Sept. g, 1899.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
213 
oms of a typical case as presented in tlie "Twentieth 
Century Practice of Medicine," in an article upon this 
disorder. First stage: "Loss of appetite and head- 
ache; agitated, depressed, gloomy; ill-tempered, appre- 
hensive, irritable; sleepless, restless, with bad dreams; 
peaks quickly, with sharp articulation; aversion to fluids 
and often cannot take solid food ; and itching and pain at 
seat of bite." 
Second stage: "Breathing sighing and labored; 
muscles connected with medulla become affected, induc- 
ing spasmodic contraction of larynx and pharynx; hy- 
pera£sthe«ia of sight, feeling, touch, hearing, smelling 
may all occur; sensation of suffocation causes patient 
great anxiety; violent homicidal attacks come on, for 
which the patient expresses regret during quiet intervals; 
snaps with jaws, both tonic and clonic spasms; aerophobia, 
and sometimes delirium. The conjunctiva; are injected, 
pupils dilated, retina hypersensitive to light; pulse ixiW, 
moderately strong and accelerated — weaker after par- 
oxysms; skin moist and perspiring, and the respiration, 
during the paroxysms, gasping and irregular. There is 
also decided thirst." 
Final stage: "Death may be preceded by general 
paralysis; it may take place from convulsive paroxysms 
and asphyxia, or from coma. The disease may be con- 
founded with hysteria, tetanus, epilepsy, delirium 
tremens, acute mania and ursemia." 
The testimony of symptoms in all these stages denotes 
nervous disease predominantly; while the injective con- 
junctivse, the full strong pulse, the delirium and maniacal 
tendencj^, the hj^persensitive retina, and death by coma 
or convulsions all signify to the writer a condition of 
hyperaemia of the brain and central nervous system. 
During the past eighteen years I have speedily sub- 
dued delirium tremens, acute mania and uremia tem- 
porarily, by contracting the arterioles in the spinal cord 
and brain and making the general circulation active. 
Many cases of hysteria can be rapidly cured by expand- 
ing the general circulation, thus inducing good nutrition 
of the body, and at the same time withdrawing the ex- 
cess of blood from overstimulated nerve centers. Five 
of these disease are understood to be nervous, and only 
one of theni' — delirium tremens — is due to a poison ab- 
sorbed. The uraemia of Bright's disease, 'with the result- 
ing coma, is considered due to a poison acting upon the 
brain, but Bright's disease does not come under the head 
of nervous diseases. 
According to this evidence, then, hydrophobia may be 
due either to a poison absorbed, or it may be caused by 
constant direct irritation carried from the seat of the bite 
to the central nervous system, giving rise to hypersemia 
of nerve centers, and thus an increased function or ab- 
normal action upon their part, inducing thereby all the 
symptoms of hydrophobia. The fact that there are, in 
many reported cases and among the early symptoms, itch- 
ing, pain and heat at the seat of the bite, would tend 
to confirm the hypothesis that from the time of the bite 
by the dog there had been more or less constant direct 
irritation carried to the central nervous system. But the 
apparent truth which is brought out by the foregoing, to 
my own mind, is that in all nervous forms of disease the 
main factor inducing the symptoms is active hyperemia 
within, and therefore excessive function of, central nerve 
cells. 
Does the pathology of hydrophobia bear out the above 
conclusion? The post-morten examination in man shows 
general congestion in nerve centers and softening around 
the spinal cord. Ross, of Manchester, says that tetanus 
and rabies are alike, the lesions in the former being 
spinal, in the latter cerebral; and that the ner\'es leading 
from the congested centers are congested and enlarged. 
Keirle ("Twentieth Century Practice," vol. xv.) says 
that the lymph glands are always enlarged in rabies. 
The under surface of the medulla is very vascular, the 
gray matter of the cord is hypersemic, the larynx is red, 
the spleen is dark red, the liver is congested. 
There is practically an immense amount of evidence 
proving hypersemia of the nerve centers in hydrophobia. 
There is also hyperemia of mucous membranes and' 
of many organs and glands, Avhich last I have been for 
many years of the opinion may be due to excitement or 
hyperfunction of the vas@-dilator nerve centers, and that 
when conditions of hypersemia or inflammations are shown 
by post-morten demonstration to have existed during life, 
it is a proof that vaso-dilator nerve centers distributed to 
the part affected are hyper^mic, and therefore abnormally 
active. If this is so, then the hyperemia of glands, of 
organs and of mucous membranes noted in cases of 
hydrophobia would be simply another proof that the 
cause of the attack was central nerve-center excitement, or 
active congestion in the centers. 
It appears tliat the conclusions we may now draw 
are as follows: (i) The majority of the symptoms 
denote central nerve-cell excitement. (2) Others testify 
to the writer, after many years of treatment of nervous 
diseases and conditions, that there is hyperemia of the 
brain and cerebral nerve centers. (3) Treatment which 
will withdraw excess of blood from nerve centers and at 
the same time make an active systematic circulation will 
subdue and cure nervous diseases, whether caused by 
poison absorbed, by terminal-nerve irritation, by worry, 
pain or overexertion, mental or bodily. (4) Pathological 
conditions evidence hypersemia of the brain and cerebral 
nerve centers, as well as hyperasmia of organs and tissues, 
which may be due to the same central nerve excitement. 
