132 PASTEUE AND HYDROPHOBIA HI 



that he cannot drink ; his face expresses pain, his eyes are fixed, 

 and his features contracted ; his limbs shake and body trembles. 

 The paroxysm lasts a few seconds, and then he gradually becomes 

 tranquil ; but the least touch, nay, mere vibration of the air, is 

 enough to bring on a fresh attack — so acute is the sensibility of 

 the skin in some instances. ... A special difference between 

 rabies and hydrophobia is the frequent dread of water in the 

 latter, as well as the hypersesthesia of the skin and exaltation of 

 the other senses. . . . Another characteristic feature of the 

 disease in man is a copious secretion of viscid, tenacious mucus 

 in the fauces, the " hydrophobic slaver " ; this the patient spits out 

 with a sort of vehemence and rapidity upon everything around 

 him, as if the idea of swallowing occasioned by the liquid induced 

 this eager expulsion of it, lest a drop might pass down the throat. 

 This to a bystander is sometimes one of the most striking 

 phenomena of the case. . . . The mind is sometimes calm and 

 collected in the intervals between the paroxysms, and conscious- 

 ness is generally retained ; but in most cases there is more or less 

 irregularity, incessant talking, excitement, and occasionally fits 

 approaching to insanity come on. The mental aberration is 

 often exhibited in groundless suspicion or apprehension of some- 

 thing extraneous, which is expressed on the face and in the 

 manner of the patient. In comparatively rare instances he gives 

 way to a wild fury, like that of a dog in one of its fits of rabies ; 

 he roars, howls, curses, strikes at persons near him, rends or 

 breaks everything within his reach, bites others or himself, till, 

 at length exhausted, he sinks into a gloomy, listless dejection, 

 from which another paroxysm rouses him. . . . Paralytic symp- 

 toms manifest themselves before death in a few instances, as in 

 the dog. . . . Eemissions of the symptoms sometimes occur 

 in the course of the complaint, during which the patient can 

 drink, though with some difficulty, and take food. Towards the 

 close such a remission is not uncommon, with an almost complete 

 absence of the painful symptoms ; so that the patient and the 

 physician begin to entertain some hope. But if the pulse is now 

 felt it is found to be extremely feeble, and sometimes almost, if 

 not quite, imperceptible. During this apparent relaxation of the 

 disease the. patient occasionally falls into a sleep, from which he 

 only awakes to die. 



