342 A CASE OF HYDROPHOBIA, 
seemed quite indifferent on the matter. A case occurred to 
Mr. Godrich, of the Fulham Road, in which the patient, an old 
man, died after having received a bite, and exhibited all the cha¬ 
racters of the disease, and not for one moment during its conti¬ 
nuance was he aware of the nature of his complaint. An attempt 
at proof has been made by one surgeon inoculating himself with 
the slaver of a rabid dog; but this escape, you will see, was 
nothing more than the occurrence of a common fact, and proved 
nothing. If he were to inoculate himself again, and twenty 
of his relations, I should be happy to know the result. You will 
remember that Desgenettes inoculated the plague with impunity, 
and yet he saw quite enough, independently of this, to convince him 
that its contagiousness was true. Dr. White inoculated himself 
with the matter of plague, convinced that it was not contagious, 
and fell a victim to the disease. Two students of Paris were con¬ 
vinced that syphilis was not contagious, and so each inoculated 
himself, and had so trimming a disease for his pains, that one of 
them actually committed suicide in despair. 
With respect to treatment, it may be very well to wash the 
part thoroughly with a solution of the chloride of soda or lime ; 
it may be very well to apply cupping-glasses at first; but I con¬ 
fess I should not be satisfied unless I removed the whole part 
bitten, even should this cost a limb. Those drugs which have 
been thought preventives, have acquired their reputation solely 
from the disease occurring comparatively so seldom after the in¬ 
fliction of bites by rabid animals; unless, indeed, the guaco be 
not an exception to this. The guaco must, indeed, be confessed 
to have failed to cure in this instance, though we are not justified 
in saying that it will not prevent. The cow-pock will not cure 
the small-pox; but in the larger number of cases it prevents that 
complaint, and where it does not prevent, in the greater number 
of cases it renders the latter much milder. There is no reason¬ 
ing on these points : experience only can determine. Moreover, 
although the guaco failed, those gentlemen who attended closely 
to the case, felt satisfied that the patient experienced, at first, 
deeided temporary relief after every dose. Mr. Csesar Hawkin, 
also informed me that he exhibited the remedy to a rabid dogs 
and that a decided intermission of the symptoms, although they 
had been very violent, took place for a number of hours * 1 . Still, 
ment be true, it would not only be “ unjustifiable to keep a sin¬ 
gle dog that is not indispensably useful/' but we shall begin to 
view the whole canine race, notwithstanding their sagacity and 
fidelity, with aversion and horror.—W. Y. 
i I was present at this experiment of Mr. Csesar Hawkins. 
