148 Facis relating to Hydrophobia. 
into the face of his attendants, spit on them, on every body and eve- 
ry thing, and ail over the room.* His efforts in spasms exhibited 
such strength as literally to frighten his attendants. WE 
Ss. W. H. sickened and died Aug. 10, 1827, aged _ thirty years. 
He was sick five days. Although he had been for years subject 
to epilepsy, yet there was no appearance of this disease in his, last 
. He was bitten by W. C. in 1822, and carried the scar of 
the bite to his grave. At the time, there was no general ipprehen- 
sion of hydrophobia, nor any excitement on the subject. It is not 
known, that the fact of his bite. was mentioned to his physician 
His disease was pronounced to be something else. Whatever it might 
have been, it was preceded by mental anxiety, and attended by the 
following symptoms. He at first inclined to wander from his house; 
and pes indications of mental aberration, and of a great dread of 
water. He: resided. near a Leona lake, and before being confined to 
his roo! panion to keep him from the water, and 
be sure and not let him get into that lake ; 3 if he did it would» kilk 
him. He is represented as having had, in the first stages of his dis+ 
ease, a constant dread of water, but six hours before he died, he call- 
ed for some, and drank of it. Before his spasms commenced, he 
entreated his wife, that if he should be as W. C. was, she would pro+ 
cure’ some strong man to take care of him, and be careful to get 
some one who would make him mind, lest he should hurt others+ 
ao one of his spasms, he bit his tongue and loosened a piece of 
‘He requested his wife to take the scissors and cut it out, but‘to 
am care and not get any of the blood on her. He would take drinks 
to oblige his friends and attendants, but they say, he aleetyienlioe’ 
ed with a convulsive effort, such as they cannot describe. The dis- 
position to wander continued to the last. He tried various expedis 
ents to be released, and to escape from the house. He — 
grin and fix his glaring eyes on his attendants, when near him, i 
such a manner as to make them guard against being bitten. Ms 
would take a handkerchief and bed clothes in his teeth, and bite 
shake them. He is represented as of a peaceable disposition, and 
some of his friends think that he made great efforts to curb the dis- 
asec to bite. 
- The prevailing popular impressions on “this subject are well known; se it 
e distressing and various appearances in hydrop sat 
patients should be attributed, by the terrified beholders, to a specific canine 
ence. Medical men do not admit the genuineness of these appearances. : 
