Facts relating to Hydrophobia. 149 
_ The death of L. T.-C. and S. W. H. left on the minds of the 
community an impression-of mystery. There was a general feeling 
that the cases were very singular. Individuals, who witnessed their 
sickness, and were acquainted with the facts above mentioned, firmly 
believed, that they died of hydrophobia, but no professional man had 
encouraged that belief or laid stress on the facts which supported it, 
and the friends, for obvious reasons, were not forward to express it. 
Things remained thus, till C. C. a brother of W. C. sickened 
and died, March 24, 1828, aged thirty seven years. He was sick 
but eleven days. He was a strong laboring man, and had never 
before been the subject of sickness. After attending a meeting in 
the evening, he retired to rest, and slept as usual. About mid- 
night, he suddenly sprang from bed, and ran undressed, into the 
street, screaming so loudly as to alarm his neighbors. From this 
first decisive appearance of his disease, remedies seemed not even 
to abate his distressing symptoms. Nor was his malady suspected 
by his attending physician, till the third or fourth day. On my 
making i inquiries of a parishioner, in regard to the sick man, he said 
to me, “ He is no better. Do you know what people say about C.? 
They say he was bitten by his brother W. who died with i 
bia, and they can prove it, and they know he is mad.” I immedi- 
ately made: inquiries, and became satisfied that this was not mere 
talk. I saw, the next day, his attending physician, and having men- 
tioned the facts to him, I asked if he had suspected the nature of this 
disease. He replied no. I then inquired if he would not examine 
his authorities and look for the symptoms of the disease, with sole 
reference to them. © His next visit to the sick man resulted in his 
conviction that his disease was hydrophobia. The physician had told 
the attendants, that if they would preserve some of the saliva, and 
- jnoculate a dog with it, he would become rabid in a certain number 
of days. They had carefully taken up on a woollen string and drop- 
ped into a phial, a quantity of this and corked the oid They had 
. selected the victim and the place of his confinement, and were hold- 
- ing the corked phial in the-hand, when the man was seized with his 
last spas. ‘The phial was suddenly dropped, and all search for it 
in future proved ineffectual—a circumstance deeply to be regretted, 
for had the experiment been made, the result would probably have 
removed from every mind, capable of appreciating it, all doubt re- 
specting the siek man’s disease. 
igi: ig sas A 
