82 



Mr. G. F. Dowdeswell. 



October, 1877), where a country girl, 21 years of age, bitten by a dog 

 suspected of rabies 28th July, 1874, admitted into the hospital at 

 Wickrath in Rhenish Prussia, on the 80th day developed symptoms 

 of hydrophobia, spasms in attempting to drink, followed by the usual 

 course of symptoms. She was excited by light, with hyperesthesia of 

 the senses of smell and touch. Morphia and chloroform were without 

 effect ; she was then treated with frequent subcutaneous injections of 

 curari, to the point of commencing general paralysis of the voluntary 

 muscles ; after being for two hours under the influence of the drug the 

 symptoms of hydrophobia gradually disappeared and the patient 

 ultimately recovered. 



It is not probable that in this case the symptoms were merely 

 simulative or hysterical (lyssophobic) . The photophobia and hyper- 

 esthesia of the sense of smell and touch do not favour that view ; the 

 patient, a peasant girl, was very unlikely to have heard of the 

 occurrence of these symptoms, or to have been apprehensive of 

 them. 



This is one case out of several in which it does not seem to me that 

 there is reason to doubt the fact of recovery, though it may well be 

 that a method of treatment successful in one case would fail in 

 another, or very possibly even aggravate the symptoms, owing to 

 their great diversity. 



With regard to dogs, the records of cure or recovery are very 

 numerous. To take one instance;* rabies having broken out in a 

 pack of hounds, Dr. James, relying on the action of mercury, treated 

 two hounds which had both developed symptoms of infection, with 

 turpeth mineral (the yellow subsulphate of mercury). The one 

 recovered, the other died. It was also, he states, successfully employed 

 in other cases, both in man and dogs. 



Here it was improbable that the symptoms and nature of the 

 outbreak could have been mistaken ; misrepresentation, too, is pre- 

 cluded by the fact that in a pack of hounds all the circumstances 

 affecting them would be perfectly well known. 



The statements of M. Pasteur, too, which in a matter of fact may 

 be implicitly relied upon, appear to me conclusive upon this point. 

 He states distinctly (' Comptes Rendus,' vol. 95, p. 1187) that he has 

 seen some cases of " spontaneous " recovery in dogs, after the first 

 symptoms have appeared, f though never after the severe symptoms, 

 and (loc. cit., 25th February, 1884) that recovery is frequent in 

 fowls. 



From this it appears to me that this disease is not necessarily 

 incurable in man and the dog, though the symptoms are so different 

 * < Phil. Trans.,' vol. 39 (No. 441, 1736), p. 244. 



f He adds that he has also seen cases of partial recovery and subsequent relapse 

 after some months, followed by death. 



