332 ' A CASE OF HYDROPHOBIA) 
gested; the temporal artery could with difficulty be felt. He 
could not, however, be supposed, by any of his symptoms, and 
especially not from the strength of his exertions, to be so near 
his death ; and another dose of the guaco was offered him. 
With a view also to allay the morbid irritability of the stomach, 
two drops of medicinal, or diluted, prussic acid were mixed 
with it. 
The medicine had scarcely been placed in the mouth and 
swallowed, before a surprising change took place. The eyes 
were sternly fixed “ on vacancy the lips became purple; the 
corners of the eyebrows elevated and contracted ; and a spas¬ 
modic action passed over the whole face; the alas of the nostrils 
dilated ; and then, with a forcible extension of the whole body, 
he fell back and expired without a sigh or a groan*. 
This, gentlemen, was a well-marked case of hydrophobia. It 
presented nothing peculiar 9 but was an excellent illustration of 
the disease. Although the name is derived from the dread of 
fluids which the patient entertains, whether attempted to be 
swallowed or touched, or even when merely seen, this terror is but 
one symptom of the disease;—the most obvious, perhaps, to a 
common observer, but one which has sometimes, in a great 
measure, been absent, which, in most cases, intermits during the 
disease, and sometimes at length ceases, and which occurs also 
in some other affections, particularly in violent inflammation of 
the pharynx and surrounding parts. The present patient swal¬ 
lowed altogether, during "his disease, a large quantity of fluid, 
and frequently asked for it; indeed, I have seen a patient take a 
bason of bread and milk not long before his death, without any 
difficulty. Rabid dogs, likewise, have drunk to the last, and 
swum across water 1 . In fact, the difficulty of swallowing 
respects not merely liquids, but solids also 2 . The present pa- 
1 In the rabid dog there is, at no period of the disease, the 
slightest dread of water ; on the contrary, the thirst is unquench¬ 
able. The dog will spend a considerable portion of his time 
hanging over the water, lapping it, and vainly endeavouring to 
swallow it. His inability to swallow r does not, how r ever, seem to 
depend on irritation or inflammation of the pharynx, but on loss 
of power over the muscles concerned in deglutition.—W. Y. 
2 I must leave this point to be settled by those who have had 
more experience than myself in the symptoms of rabies in the 
human subject. My opinion was, that solid food is swallowed 
* Tlio bowels had not been opened whilst in the house, excepting the 
return of the first enema. 
