154 Facts relating to Hydrophobia. 



This table is cited, not only as a.specimen of useful research, but 

 as furnishing palpable evidence of the gradual increase of the dis- 

 ease, in a single country, in a period of ten years ; the deaths by it 

 being two hundred and fifty-two more in the tenth year, than in the 

 first of the series. It also suggests that the disease continually finds 

 victims to prey upon, among animals which roam in the forests. In 

 this country, farmers have frequently destroyed foxes which fearlessly 

 approached them in open day, without, perhaps, suspecting that they 

 were rabid. From this species of animals, many dogs unquestiona- 

 bly derive the disease, and transmit it to others, and they to other do- 

 mestic animals, and to human beings. From the fact that the poison 

 is transmissible from one species of animals to another, and from an- 

 imals to human beings, it appears highly probable that it may be 

 transmitted from one human being to another. Man then, of all the 

 animal creation, is most exposed to this fearful malady. He alone 

 is endowed with reason to ascertain its nature, and use the means of 

 self-preservation. To contribute, in some degree, to this object, is 

 all that this article attempts. 



The following cases, it is believed, are well authenticated. They 

 are quoted with names, dates and references, so that if any error 

 exists, it may be easily discovered. 



1. Hydrophobia from the hair of a rabid animal. Time of the 

 virus lurking, eight or ten weeks. 



A young man, named Morehead, suddenly expired at Cincinnati, 

 on the 3d of May, 1831. It is stated that all the usual characteris- 

 tics of the disease were manifested during his short illness, and that 

 a subsequent examination of the body, satisfied the four physicians 

 who attended him, that the case was precisely such an one as is pro- 

 duced by the bite of a mad dog ; although it was ascertained that he 

 had never been bitten by one. He was a tanner by trade. As sev- 

 eral domestic animals had died of hydrophobia during the winter, it 

 is supposed that one of them, which had besmeared its own hair with 

 saliva, had been skinned, and its hide sent to the tan yard, where the 

 poison might have been imparted to those who handled it. The 

 opinion of professional gentlemen is, that the poison, applied to the 

 sound skin, cannot excite the disease, but the victim, in this instance, 

 had a burn on one of his fingers, and the sore had a scab on it at the 

 time of his death. ''^ 



* New York Observer, Juae IS, 1831. 