If these four propositions be true, the next query 
which arises is. What is the best treatment, the most 
rapid and efficient to withdraw the excess of blood in 
active circulation from the congested brain and nerve 
centers, and which will at the same time so act as to 
expel from the body the poison of the disease, if the dis- 
ease is due to a poison? If it is not due to a poison, how 
can we most speedily withdraw the excess of blood from 
the nerve centers and brain, without injury to the patient? 
Is it best to inject the hydrophobia virus which has 
presumably caused the disease, and thus secure a hoped- 
for immunity to the poison already absorbed ; or will it be 
better to excite active secretion from some great emunc- 
tory organ, in order to expel the poison if there is one, or 
to attract so much blood to the secreting surface that any 
excess of blood must perforce be withdrawn from the con- 
gested brain and nerve centers — even if no poison exists 
— and their undue excitement be subdued, the symptoms 
banished and a cvr^ effected? There appears to me to be 
no "halting between two opinions here." It will be far 
better to expel the poison and withdraw the excess of 
blood from the congested cerebral area, than to attempt 
to immunize the party bitten by tlie further absorption 
of the same poison which induces the disease. But has 
such a method ever beeji used successftiUy to cure hydro- 
phobia? It most certainly has, and in a hirge number of 
cases. 
It is hoped that by what has been set forth, and by 
what is to come, the attention of the profession may be 
drawn to that which seems to the writer a much more 
simple, physiological, effective and less dangerous method 
of treating and curing this much-dreaded disease, or set 
of symptoms — whichever one may be pleased to call it — 
than Pasteur placed before the profession and the public. 
There is no doubt that a large body of the medical 
fraternity consider Pasteur's treatment a cause of hydro-* 
phobia, instead of a cure; and that it is a danger to be 
guarded against rather than a cure to be relied upon. 
Let us glance at the opinions of some eminent ob- 
servers. Professor Peter, the geratest clinician France 
has produced in this century, a man described as the Sir 
William Gull of Paris — the able editor of the Medical 
Journal — writes : "M. Pasteur does not cure hydro- 
phobia, he gives it." Another physician, Dr. Edward 
Berdoe, M.R.C.S., says: "So far as any gpod effects 
having resulted from the treatment, we know that it has 
undoubtedly led to the increase of hystero-epilepsy, a 
disease singularly like hj^drophobia." Dr. T. M. Dolan, 
F.D.C.S., of Halifax, the erudite and independent editor 
of the Provincial Medical Journal, in his book, "Pasteur 
and Rabies," says : "Not only does M. Pasteur not pro- 
tect from disease, but he has added a new terror to it by 
the introduction of paralytic rabies." Dr. Charles Bell 
Taylor, F.R.C.S., writes: "1 regard the so-called wonder- 
ful discovery as the most extraordinary delusion which 
has afflicted men of science for centuries." Professor 
form of disorder — paralytic rabies. Further, iit is essen- 
tially set forth as a preventive treatment only, but of 
little or no service after the attack has begun or well- 
developed symptoms have appeared; whereas, the treat- 
ment about to be placed before you is simple, is not in- 
jurious, may be used preventively, "and will cure if ad- 
ministered not later than the second day of its develop- 
ment, and frequently do so even if not given until the 
third day." This nuotation is taken from some remarks 
by Dr. Montague R. Leverson, of Fort Hamilton, Brook- 
lyn. 
The treatment which I advocate is known as that of 
the "Buisson" bath. Dr. Buisson (doctor of medicine of 
the Paris faculty) was called in to a woman suffering 
from hydrophobia, just one hour before her death. She 
wished to be bled, and after the operation he wiped liis 
hands on a handkerchief saturated with her saliva. He 
immediately noticed a small wound upon the first finger 
of his left hand, and thoroughly cauterized it upon 
arriving at his office. But on the seventh day pain de- 
veloped in the wound and rapidly spread up the forearm, 
following the course of the radial nerve. As the disease 
progressed, the pain became intolerable; his eyes were 
extremely irritable, with dimness of vision ; his hair seemed 
to stand erect; a current of fresh air prolonged the 
paroxysms ; there were constant nausea and tightening of 
the throat, with excessive salivation and incessant expec- 
toration ; he had a horror of water, and a constant longing 
to run and bite. He continues: "For some time past I 
had been persuaded that a vapor bath was able to prevent, 
but not to cure, hydroprobia. My thought being occupied 
solely with death, I sought that which was the most 
prompt and least painful. 
"Being the proprietor of a bath establishment, I re- 
solved to die in a vapor bath (commonly called Russian). 
I took a Reaumer thermometer in my hands, fearing that 
the heat I desired might be refused me * * * and at 
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VIEW 
Von Frisch, o£ Vienna, makes the despairing admission: 
"The great hopes which the medical world has placed on 
Pasteur's discovery have not been realized." 
