OR CANINE MADNESS. 259 



fears are too often very deep rooted, and even immovable. What 

 is then to be done ? Is nothing to be attempted ? Yes : we will 

 hope that a physician may be found for the mind also in the judi- 

 cious medical attendant on the case ; to whom I hardly need hint, 

 that, in those desperate instances of mental excitement, it is totally 

 in vain to argue down the needless dread and imaginary dangers 

 fostered in a distempered mind ; it is still more useless, it would 

 be even cruel, to be offended or made harsh by them. No one, I 

 presume, would harass himself with fear could he avoid it ; fear 

 weakens the mind, and it is remarkable that it often makes its 

 greatest inroads on an otherwise powerful one. Arguing here is 

 reasoning against fearful odds ; it is, in fact, offering reason at the 

 shrine of insanity ; for a person so impressed is, to all intents and 

 purposes, on that question, beside himself. 



When I was engaged in practice, I was requested to decide on 

 a suspicious case of a dog, the property of a mercantile gentleman 

 of great respectability and talent. I pronounced the dog rabid, 

 and he was destroyed. Some weeks afterwards I was again re- 

 quested to visit this gentleman, whom I hardly knew, so great was 

 the change in him during this short interval. He appeared now 

 bordering on the grave, and to which, had his mind not been ad- 

 ministered to, he would have gone. I had been already informed 

 by his lady, that, soon after the dog alluded to was dead, her hus- 

 band became impressed with the idea, that, as the animal had 

 licked his hands, he was endangered, and should most certainly 

 become rabid also. He had applied to his usual medical attendant, 

 and had also consulted two, if not three physicians ; each of whom 

 endeavoured to reason him out of his fears, by assurances that he 

 had incurred no risk at all ; that nothing was necessary for him 

 but to think no more about the matter. Each visit produced the 

 same assurances, and the same faithlessness on his part : he re- 

 treated from business, forsook all society, loathed his food, and 

 passed his time in pacing his room, waiting the attack. 



How was it that not one of his medical advisers touched the 

 only chord that could vibrate on his distempered mind ? It was 



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