338 
A CASE OF HYDROPHOBIA, 
suddenness of the present death was nothing more than has been 
frequently observed. Patients sink, in general, at last very rapidly ; 
and often die before it is expected. Some time before this pa¬ 
tient died, his feebleness was found to be extreme, notwithstand¬ 
ing the great excitement under which he appeared to labour, and, 
I presume, that the suddenness of his death arose, in a great 
measure, from the extraordinary violence which he had not long 
before manifested, in dashing from his bed, and driving all 
the by-standers from the room. You will also recollect, that, 
during the ten minutes before his death, the countenance had 
undergone a considerable change; had become livid and con¬ 
gested, and that the temporal artery could scarcely be felt. 
The cause of the disease in the human subject has always, 
probably, been the morbid secretion from the mouth of a rabid 
animal, either of the dog or cat kind. Ido not know that it is 
proved whether the poison resides in the saliva itself, or in the 
mucus of the mouth; nor do I know that the disease has ever 
been produced by the blood or any other fluids than those of the 
mouth 1 . It has been ascertained by Magendie, that the fluids 
from the mouth of a human being will produce it in a dog; and 
I believe that the fluid will not produce the disease in brute or 
man, unless a wound or abrasion of the surface exists. Celius 
Aurelianus tells of a woman who had the disease after biting her 
threads in mending a garment that had been torn by a mad dog; 
but if it be meant that she had no abrasion of the lips or fingers, 
the story is calculated to remind one of Baron Munchausen's 
cloak, which itself became mad in the wardrobe, after having 
been torn by a rabid dog. In this patient, the period which 
elapsed after the communication of the poison, was probably 
about three or four months; the average time, I believe, is from 
six weeks to three months. It has been said sometimes to take 
place in six or seven days, sometimes not for nine or nineteen 
months; and in one case, we are told, that it did not occur for 
twelve years; so that some think this case, related by Dr. Bards- 
ley, of Manchester, spontaneous; others suppose it to be 
1 I never transfused the blood of a rabid dog into the veins 
of a healthy one; but I have frequently, and without effect, 
inoculated with the blood. Perhaps the fearlessness and im¬ 
punity with which I have opened very numerous rabid animals, 
with my hands not always sound, may be admitted as proofs 
that the virus does not reside in any other fluids but those of the 
mouth : and the power of the virus of the saliva seems to die 
with the animal, for I have never been able to produce rabies 
by inoculation with the saliva of a dead dog.—W. Y. 
