HYDROPHOBIA AND HOMCEOPATHY. 
3& 
night she had the most frightful dreams, and when she awoke 
they returned to her memory even more horrible than before: 
she had a most violent thirst; she could not bear the light re- 
flected by the mirrors; she trembled all over, and then came a 
fainting fit, which lasted several minutes. When she came to 
herself, she complained anew of thirst ; but when some sugared 
water was offered to her, she dashed it from her with violence, 
and abandoned herself to all the fury of hydrophobia. This 
lasted about three hours, and during the remainder of the day 
she was quiet. Every night the dreams returned, and every 
morning the horrible recollection of them, and a consequent 
dreadful state of nervous erythism. It was a quotidian fever, the 
paroxysm of which was dreadful. 
The humble veterinarian who writes this would not have mis- 
taken such a case : but M. Laville de la Plaigne was sent for, and 
he saw in it a true case of hydrophobia, resulting from the bite 
of a rabid dog, and he daily gave a drop of the tincture of bella- 
donna, No. 30: On the fifth day the paroxysm was less violent. 
He then gave four drops of the tincture of hyoscyamus, No. 30 
and the disorder disappeared : but knowing that the poison of 
rabies might possibly be treacherously working, he returned to the 
belladonna, and gave one drop of No. 30 daily during fifty or 
sixty days. 
Although most of these cases refer to my legitimate patients, 
I should scarcely have dared to have taken up this subject, had 
it not been the dangerous tendency of the remarks of M. Laville 
de la Plaigne, and the editor of the Bibliotheque, should homoeo- 
pathy, which I can scarcely think possible, became half so po- 
pular in England as in some of the German states. “ I think,” 
says the author, “ that the cases which I have cited are suffi- 
ciently well proved and characteristic to demonstrate that ho- 
moeopathy is about to fill up the chasm which the Hippocratic 
doctrine, and all the theories it has given rise to, had left as to 
the treatment and cure of hydrophobia.” “ The remarks of Dr. 
Laville,” says the editor of the Bibliotheque, “ possess the highest 
degree of interest; they open a new track of experimentation, and 
make us ardently hope that other practitioners will, as they have 
opportunity, follow his example.” 
Now not one of these cases, except that of the dog that was 
destroyed, had the characters of rabies; and on such fallacious 
ground, and with regard to such a disease, it would be in the 
highest degree absurd and cruel to raise expectations that must 
necessarily be disappointed. 
With what kind of feeling shall we read another paragraph in 
this strange communication ? “ We must conclude from the ob- 
