146 Facts relating to HydropJiohia. 



biting this youth, the dog was confined in a small apartment in his 

 owuer's house, where he was seen by many persons, and where he 

 exhibited all the symptoms of hydrophobia. A person, in company 

 with others, with a gun in hand, ascended the chamber stairs, dis- 

 placed a part of the floor, and through the aperture, shot and killed 

 the dog. These facts are attested by a man who was an eye witness, 

 and they are corroborated by many others. 



At the time of the bite, in 1807, W. C. is said to have had a fee- 

 ble constitution, but it is testified on all hands that he grew up without 

 sickness. It is said, he conducted strangely, by turns, sometime 

 before his last sickness. The disease appeared in him fifteen 

 years after the bite, and was preceded by mental irregularity. He 

 had a short season of strange excitement, during public worship 

 on the Sabbath. At a neighbor's house, the nest day, he sud- 

 denly jumped, screamed, broke windows, and ran out at the door, 

 with great nimbleness of foot. He soon became quiet and return- 

 ed ; and when his friends remonstrated with him for such conduct, 

 he said he could not avoid doing thus, for he had been bitten by a 

 mad dog. During the progress of the disease, he gnashed his 

 teeth ;* discharged large quantities of saliva, had distressing spasms, 

 and was set on biting every body and every thing. The pillow ca- 

 ses, through which he made holes, by taking them in his teeth and 

 shaking them, are now to be seen. He spit on persons who came 

 in, and on all parts of the room. He was averse to swallowing any 

 thing. He watched for opportunities to bite persons, and if he could 

 bite any one it seemed to afford him pleasure, and was followed by 

 laughing. He lived after his attack, fourteen or fifteen days. It re- 

 quired four or five able men to attend upon him. He died Sept. 1st. 

 1822, aged twenty six years. 



L. T. C, S. W. H. and C. C. a brother of W. C, were all 

 bitten by W. C. while attending on him in his last sickness. The 



orchard at the time, and her mother seeing the dog in the act of biting the other, 

 and being alarmed, called her in. The circumstance she well remembers, and says 

 the bitten dog fled into lier father's house, instead of his owner's, not more than four 

 rods distant, and ran under the bed. The stray dog afterwards appeared in front of 

 the house and sat down. The gentleman pointed out the spot, described his appear- 

 ance, and said he had not a doubt of his being mad. If I do not misremember, he 

 was destroyed. The bitten dog bit W. C. between two and thiee weeks after he 

 received his own bite. 



* It is stated also that he howled and growled, but it is easy to suppose that the 

 imagination may convert groans and shrieks of distress, into imitative sounds. 



