92 THE SHOOTER'S GUIDE. 



publicly asserted, that this medicine has cured both 

 dogs and human beings, even after the hydrophobia 

 has taken place; this, ..however, is a positive falsehood ; 

 I shall not hesitate to assert,, that, so far from curing, 

 it has no effect whatever in preventing, this scourge 

 as well of man as of the canine race. I am willing 

 to allow, that many persons, after having been bit by 

 dogs, which their own fears have magnified into mad 

 ones, and after taking the Ormskirk medicine, have 

 fancied themselves preserved from the hydrophobia. 

 Others perlvaps, after being. bit by a strange dog, 

 have had a slight indisposition, arising from cold or 

 other causes : this has instantly been regarded as the 

 first symptom, of madness; the medicine has beea 

 taken, and they have recovered* This is the most 

 rational, and indeed the only way of accounting for 

 those reports of cures, which have been so roundly as- 

 serted and published to the world. 



It is but fair, however, to observe, that many per- 

 sons still believe in the efficacy of the Ormskirk me- 

 dicine ; and an acquaintance not long ago informed 

 me, that he was of this opinion ; for that some years 

 since he was bit in the throat by a dog afterwards 

 proved to be mad, and that by taking the. medicine, 

 he is persuaded the hydrophobia was prevented : fur- 

 ther, that he knew several others, wbo had been 

 placed precisely in similar situations, and by having 

 recourse to the same medicine had prevented the ma- 

 lady. It is possible, notwithstanding, that, at the 

 time my acquaintance was bitten, the dog might no* 



