174 The Carnivora. 
with treacle. The unhappy patient must often have cursed 
the day in which he put himself into the hands of the 
faculty. Human fat—from the dead subject, it may be 
supposed—was a common ingredient of the poultices to be 
applied to the bite. A physician, of high reputation in his 
time, makes these sapient remarks on the mercurial. treat- 
ment: “Should the mercury occasion a slight salivation, it 
could not but be attended with good success; for the poison 
of the rabies sticking to the saliva, and mercury naturally 
taking its course to the mouth, can it be doubted that this 
sovereign antidote in many disorders should not also destroy 
that which occasions the hydrophobia ? ” 
In 1738, a surgeon—Mr. John Douglas—published a circular, 
in which mercury was employed to an alarming extent. One 
pound of human fat, one pound of mercury, and the same of 
lard, was to be got into the patient by rubbing it over the 
body, inguinal glands, and axille, with, in the meantime, 
copious bleeding, and doses of cantharides. Poultices of sor- 
rel, rue, roasted onions, bruised garlic, leeks, yeast, salt, 
mustard seed, and oil of scorpions, were highly recommended, 
and the anus of an old cock is directed to be-put on the 
wound, “to draw out the virus.” It was an easy matter to 
determine with certainty whether or not a dog that had 
bitten anyone was really mad. One had only to “pluck the 
feathers from the breech of an old cock, and apply them bare 
to the bite; if the dog was mad, the cock will swell and die. 
and the person bitten will ail nothing.” The “curd of a 
puppy’s milk” (whatever that may be) was held in high 
esteem, among other remedies which were handed down in 
families as really valuable heirlooms. Among charms and 
amulets, there is one attributing great virtue to the skin 
of a hyena. A piece of it was tied round the wounded 
limb, or the patient was benefited by merely looking at it. 
“The notion takes its rise from the aversion dogs naturally 
have for hyenas; whence it is strongly conjectured that this 
canine distemper should be removed on the sight or touch 
