553 
HYDROPHOBIA AND ITS PREVENTION. 
Mr. SNOW read a paper on hydrophobia, from a gentleman in 
the country, in whose neighbourhood several persons had been 
bitten by a rabid dog, and three of them had become affected with 
hydrophobia, at the respective periods of four, six, and eight weeks 
after they were bitten. Only one of the cases was detailed. The 
chief symptom was great susceptibility to the impression of cold 
air, which excited violent spasms. The patient, a woman, was able 
to swallow warm drinks, but nothing cold ; and she died on the 
fifth day of the disease. The author of the paper proposed the use 
of a strong solution of corrosive sublimate, as a prophylatic for 
the bitten part. He recommended its constant application to 
the wound for a considerable period, and thought that it would 
neutralise the poison, either in the wound or afterwards, by being 
absorbed along with it. Mr. Snow then gave some account of a 
German work on hydrophobia, by Dr. Santer, who used a solution 
of caustic potash, of the strength of half a drachm to two ounces of 
water, to wash the wound, and he said he had not found it fail as 
a preventive. He considered hydrophobia to be a kind of re- 
mittent fever, with a tertian type. The first attack, if not interfered 
with by violent remedies, ended in perspiration, and the patient 
was considerably better on the second day ; but another attack 
followed forty-eight hours after the commencement of the first, 
and was more severe. The patient generally died in the third pa- 
roxysm, but sometimes in the second. Dr. Santer administered 
the root of belladonna, and said that two patients had recovered 
under this treatment ; he gave eight grains in one dose, in the 
first paroxysm, ten grains in the second, and fourteen grains in 
the third It operated by increasing the perspiration, in which he 
supposed the morbific matter was cast off. He had tried belladonna 
as a prophylatic, but found that it failed to prevent the disease. 
Mr. Snow declined to give any decided opinion concerning this 
disease, as he had not seen a case of it. 
Mr. Acton inquired the number of cases on which Dr. Santer 
had formed his opinion. Hydrophobia was so rarely met with, 
that the German physician seemed to have had unusual oppor- 
tunities of observing it. During the six years that he (Mr. Acton) 
was at St, Bartholomew’s, only four cases of the disease had 
occurred. 
Dr. A. T. Thomson had been in practice for forty-four years, 
and had only seen five cases of hydrophobia. He had, however, 
himself been bitten three times by rabid dogs. From all that he 
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