other disease *. 



The Ormskirk Remedy is a striking proof how easily a 

 reputation may be gained, and how undeservedly. Palpable 

 instances of its failure are multiplied upon us, and yet, until 

 of late, it enjoyed a very general share of confidence ; and 

 even yet, in the vicinity of its preparation, it is occasionally 



trusted to t 



Dr. Previtali, in the Giornale des Fisicrr, has published 

 an extended account of the virtues of chlorine, not only as 

 a direct cure for the actual hydrophobia, but as a preventive 

 also. It is not, however, supposed that these accounts are to 

 be depended on. 



* This powder was composed of the ash-coloured liverwort (lichen 

 cinereus) and black pepper. 



f There is every reason to believe, that Mr. Hill's Ormskirk Medi- 

 cine is nothing more than powdered chalk. Neither need we wonder 

 that articles so inert should gain celebrity, when we consider that not 

 more than one in twenty human persons, who are bitten, become affect- 

 ed ; and that, perhaps, many of those who take this or other popular 

 remedies have never been bitten at all. When these are added to 

 others, who, having been bitten by a dog who was only mad in the fears 

 of those around him, it lessens the number of those really inoculated 

 down to a very few, and these few, it is unfortunately too well known, 

 fall a sacrifice to this ill-plared confidence. 



