HYDROPHOBIA. 
207 
Hall, besides being an able physician, takes a great interest 
in zoology. While I am now writing, requesting the above 
favour, I think it right to add the following particulars, hints 
and suggestions, concerning the treatment of Hydrophobia : 
A CURE FOR HYDROPHOBIA. 
Mr. T. Wells, late landlord of the Mad Dog public-house, 
at Little Odell, was well known in the locality for being in 
possession of a prescription for an efficacious drink against 
the bite of a mad dog ; hence the origin of the sign of his 
public-house. We have heard of the antidote he prepared 
having been successfully administered, in several instances, to 
cattle, after having been bitten by a rabid animal. We know 
not if he has bequeathed his valuable secret to any one of his 
representatives. It has been said that, although in strait- 
ened circumstances, he has refused as much as £100 for the 
copy of the prescription. 
REMEDY FOR THE BITE OF A MAD DOG. 
A correspondent of the Leipsic journal, named Gastell, 
now 82, has made public a remedy which he has used for 
fifty years with success : 
“Recipe. — Take, immediately, warm vinegar or tepid water; 
wash the wound clean therewith, and then dry it ; pour then 
upon the wound a few drops of muriatic acid (because mine- 
ral acids destroy the poison of the saliva) by means of which 
the evil effect of the latter is destroyed.” 
Why not administer muriatic acid in large doses, well 
diluted, every three or four hours, with an infusion of Columbo 
root? Muriatic acid is well known as both tonic and anti- 
septic ; and this leads me to ask whether a hydrophobic dog 
was ever opened after death, to see if there was any conges- 
tion of the brain, or any derangement of the stomach, or 
what signs, &c.? For, a friend of mine considers that dogs 
that are frequently chained up in hot weather, and have not 
sufficient exercise, have attacks of apoplexy, which induces 
Hydrophobia. He therefore bleeds all his dogs once a year, 
and that in summer ! Now, I propose to add a few 
drops of muriatic acid to the dog’s water during summer, 
beginning with one drop the first day, and so on, &c., &c., 
since the danger lies in the saliva, and mineral acids, we have 
just heard, destroy the poison of the saliva. 
An Irish friend of mine, well conversant with the treatment 
