a 
Facts relating to Hydrophobia. 145 
place, and the transmission of the poison from one human being to 
another. I ought, perhaps, to state that most of the physicians, con- 
sulted in the three cases of supposed transmission from one human 
being to another, attributed their death to some other disease, such 
as might be supposed to be attended by symptoms:similar to those 
which characterize this malady. It is believed, however, that the 
material facts, in these cases, were never fully made known to these 
gentlemen. Neighbors and attendants, in whose possession they 
were, feared, perhaps, to disclose them. 
Allow me to say that I was in some measure prepared to feel the 
dangers of this disease, from having, in my early years, assisted in 
destroying several rabid animals. The first was a dog nearly spent 
with the disease. He was killed by a gun, in my father’s barn-yard. 
The utmost care, I well remember, was taken to avoid touching the 
animal, and to remove, and bury with him, the straw and locse ma- 
terials on which his saliva had fallen. At a subsequent time, while 
the family were at breakfast, a fox appeared in the same yard, in 
‘pursuit of the fowls. He ran after them, and when they flew, jump- 
ed high to seize them. He was not.intimidated at the sight of men, . 
or by the throwing of clubs and stones. Fears were entertained of 
his being rabid, and the life of a noble dog was risked in preference 
to suffering the animal to escape in this state. He was too feeble to 
run with great speed, and the dog overtook, and seized him at the 
distance of a hundred rods. I followed in the pursuit, and with the 
aid of the trusty dog, a billet of wood, and a stone, killed the fox. — 
The poor dog, which every member of the family regretted to lose, 
was shut up in a small stable, and fed and watered, daily, with care. 
In about fourteen days he began to refuse food, and to be averse to 
water. He soon began to loll, to discharge saliva, jump towards the 
scaffold floor, bite sticks that were thrust through the sides of his pri- 
son, and, when excited, to fly at its sides with such force that he 
broke off his long teeth. It became evident that he was rabid, and 
he was killed to shorten his sufferings. 
In 1807, W. C.* was bitten and wounded by a mad dog, when at 
the age of eleven years, and on his way home from school. After 
. *” The rabid dog, which bit W.C., was seen, when he was bitten by another supposed 
tobe rabid. {I had the facts from a gentleman now residing in Ohio, and as nearly as - 
I can recollect, they are as follow :—A strange dog crossed the orchard adj his 
; and was seen, without provocation, to seize and bite the dog which bit W. C. 
The gentleman’s daughter, then a small girl, now the widow of C.C., was in the 
Vou, XAlL—-No. 1. 19 
