108 THE HYDROPHOBIA. 



entering the room, or taking hold of him rudely, but, unless he 

 has been long without a fit, he seems immediately to subdue 

 these threaten! ngs. 



I now ordered him to bare his left hand and arm, and while 

 I was examining with great earnestness, I found a scar on the 

 back of the hand between the root of the thumb and fore finger, 

 round which I thought I saw a slight blush of inflammation : he 

 acknowledged that he had been bitten by a mad dogin December 

 last, while he was assisting to kill it ; but he said that the bite 

 was of no consequence, his hand having soon healed ; he even 

 wished me to believe that it was in December 1792, instead of 

 last December, and was extremely displeased that his wife should 

 contradict him in this statement ; and on Sunday evening, when 

 he was interrogated by Mr. Cheyne upon this subject, he de- 

 nied that he had ever been bitten by a dog. The manner in 

 which he addressed Mr. Cheyne, shewed how little his imagina- 

 tion had to do in this disease. 



The subject seemed irksome to him, and therefore I got his 

 wife out of the room and questioned her. She said that he was 

 called to assist in killing a mad dog on the 9th of December, 

 and that the dog bit him as he attempted to seize it by the neck ; 

 the dog kept its hold till another man stabbed it; that he went 

 to an apothecary, who dressed the bite, which was deep and 

 lacerated, with traumatic balsam. She said he came home in 

 very bad spirits ; when she asked what had hurt his hand, he 

 said the splinter of a log of wood had tore it up ; next day, how- 

 ever, he told her how it happened ; he continued very unhappy, 

 and anxious about the issue of the bite, but when in a fortnight 

 he found the wound healed, he recovered his cheerfulness. 



3 o'Clock. 



He has had only one severe convulsion since I saw him at 

 eleven ; he was sitting on the side of the bed with his elbows 

 resting on his thighs, yet he was under restraint, was restless, 



