528 EXCISION OF THE BITTEN PARTS 
They knew nothing about it, and did not believe it. The veterina¬ 
rian met Mr. -again shortly afterwards, and told him he 
thought that he must have been misinformed.—Oh, no,’’ was the 
reply; ‘‘ Mr. - (another surgeon) and I had it from Mr. 
Sewell himself, and he gave it to us in print.” 
Thus was an operation, the conception of which did Mr. 
Sewell credit, and the success of which would have immortal¬ 
ized him—a truly glorious operation—in a manner lost to the 
profession:, such, however, must be the result of this unjust, 
and we must be permitted to say, without meaning offence, 
indefensible mode of publication. We have succeeded in rescuing 
two or three of Mr. Sewell’s papers from partial oblivion like this. 
He has had no cause to complain of it: no illiberal or annoying 
criticisms were made on these compositions : there was matter for 
gratification rather than otherwise to the Assistant Professor: 
and he will be compelled, by and by, to abandon a mode of pro¬ 
ceeding in which, we are free to tell him, he neither does justice 
to his profession nor himself. 
The report of the Recovery in a Case of Hydrophobia” 
will be read with interest. The question as to the latest period 
at which the excision of the bitten part may be attempted with 
any hope of success is a very important one. Practitioners, 
whether medical or veterinary, are now almost universally agreed 
that rabies has but one cause, the introduction of a peculiar 
poison into the system—a poison that remains for awhile un¬ 
absorbed—inert—and, often, not until after the lapse of a consider¬ 
able period, begins to exert its deleterious agency. If at any time 
previous to the commencement of the morbid nervous excite¬ 
ment which it ultimately produces it is removed, or the tissue 
on which it lies is destroyed, danger ceases. But, after the con¬ 
stitution is affected, would the practitioner be justified in extir¬ 
pating the bitten part ? Most certainly he would, if the destruc¬ 
tion of the part had, not been before attempted ; and the surgeon 
should closely question himself, or others if he were not the 
operator, whether by possibility a minute portion of the virus 
could have escaped the previous application of the caustic 
