Facts relating to Hydrophobia. 161 



a remedy, that some of them would suffer the bite for the sake of a 

 glass of rum." — Ann. de Chimie.* 



Salt is generally known as the most efficacious remedy, for the 

 stings of insects, which to some persons are extremely poisonous. It 

 is also extensively used, as a certain remedy by fishermen, and per- 

 sons obliged to stand in water, to whom the bite of blood-suckers is 

 poisonous. 



The following fact may be relied upon as well authenticated. In 

 1807, a boy, at the age of four years, was severely bitten by a mad 

 dog, and wounded in the arm. A lad several years older was bitten 

 by the same dog, on the same day, and has since died of the disease. 

 No remedy was applied to his wound. The arm of the lad bitten at 

 the age of four years, was immediately done up in common salt. 

 The wound swelled badly, suppurated freely, and finally healed. He 

 has since experienced no inconvenience from the bite, and is now a 

 healthy, active man. A respectable physician, to whom the particu- 

 lars were subsequently related, approved of the course pursued, and 

 assured the anxious mother that she had done the best thing which it 

 was in her power to do. There is reason to hope, that this may 

 prove a cure, and if so, the cure was effected by so simple an agent 

 as common salt. 



Q^uery. — If salt has any power to counteract animal poison, might 

 it not afford relief, by being administered to persons afflicted with 

 hydrophobia ? 



The above statement and the annexed fact, are made public, not 

 so much from a conviction that salt is a remedy, as from the hope 

 that they will lead to experiments, which shall decide the point, 

 whether salt has the power to neutralize or destroy animal poison. 

 If such is not the fact, a prevalent tradition should be forthwith cor- 

 rected. If it has such a power, immense good would result from 

 having the fact scientifically established, and universally promulgated. 



Chlorine is known to destroy instantly every species of virus to 

 which it has been hitherto applied. Is it possible that the chlorine 

 in common salt may become so far active, as to destroy the poison ? 

 We have no fact as yet ascertained that can sustain this conclusion, 

 but it may perhaps be worthy of some attention. — Ed. 



* New York Observer. 



Vol. XXIII.— No. 1. 21 



