45G 
ON HYDROPHOBIA AND ITS TREATMENT. 
hoping by this means to procure a discussion which may lead us to 
some useful mode of treatment in this perplexing and dreadful 
disease. 
Hydrophobia is a specific disease, communicable from the brute 
part of the creation (particularly the dog tribe) to man, therefore it 
is an affeotion sui generis. 
In the dog I am led to consider it as a series of convulsions, 
and as regards m,an, I would add the word “ sympathetic ;” for 
although symptoms and autopsy may, generally speaking, bear the 
signs of inflammation, still cases are occasionally met with in which 
there is so little organic derangement that the surgeon is hindered 
from pointing out the part affected; consequently we are led to 
consider what could be the cause of death with so little Organic 
lesion. Is it impossible to trace it to spasm of some part of the 
brain I I think not. 
The early symptoms in the dog are feverishness, sullenness, 
restlessness, and snapping, which, in a short time, become of a 
convulsive nature; for we find him taking food with a quick, 
single swallow, shewing that the pharynx and fauces are affected, 
as is the head, being carried in a peculiar position, low down, and a 
little on one side, with a choretic movement ; moreover, there is a 
propensity for biting or catching at some imaginary being — the eye 
is found bloodshot from contraction of some minute vessel — there 
is strabismus, from muscular spasm, and distortion of the eye and 
of one or both sides of the face from spasmodia. As the disease 
advances we find it assuming a more direct convulsive character, 
every action and pain being of that nature, and the head partici- 
pating with the rest of the body ; for the dog will, at times, obey 
the commands of his master, and at other times cannot understand 
them. There is not in the dog that great dread of water which is 
generally supposed; as he is oftentimes seen to bury his face 
in it, which, no doubt, affords him relief, as the tongue, being the 
perspiratory organ, is much swollen: the inability to swallow is 
caused by spasm of the fauces, &c. brought on by the attempt to 
drink; forming, in my opinion, the most unequivocal sign of its 
convulsive nature. 
So we find the disease in man — either severe convulsions or 
spasm of some organ, sometimes raging and subsiding in regular 
intermittent paroxysms ; the head particularly denoting the inter- 
mission by the occasional delirium and returning consciousness. 
That the affection may be considered “ sympathetic,” I rest upon 
the general resemblance of symptoms, but particularly upon the 
spasm caused in the attempt to drink. How is it that in many a 
rational being the sight of liquids will sometimes bring on spasm 1 
How can we account for the pharynx refusing its office, and bringing 