"That the Pasteur system is unreHable is evident by the 
fact that more than 313 persons have died either under 
the treatment or in spite of it, and as it involves the 
infliction of infernal barbarities and torture, the sooner 
the public is made aware that a superior and more 
humane remedy for hydrophobia has been discovered, the 
better" (Herald of the Golden Age). 
Dr. Charles W. Dulles, of Philadelphia, when ap- 
pointed by the Pennsylvania Medical Society to investi- 
gate hydrophobia, stated as his opinion that a large num- 
ber of deaths from that malady were directly due to in- 
oculation with the virus of what ought to be called 
"Pasteur's disease." 
The following well-authenticated case of Ethel Wil- 
kins, which appeared in the London Globe, Nov. 12, 189S, 
tends to confirm the foregoing judgment: "In October, 
1895, the child of the gardener on the Twickenham Park 
estate (age three years) was bitten on the face by a 
small fox terrier. The dog was immediately destroyed. 
There was no evidence that the dog was mad. The child 
was taken to a physician (Dr. Murphy) to have the wound 
dressed. At his earnest persuasion the anxious mother 
(being told that she would have the child's death on her 
conscience if she refused) allowed the child to be taken 
to the Pasteur Hospital and put under the regular treat- 
ment — inoculation with rabic virus twice daily for the first 
three days, and then once daily for twenty-one days. On 
the day she was discharged as cured (though there was 
no evidence that anything had been the matter with her) 
feverishness and other symptoms appeared. On Nov. 9 
she was taken back to the institute, and the doctors then 
pronounced the case to be hydrophobia and hopeless. She 
was, however, inoculated twelve times that day — six 
times on each side. In forty-eight hours this child, three 
years old, received twenty-four inoculations. The loth of 
November a witness reports seeing her strapped down on 
her bed; her hands (which had been left free) had torn 
her face in her agony." 
Added to the foregoing opinions and statements, I have 
in my possession a carefully arranged list of 394 cases 
treated for hydrophobia by the Pasteur method, from 
August, 1885, to July, 1898, all of which were fatal. 
Some were bitten by wolves, some by cats and the vast 
majority by supposedly mad dogs. This "quadruple heca- 
tomb," as it is called, is reprinted from a supplement to 
the Zoophilist, June, 1898. It appears to be undoubtedly 
correct, as the journals from which the cases were taken 
are all given, with the dates of their issue. Pasteur's 
treatment then, according to these representations, has 
not only not lessened but increased the number of cases 
of hydrophobia ; it has also introduced a new »pd terrible 
42° R. (127° F.) I was cured. I confess that at first I 
refused to believe in a cure which partook of the nature 
of a miracle. After the bath I dined and drank with 
ease, and went to bed and slept well. From that day to" 
this I have felt no sort of pain or uneasiness." The 
report of his case was given to the French minister of 
public instruction. Thus this great discovery was simply 
blundered upon like many another one. "Subsequently 
over eighty people bitten by rabid dogs underwent his 
process, and not one died. The theory is simply that 
sweating (increased by hot drink) opens all the pores 
of the skin, and all poisonous matter in the blood or in 
surface wounds is forced out through the pores." 
This statement is true, and poisons are eliminated by 
the sweating process, but there is a deeper truth involved 
by great activity of all the sweat glands and that is that 
no gland can secrete excessively, unless a much larger 
quantity of blood than in normal conditions is passing 
through it, since all glands, organs and tissues receive 
their nutrition from and deposit their refuse into the 
blood; in the former instance from the arteries, in the 
latter into the veins. Therefore, when there is an active 
sweating process carried on by the whole skin, there is an 
enormous and abnormal amount of blood drawn into these 
glands ; consequently there must be a lesser amount than 
normal in other portions of the body. Thus, if there is 
an excess pf blood in active circulation in the lungs, in 
the bronchi, in the pleura, the process of sweating will go 
a long way toward their relief, and the reason is very 
clear ; because the sweat glands in order to sweat properly 
require such a large amount of blood that the excess of 
blood in the inflamed or congested area is withdrawn, the 
local congestion relieved, and the patient becomes con- 
valescent. 
Now as I have endeavored to show 'in the early part 
of this paper that in hydrophobia there is within the 
brain, the raedulla and the nerve centers an excess of 
blood in active circulation, giving rise to the attack and 
the symptoms of the disease — so, when the Buisson bath 
is used and profound sweating results, not only is the 
poison, if there is one, eliminated, but also the excess of 
blood demonstrated to be in the central nervous system 
by the evidence of symptoms, and also pathological testi- 
mony, is speedily withdrawn from the congested cerebrum 
and centers, and as a result the symptoms are subdued 
and the patient recovers. 
Thus this treatment not only can expel poison, but it 
also demonstrates a true physiological process, by which 
the excess of blood may be withdrawn from the ab- 
norrnally functioning nerve centers. It is simply a beauti- 
ful instance of revulsion of blood from the brain and 
central nervous system to the skin, in the first giving 
rise to all the horrible symptoms of a greatly feared 
disease) and in the second this same excess of blood actins: 
