94 
SYMPTOMS FOLLOWING THE BITE 
On the morning of Monday, the 29th, the patient’s agita¬ 
tion was nearly as great as on the preceding night, and Mr. 
Webb bled him to about forty ounces: the blood was dark-co¬ 
loured, did not flow freely, did not become buffed or cupped, or 
present any peculiar appearance. After the bleeding he slept a 
little occasionally, and his agitation became less. His bowels 
had been previously confined, and there had been retention of 
urine for twenty-four hours, but these symptoms were removed by 
the administration of an enema. 
Mr. Rice, of Stratford, having obligingly communicated to me 
some of the particulars of this case, which began to be talked 
about as a case of hydrophobia, I accompanied him and Mr. 
Royston, now of Redditch, to Biilesley Hall, on the evening of 
the 29th, and saw the patient at 7, p.m. We had not, on 
that occasion, the advantage of meeting Mr. Webb, who, how¬ 
ever, had left a note, requesting me to adopt whatever additional 
means I might consider to be necessary. 
The appearance of the patient, when we first saw him, was 
very striking. He was lying on a bed, and his legs were stretch¬ 
ed out to their full length; his countenance was singularly 
anxious, and, as it were, contracted: his right arm was lying by 
his side, but his left was continually waved up and down over the 
lower part of the abdomen : it was quickly and uninterruptedly 
moved, and alternately directed outwards, as if for protection, and 
brought near the surface of the body without touching it. He 
was uttering low short moans, which kept time with the above 
described motion of his hand ; but the moans were at intervals 
interrupted by a gasping or short sob. His respiration was 
hurried, and apparently performed wholly by the thorax: very 
frequently it became for a few minutes extremely rapid, and so 
precisely similar to the panting of a dog in hot weather, that no 
other words could properly be employed to convey an idea of it. 
Now and then both the panting and the breathing seemed to 
cease; his respiration becoming inaudible for a minute or more, 
during which time he appeared unconscious of what was passing 
around him. 
The pulse was 98, and free; the skin of natural warmth all 
over the body, at least as regarded the head and extremities ; for, 
although he complained, by signs, of his throat, stomach, and 
abdomen, he would not permit us to place our hands on those 
parts, shrinking from our attempts to do so, as a man would 
shrink from the approach of burning coals, or a sword. He was 
but now and then able to speak a syllable, and only in a whisper; 
but he made frequent signs for something to moisten his mouth ; 
and then, apparently with excessive pain and difficulty, and with 
