LETTER V. 



To resume the subject of rabies canina. After having 

 locked the door, the docter and myself returned to the 

 house, to deliberate upon the best course to pursue with 

 our mad patients. " Well," he said, " I can prescribe, 

 but I tell you my candid opinion, that all the medicine 

 in the world will not cure them, and still I advise you to 

 give them a dose of powder and shot, as the best and 

 shortest recipe." " This I have told you I shall not do," 

 was my reply. '*Very well," he said, *^ now there is 

 another difficulty. You have heard, I dare say, of one 

 taking a horse to water, &c." "Yes," I replied, "I 

 think I have heard that story once in my life, if not 

 oftener." " There, then," he said, " we shall be foiled, 

 for I see your whipper-in is no great favourite, and I 

 question whether any man of common sense (putting your- 

 self and him out of the question, as I consider you both 

 bordering on insanity) would undertake such a job — in 

 short, you could not ask a man to run such a risk." " I 

 am quite of your opinion, doctor; and as one of the fools 

 cannot do it, the other must — so now to business." 



His prescription was from ten to twenty drops of 

 laudanum (according to the violence and frequency of 

 the convulsions,) three times a day, which I gave them. 

 I had some strong broth made with sheeps' heads, the 

 meat stewed with it, of which they would take a little 



