CHAP. III.] WATER, NO TRUE TEST OF RABIES. 43t> 



to be a fallacious one in any state of the disorder 

 with any animal whatever. All rabid horses continue 

 to feed up to a certain period — until the stomach 

 is attacked — and some eat voraciously in the inter- 

 vals of the fits ; and drink too, but no good can be 

 expected from either, unless made the vehicles for 

 the introduction of some nostrum, If a cure be 

 attempted, certainly nutritious food, easy of di- 

 gestion, and cooling, must assist it. The stomach 

 being very much inflamed in this disorder, points 

 out the propriety of bran mashes, marshmallows, 

 and of water gruel, given cold, which will afford 

 the means of alleviating the anguish of that organ, 

 to the coats whereof the last food taken by the 

 expiring patient has been found to adhere after 

 death ; that is to say, the fibrous coat of the sto- 

 mach of the subject alluded to identified itself with 

 the food so intimately, that it stripped off, whilst the 

 insensible coat still adhered. 



Remedy. — Every possible remedy, some of them 

 of opposite tendency, has been tried on the dog, 

 and on man. Sea-bathing, the Ormskirk medi- 

 cine, copious bleeding, excision of the part, the 

 actual cautery, and cupping the parts, have been 

 each employed — successfully, we are told; but no 

 reliance can be placed on either, since they oftener 

 fail ; though there is no reason why the horse 

 should not undergo bleeding and cutting off the 

 laceration as soon after the accident as possible. 

 When we consider that the part bitten is ever 

 observed to enlarge previous to the horse showing 



u 



