Facts relating to Hydrophobia. 143 
ing to the families of ‘the-plants which produce them. * $d, That 
some being acrid and resinous may be injurious, and others being 
mild and gummy may assist in the nourishment of other plants. 4th, 
That these facts tend to confirm the theory of rotation due to $i 
De Candolle.—Bib. Univ. ~ 1832. 
i PD 
Art. XXII1.—Facts in relation to several Remarkable Deaths at- 
tributed to Hydrophobia. 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
oT ee death of a friend,* in the parish of Chester, in Connecticut, 
having called me to that place in July, 1830; the occasion of his fu- 
neral brought me into contact with some of the surviving friends of 
four persons who, not many years before, had died there under very 
remarkable circumstances. From the father of one of them, I receiv- 
ed a very painful statement of facts, of which I had heard, somewhat 
vaguely before, and which had excited, in my mind, no little interest 
and curiosity. This bereaved father, a sensible and judicious, elder- 
ly man, expressed to me, in the most decided terms, his belief, that 
his son died of the hydrophobia. As the circumstances of my visit 
did mot permit me, to make a full investigation, a letter was some- 
time after, addressed to the Rev. William Case, the clergyman of 
the village, (a gentleman upon whose zeal, intelligence, and candor, 
the fullest reliance could be placed,), requesting him to transmit to me 
a statement of the facts. 
There is no wish on his part or on mine, to agitate medical 
theories ; and ev one will, of course, form his own opinion as 
to the possibility of the communication of the hydrophobic virus, 
from one human being to another. On physical principles, no satis- 
factory reason can be assigned, why the human subject of this mal- 
ady should be unable to transmit the poison of the infected saliva to 
the fluids of a wounded person, although it is confidently asserted, 
The late Dr. Burr Noyes. Chester is thirty miles north east of New Haven, in 
the town of Saybrook, near the mouth of Connecticut river. Dr. Noyes was much 
esteemed as a physician, and was in attendance in the case of C. C., desrshen s in the 
succeeding pages. 
