THE HYDROPHOBIA. 107 



imperfect ; the right arm and hand, as to feeling, are in their 

 natural state, excepting that when put into water, there is this 

 in common to them with the rest of the body, that the dreadful 

 convulsion immediately takes place. He is quite collected in 

 answering any question, but his sentences are uttered in a rapid 

 and ardent manner : he has no unaccountable sensation of anx- 

 iety, his uneasiness is entirely respecting his family should he 

 die. When he has to look about, he turns his whole body, his 

 neck being constantly stiff from the pain and straitness deep 

 seated in the larynx and upper part of the chest and shoulders: 

 he thinks that his illness arises from a glass of spirits of bad 

 quality which he drank on the first of August. I. now ordered 

 his wife to bring in some water ; he had scarcely caught a glance 

 of it, when, with a slight spasm of his mouth, he was thrown 

 back on the bed upon which he was sitting, violently convulsed ; 

 he then started up and staggered to the door, and then back to 

 the bed, his breast heaving violently all the time, his eyes and 

 countenance wild and infuriate ; and when he returned, he 

 grasped the bed post in his arms, stood for some time loudly 

 panting, and then, exhausted by the violence of the exertion, 

 he again sunk upon the bed. When a little composed, I asked 

 him if he had seen the water ; he said he had just caught a 

 glance of the tumbler, but that he would have been as ill had he 

 not seen the water, from knowing that his wife had it in her 

 hand ; and he said, that when I was talking about bringing in 

 the water, he had with the utmost uneasiness been struggling 

 to keep down the fit : I had indeed seen a spasm pulling down 

 the angles of his mouth, at the same time that he drew a con- 

 vulsive inspiration, but I did not know that this was the begin- 

 ning of the convulsion. Immediately after a violent fit, he can 

 look at the water without much dislike, and even swallow it, 

 although with pain and difficulty. The spasm of his lips and 

 the convulsive breathing are produced by any one suddenly 



