148 Facts relating to Hydrophobia. 



into the face of his attendants, spit on them, on every body and eve- 

 ry thing, and all over the room.* His efforts in spasms exhibited 

 such strengtli as literally to frighten his attendants. 



S. W. H. sickened and died Aug. 10, 1827, aged thirty year!?. 

 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 

 sickness. 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 apprehen- 

 sion of hydrophobia, nor any excitement on the subject. It is not 

 knovi^n, 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 gave indications of mental aberration, and of a great dread of 

 water. He resided near a small lake, and before being confined -to 

 his room, requested his companion to keep him from the water, and 

 be sure and not let him get into that lake ; if he did it would kill 

 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. 

 During one of his spasms, he bit his tongue and loosened a piece of 

 it. He requested his wife to take the scissors and cut it out, but to 

 take care and not get any of the blood on her. He would take drinks 

 to oblige his friends and attendants, but they say, he always swallow- 

 ed with a convulsive effort, such as they cannot describe. The dis- 

 position to wander continued to the last. He tried various expedi- 

 ents to be released, and to escape from the house. He would 

 grin and fix his glaring eyes on his attendants, when near him, in 

 such a manner as to make them guard against being bitten. He 

 would take a handkerchief and bed clothes in his teeth, and bite and 

 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- 

 position to bite. 



* The prevailing popular impressions on this subject are well known ; perhaps it 

 is not surprising that some of the distressing and various appearances in hydrophobic 

 patients should be attributed, by the terrified beholders, to a specific canine influ- 

 ence. Medical men do not admit the genuineness of these appearances. 



